I used to think about Legal Aid as some kind of sparkling pick-me-up for those who no longer had the energy to stand up to bullies on their own – rather like Lucozade was used in the 1950s. You know, ‘Legalaid represses the prats other Silks do not breach’. I don’t think about it much at all these days, as to all intents and purposes it no longer exists. Hated by the Thatcherites and perverted by the Scottish legal profession, it has seen its budget cut again and again…and then yet again under the current Ministry of Justice, which is ramming a £220m annual cut to the criminal legal aid bill up the already over-rogered backside of Britain’s poor.
Like the attempted one-sided costs libel Bill, and Mayor Johnson’s miserly increase in London’s fire risk, Legal Aid cuts are little more than politically pernicious policies bearing no hallmarks at all of good governance. Indeed, even as a man repulsed by most of the Labour Party’s “ideas”, I find myself asking why these savings for the Treasury Hester-lovers cannot be achieved using the simple stratagem of asking Britain’s UK-based multinationals to cough up another 3% in tax every year….especially as the Bank of England is giving both them and the banks £437bn of free dosh in the form of QE per annum.
It now emerges that in fact, the opposite is true. Late last week, Michael Turner QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, pointed out that “The taxpayer is forced to foot a bill mounting up to hundreds of millions to deal with bank fraud cases each year.” Astonishingly, Ministry of Justice figures confirm that 90% of the legal aid budget ‘goes on 1% of “high value” cases, chiefly terrorist, money laundering and fraud trials’ – from which, just this once mind, and don’t let it happen again – rather than being complicit in the robbery, the bankers lose.
Well we can’t have bankers losing now, can we? Just take in the full strength of Turner’s testimony to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Justice:
‘About 45 per cent of the criminal legal aid budget of £1.1 billion is spent on these fraud cases alone. The state pays for the investigation by the police and the state prosecutes at the expense of the tax payer…If they never recover that money, the banks are entitled to write off the fraud loss against tax. That is why banks have absolutely no interest in putting in systems which prevent fraud taking place. They should have to carry insurance to protect the public from paying out if they get defrauded”.
Amen to all of that squire, but with great respect, f**k the insurance aspect – what about the social maths here?
Britain’s hard-pressed citizens are giving £495 million towards bankers because this government dares not anger such fine people so blessed with foresight and self-control, and losing a further £220 million off their Legal Aid budget which has already been anally raped by those same bankers. Now just remind me again, how many bankers are there in Britain, and how much do they earn on average?
Tch-tut-tut Mr Slog, for you are oh-so naive….*giggle-smirk*…don’t your realise you silly fluffy little boy that these men who put a huge amount of money into our Treasury each and every years are the only thing that makes Britain great…..*grin,titter,ha-ha*….but of course being a Communist tree-hugging hater of wealth, you want to get rid of them? Oh dear….*Hor-hourgh-huur*…..
You can just hear such neolithic drivel emerging from the smug, potato-pie-slice gob of The Slog’s favourite City Muppet David Buik, of whom I wrote eighteen months ago:
‘Buik has always struck me as the kind of arrogant prick who never fails to find an acceptable (to him) reason why bankers have done something despicable. Following the bonus controversy of January 2011, Buik advised non-bankery mortals, “Folks, get over it! Let’s move on!” Buik is in the same Libor related broking business as Michaels Spencer and Fallon, so as you can imagine he almost certainly knew nothing at all about the crooked global fixes that went on between 2005 and 2010. But in 2011, he opined that the nasties were down to “a few reckless bankers. Banks were easy prey for the politicians to blame and they remain so…[but] contrary to public opinion, the ‘bad guys’ have gone.”’
I have seen not a thing since to change my opinion the the clown Buik, other than perhaps needing to shift another buttock off the fence. But I see more evidence all the time to make me burn brightly with the injustice of all this.
The British financial services industry spent more than £92m lobbying politicians and regulators during 2012. FOI documents obtained as part of of a BIJ investigation in 2012 showed that leader of the City of London Corporation, Stuart Fraser, had contact with the chancellor, George Osborne, and other senior Treasury ministers and officials 22 times in the 14 months up to March this year. Secret City of London documents obtained also showed millions lavished on banquets in honour of politicians and state leaders, designed ‘to increase the emphasis on complementing hospitality with business meetings consistent with the City Corporation’s role in supporting the City as a financial centre’.
By the way, no point hoping here that the LibDems or Labour would make any dent in this largely hidden mobile iceberg busily crunching the fabric of real British business. Vince Cable said last year, “The banking sector is disproportionately influential….I do worry that Britain’s financial sector, particularly the banks are too dominant, and too easily assumed to represent the national interest. Its interests are often not the same as those of the real economy.”
Fine words there Vinny, but they buttered no parsnips: you didn’t stop the City lobbying-machine neutering a downmarket pension scheme while resisting at full pelt any and all attempts to reform the system. And beforeyou came along, there was Mandelson and Brown doing the business and the Chancelloring, excuse me while I eeeuuurrgggaarg (wipes mouth) that’s much better.
On 20th June 2007, Gordon Brown said this in his Mansion Speech…just six months before the entire edifice started its tit-dance towards a £1.4 trillion taxpayer bill:
‘Over the ten years that I have had the privilege of addressing you as Chancellor, I have been able year by year to record how the City of London has risen by your efforts, ingenuity and creativity to become a new world leader….I congratulate you Lord Mayor and the City of London on these remarkable achievements, an era that history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the City of London.’
On 23rd October 1998, Peter Mandelson was interviewed by the FT. “We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich,” the trade and industry secretary said, “That is, as long as they pay their taxes,” he added hurriedly. Well, Manglesum had thirteen years to get the taxes things together, but, um, he didn’t achieve anything at all. As such. And sometimes you know, the past is a guide to the future.
Anyway, in the absence of a more cheery Christmas message, I propose to be entirely even-handed: there is a favour I wish to ask of any new arrivals here today at The Slog, in this the season of peace and goodwill towards all men. Please, please do not vote Conservative next time, because you won’t be voting Conservative: you’ll be voting for the Prostituted Uncaring Neoliberal Twerp Party. Most of us in the Responsible and Decent Incorporating Commonsense Alliance League have had more than enough of watching their stunts turn Britain into Pottersville. And if you don’t get that last reference, then look it up you lazy, ignorant buggers.
Don’t vote LibDem, because they simply don’t count any more. And don’t vote Labour, because you won’t be voting for the British version of what Kennedy Democrats used to be about: you’ll be voting for the Fluffy Un-Commercial Karaoke of Witlessly Ignorant Twerps Party. And between 2003 and 2008, they worked almost as hard as the David Buiks of this world to bankrupt us all.
Don’t vote UKip, because its boorish leader actually comes from the City Cesspit and is a closet Murdoch admirer. And don’t vote for Russell Brand, because he doesn’t want you to.
Unfortunately, Brand is the only one (along with the Electoral Reform Society) talking any medium-term sense about the lack of point in voting until the electoral and political khazi system of Britain has been demolished. You can tell this by the venomous glee with which the Establishment media rubbished the bloke a month or two back.
As the French say, “Don’t vote, it only encourages the bastards”. And as I often say at this time of year, “Bah Humbug”.
The Slog 