A Thrifty
Life
"Even by Philip Green's extraordinary
standards, it is a handsome pay day - the
retail tycoon has awarded himself Britain's biggest bonus of £1.2
billion." (Times, 21 October)
Mr Green denies that this big
cash pay-out is likely to fund more
takeover bids. "I'm saving up," he says.
This is unlikely as he is not known for his frugality; in fact
he spent £4 million earlier in the year on his son's bar mitzvah.
He
also owns a 12 seater Gulfstream G550 jet and a 200ft yacht, each worth
around £20 million.
The salesgirls in Top Shop and Miss Selfridge, which Mr Green
owns and who help produce the £1.2 billion that
he wallows in, can only dream of such frugality. |
Independence
?
For political reasons the US government pretend that Iraq is now a
democratic and
independent country, but the facts are somewhat different. "Iraqi
President Jalai Talabani said he opposed military action against
neighbouring Syria but lacked the
power to prevent US troops using his country as a launchpad if it chose
to do so. 'I categorically refuse the use of Iraqi soil to launch a
military strike against
Syria or any other Arab country,' Talabani told the London based Arabic
daily Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview on Tuesday. "But at the end of
the day my ability to confront the US military is limited
and I cannot impose on them my will."
(Middle East Online, 1 November) |
 FreeLunch
by RIGG cartoon
View
this page as an image
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Democracy ?
When Michael Bloomberg won the
election to be Mayor of New York in 2001 we commented that it was a
strange sort of democracy that allowed a multi- millionaire to become
mayor just because he spent $60 million on his campaign.
He looks set to be re-elected because of his vast wealth. "Mr
Bloomberg is expected to spend $85 million on his campaign, about eight
times as much as his rivals." (Times,8 November)
As they say in US politics:
"he bought it fair and square". |
A Grateful
Nation?
The British Legion has produced a report that shows that the owning
class might pay lip service to the dead and maimed of their wars but
that behind the fine words is the cynical reality of running the profit
system. "As the nation prepares to remember the sacrifices of
millions, exhaustive research by the
Legion suggests that almost half of
veterans and their dependants - 3.88
million - are living on less than £10,000 a year.
Almost one million have to exist on less than half that amount."
(Independent, 11 November)
Died for "your" country? Well done, wage slave, your widow and
orphans can cop £96 a week to survive on. We shall also
give you a poem about "lest we forget". Poems are much cheaper
than pensions. |
The Lazy
Man Objection
"About 73% of workers north of the border
who replied to an insurance company study said they regularly failed to
take all of their holidays. Workers in London fared worst, with 77% not
using up their annual leave."
(BBC News, 15 November)
So what about the objection to socialism that it would not work because
people are too lazy? |
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The Deadly
Dust
An estimated 100,000 people in the UK have
been diagnosed as having pleural
plaques - internal scarring on the lining of the lung that indicates
exposure to asbestos. "A landmark test case will
appear in the Court of Appeal tomorrow in which the insurance industry
on behalf of
employers will argue that a potentially fatal condition caused by
exposure to
asbestos should not be compensated."
(Observer, 13 November) Earlier this year the insurers with the
Department of Trade
and Industry on behalf of British shipbuilders managed to slash the
compensation from between £12,500 and
£20,000 to £5,000 and £7,000. Whether on the
battlefront or the shipyard the
capitalist class will always put profits before human life. |
Torturous
Arguments
The US government is opposed to torture,
isn't it? Well, sort of. The US Congress recently passed an amendment
to ban American soldiers and spies from torturing prisoners but the
White House came out against such legislation. "This week saw the sad
spectacle of an American president lamely trying to explain to the
citizens of Panama that, yes he would veto any such bill but, no, 'We
do not torture.' Meanwhile, Mr Bush's increasingly error-prone
vice-president,Dick Cheney, has been on Capitol Hill trying to bully
senators to exclude America's spies from any torture ban. To add a note
of farce to the tragedy, the administration has had to explain that the
CIA is not torturing prisoners in Asia and Eastern Europe - though of
course it cannot confirm that
such prisons exist."
(Economist, 12 November) Everything quite clear now? |
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