Who are the real fat cats?

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has, unsurprisingly, produced a report attacking public service workers for earning too much. John Cridland, CBI Deputy General Secretary, told the New Labour Government that more could be screwed out of their workers by using techniques from the private sector. He called for local pay rates and incentives to divide up workers and to break the power of the unions.

The CBI report bears no resemblance to reality. This year private sector wages are expected to rise by between 3% and 4.5% while the public sector wages are restricted by Brown to 2%.

There are some workers in the private sector whom government workers might envy. These were noticeably absent from the CBI report. City bankers and speculators have awarded themselves up to £5 million bonuses. The total amount has been estimated at £20 billion. These spongers have not made anything. They number in their thousands. And unlike ordinary workers they can avoid tax by placing their money into offshore trusts. But according to the Daily Telegraph some have resorted to buying real things such as £5 million apartments or £10 million boats. With the City of London awash with cash there have been shortages, so they are paying thousands for people to track down items for them.

90% of the population is planning to spend under £1000 this Christmas.

Our NHS

The government knows that there is enormous resistance to any attempts to directly privatise the NHS. It has therefore developed a strategy for wearing it down.

One example was Blair's speech calling on NHS professional workers to support the closure of Accident and Emergency Departments because those remaining would provide a better a job. This assertion is not backed by any research.

Another example is their promotion of the "third" sector to work in partnership with the NHS. This is pushed in the recent Department of Health document Making it Happen . This sector includes charities and so called social enterprises and even extends to including the rich persons' health co-op BUPA. The workers in these organisations do not have the same pay and conditions as workers in the NHS. They will inevitably undermine the NHS. They provide the smokescreen for the government's long-term strategy of reducing the NHS to become a commissioning agent for the private sector.

As I pointed out in Umbrella 92 Hospital Trusts produce accounts that do not refer (as do most public bodies) to their surpluses and losses but to the payment of dividends. A practice condoned by their stooge boards appointed by government. The Guardian has now exposed the strange accountancy methods behind this practice.

It is because they have been forced by the Treasury to apply a financial regime called Resource Accounting and Budgeting. Applying the rules means that if a hospital trust fails to meet its budget by £10 million its budget is cut, therefore the following year it has to find £20 million. This crazy system, which has now been going for 5 years, has affected 103 hospital trusts. 13 of these are technically bankrupt. The government's answer is to bring in more expertise from the private sector. After all last year it spent over £300 million on private consultants - just a little less than it spent on real medical consultants.

Corruption and New Labour

It wasn't a surprise to anyone that Blair chose to be interviewed about his role in the loans for peerages scandal on the day the report into Princess Diana's murder death was published. He is under increasing pressure. Those involved in the Labour Party loans did not tell the Labour Party treasurer about them. This breaks Labour Party rules which the National Executive have decided to ignore. But unfortunately for the villains involved it breaks the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act. If they are found guilty they would be removed from office and cease to be an MP.

Blair cannot rely on his pliant Attorney General to get off the hook, as he has done over Iraq and the Saudi loans, as the prosecution does not need his say-so to go ahead.

New Labour are getting increasingly desperate about the loans. The Tories under Cameron have increased the number of donations and loans that will enable them to survive. This has not happened for Blair and Brown. Their biggest lender and donor Lord Sainsbury has stepped down from the government and no one looks likely to take his place.

Lord Levy, one of Blair's closest allies, has played the leading role in raising the cash. But there are persistent media reports that Blair is distancing himself from Levy. This is a high-risk strategy because Levy knows where all the bodies are buried. This may be why Levy was allowed to accompany Blair on his Middle East trip despite being on police bail.

In an attempt to get off the hook they are negotiating with the Tories and Liberal Democrats over state funding for political parties. The key aim of all three parties is keep the cosy cartel that is running the country in power. A cartel that won the last election using secret loans to buy votes.

A friend of mine got fed up in his barely quorate local Labour Party listening to people moaning about the impact of the loans. He told them that the money had bought the right-wing policies that business wanted and this was the real problem. Unfortunately most of the dwindling members of the Labour Party do not want to hear such truths.

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