Fraud Is The New Harmless Hobby.

Welcome to Britain in the 21st century - a country where it is perfectly legal to lie, cheat and steal as long as you are rich and powerful. This new "morality" has now infected every aspect of business, politics and the press. The finance industry can happily manipulate the markets, deliberately sell products they know will bankrupt their customers, charge interest rates that are nothing short of immoral and avoid paying tax with total immunity. Politicians take backhanders that are euphemistically called "donations", routinely twist the facts to suit themselves, regard the electorate as little better than potential marks for their latest confidence tricks, fraudulently pad their expense accounts and kill people so they can cut their own tax liabilities. Yet few of them are ever called to account and are allowed to pursue their criminal careers with little fear that legal action will be taken against them. The only exception to this is the press whose phone hacking was so outrageous they upset other rich and powerful people and provoked a reaction - eventually. Yet even in the fourth estate it is highly unlikely that those at the top - the Murdoch's for instance - will ever have to face charges in court. It will certainly be a cold day in hell before you see a leading politician charged with crimes against humanity, a banker or energy executive charged with theft or a Murdoch charged with invasion of privacy. Grant Shapps is a case in point. This is a man who sets up internet businesses whose expressed purpose is to plagiarise other people's work and commit fraud. Ashamed to be associated with such an obviously illegal business and to avoid prosecution Shapps operated the company under an assumed name - Mike Green. Despite this amateurish ploy which wouldn't fool anyone, Shapps has avoided prosecution. Why? Because he is the Chairman of the Tory party and is, therefore, immune. Have no doubt about it, Britain is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and would put many third-world tin pot dictatorships in the shade.

Banks Pocket Billions From Royal Mail Sell Off.

Vince Cable, pictured above with the new £10 stamp, has been defending the obvious scam that he's helped foist off on the British public over the sale of Royal Mail. "This is about more than just the level of proceeds received on day one," he told reporters without explaining what the hell that is supposed to mean. The truth is that shares in Royal Mail were sold for less than a third of their true worth and handed over publicly-owned assets worth at least £10 billion for a measly £3.3 billion. It was certainly the crime of the century - especially for the banks who "advised" the government during the sale. It was they who determined what price that the shares should go for and it was they, having picked up a nice little £17 million fee for their "advice", that greedily gobbled up most of the shares available at the knock-down price. According to the "Guardian" the banks have "strongly denied any of the banks would directly profit from the being allocated shares" since the shares had been "bought to help make money on behalf of clients in the asset management divisions". The fact that these "clients" were mainly hedge funds owned by those same banks is, apparently, neither here nor there. The government, it would seem, has not gone to any great lengths to obscure this obvious fraud but, then again, they don't have to. Such a theft of publicly-owned assets is perfectly legal according to the laws they have framed for their own convenience while the dubious morality of such a thing is hardly of great concern to such an accomplished bunch of crooks, spivs and conmen. As usual, though, it is the British public who will lose and who will lose even more as mail services are cut to the bone, wages for mail workers are slashed and prices climb ever higher to feed the insatiable greed of executives, shareholders and, of course, the banks.