ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO?

According to Roman Catholic tradition an applicant for sainthood needs two certified miracles. Mother Teresa has already cleared the first hurdle because Monica Besra claimed that by rubbing a medal of Mother Teresa on her cancerous tumour she was cured. The authorities were so convinced they granted Teresa the first step to sainthood that of being "beatified". "However several groups, including her doctors, have disputed that Mrs Besra was cured by a miracle, claiming instead that her tumour disappeared as a result of medical treatment at the local hospital. Mrs Besra has said that she visited hospital for treatment and taken prescribed medicines. In an interview with Time magazine in 2002, Mrs Besra's husband Seiku was among those to challenge the Vatican's claim. "It is much ado about nothing. My wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle," he said. Ranjan Mustafi, a doctor at the local state-run Balurghat Hospital who treated Mrs Besra, said that the tumour had been caught at an early stage and had "responded to our treatment steadily." (Daily Telegraph, 6 September)
Tricky business this miracle business, especially when doctors and witnesses display such scepticism. " Oh, ye of little faith", as the good book would have it.
RD

Enterprising for some

Further to our earlier post on generous retirement pensions for those who hold directorships , we read that Iain Carmichael, the former finance director at Scottish Enterprise had an extra £380,600 pumped into his pension fund .

The annual accounts of the economic and business development quango, which were made public yesterday, reveal that Carmichael retired in March with a golden goodbye worth £539,105 - nearly three times the £200,000 that had been previously estimated.
He received £106,765 in pay in lieu of notice, £5544 for accrued holiday pay, £46,196 for loss of office and £380,600, which was transferred into the Scottish Enterprise pension fund to bump up his retirement pay. Carmichael's pension pot has now swelled to £777,600 - taking the current cash equivalent transfer value of his pension of £397,000 which, according to Scottish Enterprise, in "very basic terms", could be added to the £380,600 paid into his fund in March when Carmichael left the agency.
Scottish Enterprise yesterday confirmed that Carmichael had taken early retirement at age 54 but, as part of his leaving agreement, he was given a full pension "as if he were retiring at 60"

And was it reward for efficiency . Not at all . Scottish Enterprise was accused by MSPs of "wholly dissatisfactory" financial controls in the wake of overspending on the budget by £33m during the 2005/06 financial year. Carmichael admitted mistakes were made in the allocation of public funds. Carmichael was removed from his finance director's position and was taken off the board of directors, and moved sideways into a new position.

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

We are all aware that many people are nervous about flying and have witnessed anxious passengers fingering St Christopher medals or even rosary beads during flights. It is doubtful though that many of us have experienced the following. "Nepal's state-run airline has sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, after technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft. Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks because of the problem. The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft on Sunday at Nepal's only international airport, in Kathmandu, in accordance with Hindu traditions, a senior airline official said." (Times, 5 September) Before any of our readers rush out to cancel any bookings with Nepal Airlines we should assure you that the electrical fault has been rectified by scientific means. The goat sacrifice was only to placate the superstitious locals. A bit like the rosary beads really. RD

Gold-Plated Pensions for the Few

We have been hearing a lot about the pensions "blackhole" and how we are all living too long to receive an adequate pension , and how we have to work until we are even older before we retire and even then pay more into the pension schemes .

Yet , the average company executive can now retire at 60 on a final salary pension worth more than £3 million , says the TUC's latest annual PensionsWatch survey. This works out at £193,000 a year, says the study, more than 25 times the average UK pension of £7,500 a year. The biggest executive pensions are now worth £320,000 a year, more than 42 times average staff pensions . One pension was found to be worth more than £1 million a year.

Directors of the UK's top companies have amassed pensions worth £891 million.

"Top executive pay has already created a new group of the super-rich who float free from the rest of society," said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. "This report shows that this does not stop with their retirement. Too many top directors have gone on closing or cutting schemes for their workforce, while keeping gold-plated pensions for themselves."

BIG BROTHER IN BRITAIN

When George Orwell wrote 1984 he based it on the totalitarian states of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, but recent revelations show that he himself was closely monitored by the British state.
"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment," wrote George Orwell in the opening pages of 1984. "How often, or on what system the Thought Police plugged in ... was guess work." ... What Orwell, the Eton-educated author and passionate socialist, could not have known, however, was the uncanny parallel between his nightmarish vision of an all-seeing dictatorship and his own status for more than a decade as a target for the close scrutiny of the British security services. The personal MI5 file of the literary standard bearer of the British Left, published today after being kept secret for nearly 60 years, reveals how Orwell was closely monitored for signs of treacherous or revolutionary political views by Scotland Yard's Special Branch from 1929 until the height of the Second World War." (Independent, 4 September) RD

THE INSECURE SOCIETY

When the plant was opened workers celebrated the prospect of secure employment, but capitalism doesn't work that way.
"US electronics giant Freescale Semiconductor last night finally admitted publicly its plans to quit production at East Kilbride, where it employs about 900 skilled manufacturing staff. Its admission, in the form of a statement confirming it had appointed international real estate consultancy Colliers to try to find a buyer for the plant, comes nearly three months after The Herald revealed it was poised to stop production at the site under a secret project named Claymore. Given the dearth of demand for other big vacant electronics sites at a time when companies have been shifting production to low-cost economies in Asia and Eastern Europe, workers at Freescale's East Kilbride plant fear that there is little chance of a buyer being found." (Herald, 5 September) RD

PATRIOTS AT A PRICE

"Bored with life on his family's South Carolina horse farm, Willard McCormick decided that military service was the right plan for his future. And when the Army dangled its new, $20,000 recruiting bonus in front of him, the decision got a lot easier.
"I wasn't going to go right away, but I heard about the bonus and decided to jump on it," McCormick, 19, said a couple of days after signing up.
... Since the bonus was unveiled in July, more than 6,200 recruits have signed up to begin basic training before Oct. 1, a move that boosts end-of-fiscal year recruiting numbers.
Army officials said. "People are calling here saying $20,000 is more than they've made in the past two years," said Staff Sgt. Brent Feltner, 27, commander of a strip-mall recruiting station in this central South Carolina town. .. The Army's offer stands out to many in a state where the unemployment level is fourth highest in the country, at 5.9 percent in July, up from 5.5 percent in June. It was 6.2 percent in July a year ago."
(Yahoo News, 1 September) Poverty is still capitalism's most successful recruiting agent. RD

NATIONALIST NONSENSE

It is difficult to imagine a more foolish scene than that of the last night of the Proms, when underpaid clerks and tradesmen sing with great gusto "Land of Hope and Glory". This is especially so when you consider what the economists have to say about ownership in Britain today.
"The portion of the country's wealth in the hands of the super-rich is on the rise, according to the country's leading economists. Runaway property and equity prices over the past five years have made the rich richer and widened the wealth gap across the UK. The most up-to-date figures from Revenue and Customs, compiled in 2003, show that the richest 1 per cent of Brits account for 21 per cent of the nation's wealth”
. However, top economists believe that figure will show a marked increase when the statistics are updated in October. Jonathan Said, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said:
"It would be a surprise if the net worth of wealthy individuals had not risen substantially – even more so if you add in private equity returns, which give access to a faster rate of return to wealthy investors." (Independent, 2 September) RD

Houses for Some

Housing affordability has deteriorated to near record lows, with homes five times more expensive for first-time buyers than in 1996, new figures show.

Buyers in the southeast and southwest of England have to save over 100 percent of their annual earnings for a deposit to get a foothold on the property ladder, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) accessibility index. This compares with the low point of just 20 percent of annual earnings required in 1996 .

The cost of becoming a homeowner rose by 8.4 percent alone in the year to the second quarter of 2007.

Even if prospective first time buyers make it onto the market, they face mortgage payments which take up a higher percentage of their take-home pay than at any time since 1990.

No longer is the Thatcherite dream of a house-owning nation achievable . For many simply acquiring a roof over ones head is proving a nightmare .

The belfast poor

Up to 80% of children in west Belfast's most deprived areas are living in poverty, an academic has claimed.



Workless Protestant households are closing the gap with their Catholic counterparts - but it is a levelling downwards .



No gains for the catholic working-class community except for those government jobs for those so-called and mis-named freedom fighters now in Stormont and certainly no improvements for the protestant workers who shed their blood for the Establishment .

Now is the time to recognise class loyalty - not loyalism

No mourning here

One of Scotland's biggest landowners, the Duke of Buccleuch, has died .

As recently as 2005, the duke was believed to be Britain's biggest private landowner, owning 270,000 acres, mostly in the Borders.

The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his wealth at £85 million .

Born in 1923, the oldest son of the eighth duke - whom he succeeded in 1973 - Johnnie Buccleuch was educated at Eton and Oxford and became director of the Buccleuch Estates in 1949. He later became a Tory councillor in Roxburghshire and subsequently Tory MP for North Edinburgh. In 1978 he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle - the highest honour in Scotland.

He is succeeded by his eldest son, the Earl of Dalkeith.

Socialist Courier will definitely not be wearing black

THE HORROR OF CAPITALISM

Over the years we have reported on many of the horrors of capitalism, but for sheer brutality and cruelty this takes some beating. "A woman suspected of running a fake employment agency that organised the rape of young women and sale of their subsequent babies to childless couples has been arrested for kidnapping and wrongful confinement. Preeti and her husband Vinod, who both go by one name, ran a job agency in the Indian capital, New Delhi, offering maids to families, said a police spokesman. The couple allegedly lured women and girls by promising agency work, but instead confined them to a room where they were raped to make them pregnant. Their children were then sold to childless couples, the spokesman said." (Herald, 3 September) RD

BITTER MEDICINE

A recent review of the business world and ethics was somewhat critical of the pharmaceutical industry. "There have been a number of scandals including the disastrous "Elephant Men" trial for new drug TGN 1412, which caused massive immune reactions in six healthy volunteers. TeGenero, the firm that developed the drug, went bust after the catastrophe. GlaxoSmithKline has been embroiled in a scandal over anti-depressant Seroxat: it has been accused of hiding critical data showing the drug is linked to suicide in teenagers. GSK has also seen millions of sales wiped out after its Avandia diabetes treatment was linked to increased risk of heart attack and strokes." (Observer, 2 September) The truth is of course that capitalist business practice has nothing to do with ethics and everything to do with profits. RD

AINT SCIENCE WONDERFUL?

"Benefit claimants and job seekers could be forced to take lie detector tests as early as next year after an early review of a pilot scheme exposed 126 benefit cheats in just three months, saving one local authority £110,000. ..The technology is being tested on people claiming housing or council tax benefit but will be extended at Harrow Jobcentre for other benefits this year. ..Experts in America, where the most comprehensive scrutiny of the technology has taken place, warn that the technology is far from failsafe. David Ashe, chief deputy of the Virginia Board for Professional and Occupational Regulation, said, 'The experience of being tested, or of claiming a benefit and being told that your voice is being checked for lies, is inherently stressful. 'Lie detector tests have a tendency to pass people for whom deception is a way of life and fail those who are scrupulously honest.' (Observer, 2 September)
We wonder if it would be possible to ask members of the capitalist class if they think they deserve their immense wealth while others starve, but what would be the point as the expert said there is a tendency to pass those "for whom deception is a way of life". RD

INDIAN EXPLOITATION

"Two of Britain's major high street retailers launched inquiries last night into allegations that factory workers who make their clothes in India are being paid as little as 13p per hour for a 48-hour week, wages so low the workers claim they sometimes have to rely on government food parcels. Primark, the UK's second biggest clothing retailer, and the Mothercare, the mother and baby shop, were responding to a Guardian investigation into the pay and conditions of workers in Bangalore, India, who supply several high-profile UK and US fashion brands. The investigation, which follows our report in July in which Primark, Asda and Tesco were accused of breaching international labour standards in Bangladesh, has uncovered a catalogue of allegations of Dickensian pay and conditions in factories owned by exporters who supply clothes to the UK. India's largest ready-made clothing exporter, Gokaldas Export, which supplies brands including Marks & Spencer, Mothercare and H&M, confirmed that wages paid to garment workers were as low as £1.13 for a nine-hour day." (Guardian, 3 September)
That is what lies behind that Saturday morning shopping bargain - Dickensian-like exploitation. RD

THE BITERS BITTEN

The British police force was used to break the miner's strike of the 1980s. Some of them boasted about the amount of overtime money they got and held up a bunch of five pound notes to strikers. Things are a little different today. "Rank and file police officers demanded last night that their right to strike be reinstated as relations with the government fell to a 30-year low. The move highlights mounting unrest in the public sector over pay as unions threaten an 'autumn of discontent' for Gordon Brown. ...The Police Federation, with 140,000 members, the Fire Brigades Union and the prison officers' union are to meet to discuss a joint campaign to highlight grievances over what they say are below-inflation rises. ..Last night the federation said its members wanted the right to take industrial action unless the Home Office agreed to a more favourable pay deal. 'You can only bite people so much before they want to bite back,' said Alan Gordon, the federation's vice-chairman." (Observer, 2 September)
Perhaps the government could recruit miners to break the police strike. Oh, we forgot there are not enough miners left! RD

The inequalities of the UK

From The Independent :-

Britain may appear to be a richer country than a decade ago but the gap between the rich and poor has reached levels not seen for more than 40 years. The highest earners are being dubbed "the new Victorians" as they take an ever-greater slice of the wealth pie, leaving mere employees and white-collar workers sharing the crumbs.

Government statistics show that the richest 10 % of the population control 53 % of the wealth of the country, with the 1 % jet-set elite controlling no less than 21 % .

In the City, fat-cat pay awards, with top executives earning 100 times more than their employees, are merely the most obvious examples of where the balance has become skewed. The kingpins of Britain's opaque private equity and hedge funds are earning considerably more while simultaneously paying "less tax than a cleaner", according to Nicholas Ferguson, chairman of private-equity and fund management group SVG Capital. In the UK, Peter Taylor, chief executive of Duke Street Capital, has admitted that the tax paid by private equity companies such as his is "unnecessarily low". The number of billionaires born, living or making their money in the UK has trebled in the past four years, and the number of millionaires is expected to quadruple to 1.7 million by 2020. Sir Ronald Cohen, one of the UK's richest men, founder of private equity group Apax, whose non-domiciled status has caused controversy, has said the wealth gap could lead to rioting in the streets.

In the US a report from the Institute for Policy Studies last week showed that the average chief executive of a Fortune 500 company now earns 364 times the pay of a typical US worker, while four hedge fund and private equity bosses took home more than $1bn (£500m) in the past year. The investment guru Warren Buffett, the third richest man in the world, has criticised the US tax system that allows him to pay less tax than his secretary.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the social policy research organisation, says that society is becoming polarised. Its latest report states that "wealthy households in already wealthy areas are becoming disproportionately richer compared with society as a whole."

The level of social mobility in the UK – the ease with which the next generation can expect to become more affluent than their parents – is among the lowest of any developed nation.

THE JAPANESE MIRACLE

If The American Dream is a politician's catchphrase then The Japanese Miracle is a political economist's equivalent, but like the USA example the truth behind the Japanese illusion is startling. "Japan estimated Tuesday that it has more than 5,000 "net cafe refugees," a new class of working poor who live in all-night lounges and are seen as a sign of a growing rich-poor gap. Internet cafes and "manga" comic cafes are omnipresent in urban Japan, offering couches, computers, soft drinks and comic books to stressed businessmen or commuters who missed their train home. But a government survey found that an estimated 5,400 people have virtually moved in to the 24-hour cafes. It said some 80 percent of Japan's "net cafe refugees" are men and that 52.7 percent said they decided to live in the lounges because they lost their jobs." (Yahoo News, 28 August) RD

THE AMERICAN DREAM

"More than one in ten Americans, or 36.5 million people, live in poverty in the United States, with children and blacks the worst hit, an annual report by the US Census Bureau showed Tuesday. According to the report, around 12.8 million children under the age of 18, or around one-third of the poor, existed in 2006 on incomes below the threshold used by the Census Bureau to determine who lives in poverty. The number of children without health insurance swelled by 700,000 in 2006 compared with the previous year, according to the report, which also showed that the total number of Americans without health coverage had risen by three million to 47 million." (Yahoo News, 28 August) The USA is the richest country in the world, but even there the so-called American Dream for many of its citizens is more like a nightmare. RD

65% pay rise

Further to our previous posts on the pay rises that company executives generously award themselves , we read that directors at Dawn Group, one of Scotland's largest privately-owned construction and property companies, gave themselves a 65% pay hike in a year in which profits fell.

The remuneration of its highest-paid director, assumed to be Macdonald, climbed to £228,830, from £219,341.