A Money Saver
To mark the retirement, at 92 years of age, of Sir Richard Doll, one of
the scientists who helped to propagate the
connection between lung cancer and smoking,
The Observer Magazine (24 April) ran an article on the subject.
It recalls that Doll's report of 1956 met a very unenthusiastic
response from the government.
"The Department of Health considered the report for a year.
"They set up an interdepartmental committee to advise on what should be
done", Professor Doll recalls.
"This said - and I've seen the report - that it should be very serious
if smoking was reduced, not because tax would decrease, but
because they like people to die off at 65 to save their pensions."
Could the cynicism of the ruling class's lackeys be more obvious? Their
idea of the perfect worker is one who left school at 15 years of age,
worked for 50 years, two nights and a Sunday overtime and the day he
was due to collect his old age pension dropped dead in the Post Office.
|
|
Money Making Kills
A couple of workers, one from Invergowrie and
one from Fife died in a horrific "so called" accident. They died trying
to get a
couple of bob for their wives and kids.
They died on an off-shore "accident". Here is what the regional officer
of Amicus, the trade union had to say:
"In March 2003 myself and another official put a complaint
in about the lack of maintenance on Shell's Brent Charlie and Delta
platforms.
The Health and Safety Executive then stated in August 2003 that there
was no immediate risk. Three weeks later, two
guys were killed." The Times (28 April).
We should mention that Shell were fined £900,000 for negligence,
although as the TU official mentioned, "In just an hour Shell will have
made more than what they
were fined." But, what about the guys that
died, and what about their families?
Told you, didn't we?
|
Told you, didn't
we?
After all the nonsense about "weapons of
mass destruction" and "regime change",
the real reason for the conflict in Iraq has
emerged. It is interesting to note that
when Gordon Brown eventually came
clean. The Guardian was not shocked or
indignant, but could make a feeble joke
about the deception. "Speaking on BBC1's
Breakfast programme about the war in
Iraq, Gordon Brown said the government
had done what it thought was best for
Britain. 'We believed we were making the
right decisions in the British national
economic interests,' the Chancellor added.
So was Michael Moore right that it was all
about oil? Or is the city commodities
market going heavily into date and palmnut
futures?" The Guardian (4 May).
|
|
Our Betters (1)
Here are a couple of examples from the same newspaper of
how the owning class live. "In a nation (India) where the average
income is still less than £300 a year, Rolls Royce has opened a
dealership to
sell its £256,000 Phantom car after an absence of more than half
a century."
853 years to buy this,(image) ->
provided
the Indian doesn’t spend
anything on food meantime
... "Princess Michael of Kent, the loose cannon of
the Royal Family, has fired another embarrassing
salvo, this time claiming she may leave Britain and
that life is too boring now foxhunting is banned. The
news that she dreams of moving to France where
hunting is legal, will doubtless delight critics of the gaffe-prone
Princess, who once allegedly told a group
of noisy black diners in a New York
restaurant to "go back to the colonies"
The Times (9 May). Off to France are you
sweetheart? Bon voyage, Princess.
|
Our Betters (2)
The owner of British Home Stores has a reason to celebrate - it is his
son's bar mitzvah, so he doesn't want to look
penny-pinching. "Phillip Green, the wealthiest and quite probably the
most flamboyant man in British retailing history,
has flown more than 200 guests to the south of France for his son's bar
mitzvah" The Times (14 May).
According to their report Mr Green will spend about £4 million on
the bash. We reckon that this is
considerably more than the salesgirls in British Home Stores will spend
on their nights out in a lifetime of toil in his stores,
but then Mr Green has a reputed fortune of £3.3 billion. We
imagine that this is a great deal more wealth than his minimum,
or slightly above it, wage earners have managed to accumulate.
There are many aspects of capitalism that make us vomit,
this is one of them. Another is that he has engaged Beyonce and
Destiny's Child to perform at the shindig. Serves his son
right, at least his daddy's wage slaves would have shown better taste.
See Page 5 for details of
Summerschool ->
Free lunch by Rigg Cartoon ->
|