Suspended disbelief

This blog does not bear ill against the UK. This country however would benefit greatly if so many people were not living in denial. The line up of the UK as the weakest economy in Europe is offuscated by commentators by diverting the attention to other troubled economies.

Instead of admitting that the chances of a colossal economic cataclysm are alarmingly high, many comentators rubbish the recent financial situation of Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, etc.

The probable collapse of the debt burden and the sterling in 2010 calls for a reality check, pronto. The UK is a little country clinging to, but ignored by, the US. Berating the EU bureaucracy is cynical and pointless. The corruption of the UK political class and the burden of its gigantic public service (7 million public servants) should suffice to start sorting out its own house before criticizing others.

- The Conservative party hid donations of £40,000 from Zac Goldsmith, his brother Ben and two billionaire brothers in an apparent breach of the law.

- BAE admits guilt over corrupt arms £43bn deal in a corruption investigation that found evidence of bribes, kickbacks, false accounting and making misleading statements

- Police is charging four MP’s and half of Members of Parliament have been asked to repay a total of more than £1m to the Commons authorities because some of their previous claims were deemed improper. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, returned more that £13,000 over improper claims

• childcare vouchers provided by 35,000 employers saved Britain’s ‘squeezed middle’ £500m for 2008-09
• 105 board members of Network Rail don’t want to cut their numbers to only 30 as such a cut is seen by them as “at bit like turkeys voting for Christmas“
• officially and as of Q2 2009 the public sector employment totalled 6.039 million, actual number is 6.7 million
• 21.1% of labour market employed in the UK public sector
• £200 billion or 1/3 of all UK gilts hold by overseas investors

• deficit of £175 billion worth 12.4% of gross domestic product, the worst in the G20
• £6.8 billion deficit of BT’s pension fund
• £9.3 billion budget for the Olympics in London 2012

..Separatists marry within their community [...] sons and daughters grow up surrounded by the symbolism of ETA, of sacrifice, struggle, murder and martyrdom

Dominic Ridley, in “Bloody Bequest”,
The Guardian—Weekend,
21 April 2001

Roberto Saviano declared yesterday that ETA, the terrorist group, is a para-mafia organization. The meme is not new but I think that it can be safely attributed to him. Mr. Salviano is crossing a few bridges in understanding the marginal undercurrents of the Europe of today.

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The favourite site of grumpy British White Men with Fascist inclinations, bnp . org . uk, is down now, Friday 14th afternoon.

Causes are undetermined but I would like to think that this incident is caused sheer incompetence and technical ignorance rather than a dull explanation like they do not pay their hosting bill or something like that.

An article by The Times of August 2nd 2009 showed exactly how copy-writing can be done without a trace of irony: Take a chance on Sweden (read “take a massive gamble you will regret forever”). For a holiday home with seaside views and without the Med masses (read “millions of Britons drinking too much beer in Spain”), the smart money is on Scandinavia.

Who could have written that? Some Fred Redwood. And who for? The estate agents who paid good money for that article. Another estate agent paid for another article with the unfortunate title of “Nordic countries are hot property”.

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This may be the first series of randomly picked figures about the UK. Disclaimer: the quality and veracity of the numbers below is as good as the quality of the source.

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