The British Legion Manifesto & Petition

In what could be a five, or even six month lead up to the next United Kingdom General Election, the parties will be preparing their Manifestoes to explain what they will do if they win.

As the teams of backroom specialists, spin doctors and election hierarchy from each party work on these documents, there is a window in which non-political groups can galvanise opinion in an attempt to ensure cross party support for their agenda and therefore inclusion in the Political Party Manifestoes.

The British Legion has launched It's time to do your bit campaign, with their own six page General Election Manifesto in PDF format. Having read it (several times), I have come to the conclusion that it is the only General Election Manifesto where I totally agree with the agenda!

The British Legion has also launched a Public Petition to show support for the British Legion Manifesto and a form which sends an email to all potential candidates for election to MP in your Constituency requesting they support the British Legion Manifesto.

For current MPs who read this blog (yes there are one, or two), or are a candidate then the British Legion has thoughtfully provided a means of showing your support: Election Candidates- How to do your bit


It's time to do your bit campaign

A strong City is not just in Britain's interests

The Author of this Article, Mark Jago is a semi-regular contributor to this Blog, however his insights on issues of the day, are to be increasing found in the comments section of articles published online by the better UK Newspapers.

The above headline is borrowed from an article written by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling on the 2nd December 2009 in the online Times paper laying out a case for the City of London to remain a prominent European financial center.   This is in response to City concerns about Gordon Browns agreeing to new European market oversight and the appointment of Michel Barnier as the new EU Single Market Commissioner to oversee regulatory reform.   It makes an interesting read into the thinking of a Government attempting to create an impression that is 180 degrees out of step with reality.
You can read the article here: A strong City is not just in Britain's interests

The Chancellor fails to mention that the Royal Bank of Scotland was allowed by his Government to leverage itself up to become the world’s largest bank with perhaps the largest exposure to toxic mortgage assets.  Also that Banks outside the UK and US were the victims of US and UK financial policies of exporting systemic risk which caused the freezing and failure of the world economy.  While he talks about having a safe market place, financial regulation and ensuring taxpayers and customers do not pay for bank failures.  We all know that he and his Government have created an environment where the opposite is true.  In terms of doing business in the UK companies, small business, investors and customers face a very high risk of loss due to the Government and financial industry.

With the advent of online electronic banking there is now little reason to use UK institutions. Companies and traders can trade stocks 24/7 on various exchanges around the world.  Large corporate funding is generally funded by multiple Banks and can be arranged in jurisdictions like Canada where there is better downside protection against systemic risk.  By any measure given the current UK economic and political situation the cost of doing business in the UK could turn out to be an unacceptable risk.  It remains to be seen if Europe is willing to take on the City once they have a full understanding of the risks involved.

My comment as published the Times is as follows:
 It's simply stunning to see that people are still attempting to rewrite history in order to carry on as before.   The world made the mistake in putting its trust in the large UK and the US financial centers.

It was debt issued through these financial centers classified by their regulators as AAA that turned out to be toxic.  This debt contained risky packaged mortgages that were sold in a similar way that resulted in the previous failure of the London insurance market.  Mortgage brokers were paid large fees to sell mortgages to people who had no hope of even being able to pay the interest on the loan.   The world made the mistake in putting its trust in the large UK and the US financial centers.

The US and UK Governments were instigators who dismantled financial oversight.  They miss-managed their economies and created the housing bubbles that caused the financial crisis and recession.  Both countries have massive Government borrowing requirements facilitated by funding through their financial centres.  In simple terms they have built a money machine that takes the wealth created by ordinary people around the world and concentrates it in the hands a few greedy advantaged individuals in London and New York.

Had there been a shred of honesty within the institutions of this land there should have been an admission of fault and help for the honest people and businesses that have been damaged by their actions.   As usual Government politicians have put their own interests ahead of those of the country and deflected responsibility by blaming others, stonewalling and whitewashing the facts.

The City would have you think that they are an indispensible part of the world economy. In fact they have brought about their own eventual demise.