Monthly Archives: July 2012

In this article in GQ we are delivered of some fascinating facts about the Guardian:

Firstly that Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger admits the BBC is VAST.

Second that the Guardian, losing £1 million a week, is sacrificing its journalism to make cuts…savings…or is it investing for the future?

Third that Labour’s Lord Myners…he of the Libor inquiry, was Chairman of the Guardian Media Group….and a tax avoider big style. (So let me get that right…Murdoch, boss of News International had too much influence on politicians…but the chairman of the Guardian Group is made a Labour minister and it’s OK?)

The Article:

The BBC: ‘Rusbridger’s poker face falters in irritation when GQ puts this to him, and he rolls his eyes. “Think about the people we’re now up against,” he says. “Murdoch: vast. The Barclay brothers, [owners of the Telegraph Group and the Spectator] immensely rich. The BBC: vast. The Daily Mail, enormous company. And then the Googles and so on.’

The ‘cuts’:　The strong presence of the National Union of Journalists at the Guardian can make this change slow going, which is a real problem for an organisation that desperately wants the flexibility to adapt. By agreement with the union, the forced redundancy of a single member triggers an immediate strike ballot – and the embarrassment a strike would cause the paper would be immense. The only option this leaves is an expensive voluntary redundancy programme, and as the former Observer reporter says, “with voluntary redundancies, you lose people who are in a good position to get jobs elsewhere. You don’t lose the people who you really need to lose.”

Two hundred and fifty staff have taken voluntary redundancy since 2009, so some parts of the office are now eerily quiet

The atmosphere among Guardian staff is turbulent. A reporter tells GQ: “There’s a lot of grumbling. People don’t like what the management is doing. They get that we’re losing money hand over fist and we need to stop the losses as much as we can, but they think that what’s being sacrificed is journalism.”

Lord Myners: ‘In 2008, on the eve of the financial crash, GMG – led by then GMG chairman Paul Myners and then CEO Carolyn McCall – took out as much debt as it could at the group’s biggest asset, Trader Media Group, then sold just under half of it to private-equity firm Apax Partners. Then it co-invested about half of the windfall into co-ownership of Emap, a business-to-business publishing and media company, in a deal that valued Emap at more than £1bn.’

Paul Myners, Baron Myners:, CBE (born 1 April 1948) was the Financial Services Secretary (sometimes referred to as City Minister[1]) in HM Treasury, the UK’s finance ministry, during the Labour Government of Gordon Brown.[2] He held the position from October 2008 until May 2010, and was made a life peer in consequence of his appointment, as he was not an elected Member of Parliament. He also served on the Prime Minister’s National Economic Council.

Immediately prior to his ministerial appointment he was Chairman of the Guardian Media Group, publisher of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers,

In March 2009 the Sunday Times revealed that Lord Myners had been chairman of Aspen Insurance Holdings, a Bermuda-based insurance company, for five years, avoiding more than £100 million a year in tax. The Times went on to report that Myners was also chairman of Liberty Ermitage, an offshore fund based in Jersey. Besides this, Gartmore, the fund management company that Lord Myners chaired for 15 years, also ran a Jersey-based offshore business.[15]

Going to hit you again with another Libor tale of woe….It all seems plenty complicated but I have been trying to make some sense of it….so here is my very basic take on it….and a quick summary …Labour is lying, and the BBC, at least in many areas are not doing the homework or are deliberately downplaying Labour’s role in this…with some exceptions.

It is a curious thing but either by design or as a sign of dysfunction the BBC frequently doesn’t seem to draw together all the disparate parts of a story to make a coherent whole….often you hear the ‘expert’ journalist make his analysis but by the time it filters through to the news and other programmes that assessment has changed or been ignored…especially if it doesn’t fit the ‘usual’ BBC narrative…is that down to deliberate decisions by editors or merely lack of care?

After Bob Diamond appeared at the parliamentary committee today the BBC TRUMPETED that he had admitted that he didn’t believe that the message he received was an instruction to manipulate the Libor rate….this of course has been the BBC’s line all day….therefore it was solely down to Diamond that his bank went rogue.

But that is far from the whole truth.

This is all pretty damning of the BBC’s coverage…it is failing entirely to adequately inform us of what really went on.  I know nothing about inter bank lending rates and the ins and outs of bank regulation, however just reading a wide selection of information and trying to make sense of it I come to the conclusion perhaps Barclays is not quite so guilty as the BBC and Labour would like us to believe.

In April 2008 the Wall Street journal published this, along with many other articles by others, that said there was huge doubt over the credibility of the Libor rate…ie it was being rigged too low.　

April 16, 2008

LIBOR FOG

Bankers Cast Doubt On Key Rate Amid Crisis

LONDON — One of the most important barometers of the world’s financial health could be sending false signals.

In a development that has implications for borrowers everywhere, from Russian oil producers to homeowners in Detroit, bankers and traders are expressing concerns that the London inter-bank offered rate, known as Libor, is becoming unreliable.

The growing suspicions about Libor’s veracity suggest that banks’ troubles could be worse than they’re willing to admit.

Bankers and other market participants have quietly expressed concerns to the British Bankers’ Association, which oversees Libor, about whether banks are reporting rates that reflect their true borrowing costs, according to a person familiar with the matter and to government documents. The BBA is now investigating to identify potential problems, the person says.

Questions about Libor were raised as far back as November, at a Bank of England meeting in which United Kingdom banks, the firms that process bank trades and central bank officials discussed the recent financial turmoil. According to minutes of the meeting, “several group members thought that Libor fixings had been lower than actual traded interbank rates through the period of stress.”

A spokesman for the BBA, John Ewan, said the trade group is monitoring the situation. “We want to ensure that our rates are as accurate as possible, so we are closely watching the rates banks contribute,” Mr. Ewan said. “If it is deemed necessary, we will take action to preserve the reputation and standing in the market of our rates.” Libor is expected to be on the agenda of a bankers’ association board meeting on Wednesday.’

Now today Diamond said he warned Labour about this but they ignored him (presumably because it suited them…a low Libor meant more confidence in the banks):

‘The Barclays executive said that he was concerned in autumn 2008 that the Government may seek to nationalise the bank if they thought Barclays was struggling to raise money.

At the time, Barclays was declaring a Libor rate higher than other banks – which may have been interpreted that it was in financial difficulty. In fact, Mr Diamond believed this was because other banks were manipulating their rates to be lower.

Mr Diamond also added that Barclays had repeatedly warned regulators in Britain and America about the problems with the Libor rate.

“There was an issue out there and it should have been dealt with,” he said. “We were disappointed.” ‘

So it was common knowledge that the banks were manipulating the Libor rate by at least April 2008….Diamond was warning Labour but they ignored him. 

In other words it was Labour that was condoning the manipulation of the Libor.

It was Labour and the Bank of England that were questioning why Barclays had a too high Libor rate…which presumably was in fact a more true reflection of Barclay’s position than other bank’s rates.

Why do this? Did they want him to lower that rate…somehow?

Shriti Vadera says it was the government’s job to be ‘concerned’ but the follow on from ‘concerns’ is surely some sort of action to remedy those concerns? What did Labour do…especially as Treasury committee chairman Andrew Tyrie says:

‘The memo reads like it was a ‘nod and wink’ to rig the rate.’

At least one at the BBC believes there is more to this than Labour is letting on:

afneil Andrew Neil To say there was no ‘instruction’ from Tucker to Barclays to lowball libor is Aunt Sally. V clear from Diamond note it was v strong steer.

Oh and look another doubter of the prevailing BBC line:

8.15 BBC Business Editor Robert Peston has been speaking to Radio 4 on the Barclays scandal:

“It’s inconceivable that the Bank of England and Barclays did not have a conversation around how to get Libor rates lower, and that Paul Tucker gave a hint Barclays should be doing this. Banks regard Paul Tucker as a hero for doing this.’　

So all in all it seems the Labour story might be unravelling but that there seems some confliction at the BBC on how to report this.

The Victoria Derbyshire show   (45 mins) finally admitted that there maybe some suggestion that both the Bank of England and the Labour Party may have had some involvement in fixing the Libor.

Well no I tell a lie…they raised the matter only to conclude as soon as they could that Labour were in no way involved…Jonty Bloom came on to dismiss all allegations and assure us that Diamond was merely trying to deflect criticism and blame.

No mention at all of Labour’s Shriti (I don’t remember anything)Vadera and her possible involvement which had the potential to be the smoking gun in all this affair.

Then onto PMQs ( a continuation of the VD show  1 hr 59 mins)…and the Labour Luvvie Richard Bacon….who sounded as if he was going to burst into tears at any moment, the bottom lip quivering and the sound of bitterness in his voice as he contemplated Labour being finally brought to book.

He opened the show with a downplaying of Labour involvement…they ‘clearly made some mistakes’, but carried on with an  assertion that …well Labour’s not to blame because if the Tories had been in power they would have done the same…they wanted ‘light touch regulation’…’entirely consistent with Conservative ideology’…sooo disengenuous!….so there!  Boo Hoo!

We probably all know the famous Brown speech in 2007 when he told us we were in a golden age and that he wanted even more of a light touch regulatory regime and a financial industry based on risk.

The BBC have steadfastly refused to quote Brown on that throughout this saga…but look…what did the sulky Bacon come up with? A quote from Cameron: ‘The lessons from the City are clear. Low tax. Low regulation. Meritocracy. Openness. Innovation. These are the keys to success.’ 　

Funny that…13 years of Labour and all we get from the BBC/Labour Tag team is Thatcher and now Cameron quotes.

The lesson we can take from all this is that it doesn’t matter what Labour actually did because if the Tories had been in power they might possibly have done  the same…definitely maybe they would.

Labour could ship out all the immigrants it allowed in and ‘send them back home’ because if the BNP were in power they would have done the same?

For 13 years we had an ‘Ugly Duckling’ Labour government…but under the BBC’s careful care and nurture it has grown and flourished into a shining example of compassionate and thoughtful government, making mistakes but always with the best of intentions.

You can trust Labour is the message….give them another chance.

I am almost certain we had a Labour government for 13 long years…but the memory is fading…I’m sure they would have been great.

 To be fair Martha Kearney interviewed Shriti Vadera  (10 mins)where we of course heard that Vadera knew nothing and did nothing….but….yes she had expressed some concern about the Libor…but…it was Labour’s job to do so.

The question that immediately springs to mind is that…yes it’s the government’s job to be ‘concerned’ but then to do something about those concerns…the question is what did Labour and Vadera do?

But Kearney let that rather important question go.

Yesterday the BBC reported on the recommendations in a report into child abuse of those in children’s homes by sex gangs.　

This is what the BBC reported:

A working group will consider why some local authorities send children to homes outside their own borough whether such placements can meet children’s needs how well the quality of care is monitored whether areas such as Rochdale where there are high concentrations of children’s homes are really the best “places for bringing up our most vulnerable looked after children”.

And that was what I heard on the radio as well.

Reference was made to this report having come about due to the sex abuse case in Rochdale but no mention was made of the significant way in which victims were chosen.

No mention that a change in cultural attitudes might also help.

Which is odd really as the Children’s minister talking about the report made specific mention of the relevance of race and culture in this report:

‘Social workers and the police must not let political correctness get in the way of investigating the grooming of vulnerable children, a minister said yesterday.

Tim Loughton said ‘ethnicity’ had been a factor in the scandal of recent cases involving gangs of mostly Asian men grooming and abusing young girls.

‘The point the Government is making absolutely clear is that we have got to make sure that the police and social services and other enforcement agencies are using the right tools to nail these perpetrators, regardless of their culture or ethnicity.

‘This has been going on for years under the radar. People didn’t come forward and report it, the police – for whatever reason – didn’t investigate it, or certainly didn’t investigate it sufficiently for cases to be brought to court that then stuck.’.

It would seem that the BBC are not too keen to help the police with their inquiries preferring to sweep a crucial element of such cases under the carpet…in effect hiding the evidence and allowing the abuse to continue by staying silent on the reasons for it…not asking questions and therefore not ensuring a particular community starts asking its own questions about what values it should hold.

In effect the BBC is saying ‘we care more about promoting a utopian dream of multiculturalism than we do about young white girls being drugged and fed alcohol before being raped.’

Dennis McShane has managed to evade having his collar felt by the boys in blue for claiming £125,000 for a garden shed…sorry, ‘office’,  says Guido.

Guido also says McShane employed his own brother, Edmund Matyjaszek as an interpreter.

I have never looked at McShane’s background in detail before but reading that on Guido a lot became very clear….along with a quick look at Wikipedia.

McShane is an ardent Europhile…so much so that in a BBC interview he stated that Eurosceptics were ‘xenophobic, stupid, little Englanders’.

Much about his attitude and Labour’s immigration policy might also be explained when you realise McShane is actually Polish by descent…and worked for the BBC to boot!

‘MacShane was born in Glasgow^[3] as Denis Matyjaszek, to an Irish mother, Isobel MacShane, and her Polish husband, Jan Matyjaszek.

MacShane married Polish-born Liliana Kłaptoć in 1983, with the relationship lasting only a few years. In 1987, he then married Nathalie Pham, an interpreter of French–Vietnamese origin.

After graduating from Oxford with a 3rd class degree, he worked for the BBC from 1969 to 1977, including as a newsreader and reporter on Wolverhampton Wanderers for BBC Radio Birmingham. He changed his surname to his mother’s maiden name at the request of his employers. He was fired by the BBC after using a fake name to call the radio phone-in programme he worked on at the time. During the call, MacShane accused leading Conservative politician Reginald Maudling of being a crook, with the MP threatening to sue as a result.’

When the BBC give a great deal of airtime to such people and their pet projects it might be an idea to flag up certain defining characteristics about them that influence their decisions….if they want a lot of Polish people to come to this country perhaps it might help to know what informed at least part of their decision, i.e…they are Polish themselves.  Similarly with Turkish entry to the EU….  Boris Johnson wants Turkey in the EU…he is of Turkish origin.  Osborne’s brother converted to Islam, and many others in the ‘Establishment’ have similar family ‘links’…no chance of any move to limit the encroachment of Islam then.   The BBC are concerned about the Right Wing leanings of think tanks or lobbyist’s connections to big business but fails to highlight what motivates certain politicians…unlike Bob Diamond of Barclays(ex) whose motivations for releasing information connecting the Bank of England and Labour to the Libor scandal was questioned thoroughly today.

Well, I see the BBC have appointed a new Director General, on about half the salary Thompson was on, but still more than twice what the Prime Minister earns! Lucky we don’t have a recession on….hang on a moment…

Compare this from the Daily Mail:

‘New French President Francois Hollande – elected on an anti-austerity platform – was yesterday told ‘unprecedented’ cuts were needed to plug a gaping hole in the country’s budget.

France’s accounting watchdog warned the government needs to find £35billion in savings over the next two years to drag it out of the ‘danger zone’.

Didier Migaud, head of the country’s Cour des Comptes audit body, said repairing the battered public finances was ‘crucial’ and must not be delayed.

‘It will require an unprecedented brake on spending and higher taxes,’ he said.’

To this from the BBC:

‘ His government would go ahead with plans to hire thousands more teachers and police, as well as creating 150,000 state-aided jobs. The moves are some of the other election pledges made by newly elected President Francois Hollande.

He also said he would not be introducing austerity measures, and that a number of summits – on social issues, the environment, education – would be held in the next few weeks.

“The path towards budgetary stability is the one that we highlighted and it is the one that we will take. I am calling for seriousness and budgetary responsibility”

Auditors warned this week that the French government needed to fill a hole of up to 10bn euros in this year’s budget to meet targets to cut the deficit.

Last week, it was announced that France’s public debt rose by 74bn euros in the year’s first quarter, bringing French public debt to 89% of GDP.’

Seems that someone is reluctant to admit too loudly the possibility that France’s much vaunted new spend, spend, spend President might have to cut back on a bit of that spending.