This is Jeremy Smith's blog about life in Tennessee, local science and other topics of interest. Is not endorsed by and does not, of course, represent the opinion of UT, ORNL or any other official entity.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
FIFA? What about Britain?
So we're all delighted that FIFA appears to finally be getting its come-uppance for long-established corruption. Now what about Britain? The above book convincingly demonstrates that the country of my upbringing has, over the last 30 years or so, become ruled by an oligarchy of sickening corruption, an unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap sickengly huge profits at the taxpayer's expense. Case after case of multi-billion dollar thievery from those running the state-corporate nexus is documented and referenced. Now, unlike the author, I am no socialist, and do not yearn for the 'good old days' when the unions held the country to ransom. But privatization only works when real and fair competition brings efficiency up and prices down. In Britain, time after time, enormous monopolistic government contracts have been awarded to companies who simply raise prices to cream off profits with no investment. Those doing the awarding get their rewards in the revolving door system.
And the hypocrisy of what's said and done is incessant:
Here's one of my favorites:
Tony Blair, Chicago speech of 1999: "We cannot turn our backs on the violation of human rights within other countries....."
Tony Blair, 2011 onwards: Paid more than $13M for advising the dictator of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev (who massacres strikers, bans and attacks by arson any press criticizing him, tortures and kills the opposition etc etc) on how to present his country to the world in a positive light.
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