It’s not that long ago since Comrade Ed Miliband was pushing the Co-Op bank as the template for all banks. Naturally time has proven him to be disastrously wrong and this morning comes the news that the Co-op Bank has lost £1.3 billion. It has also paid its CEO £2.9m pay package and £1.2m bonus. And yet, had you tuned into the TODAY programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning just after 7am. you would have heard a surreal attempt to play this catastrophic state of affairs down. Evan Davies (I think) repeated the idea that this scale of loss “had been pretty much as expected” and that the CEO’s massive payout can’t be attacked because he was not in charge when the losses were made. It was an incredible sanitisation of Miliband’s preferred banking model which contrasts so strongly with how the BBC deal with banks such as Barclays. Bias? You can bank on it.
CO-OPTING FOR LABOUR
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Breakfast reporting the state of Co-Op bank. Wonder if they’ll be doing a Northern Rock and saying. DON’T PANIC, DON’T TAKE YOUR MONEY OUT or not.
I was very suspicious of the BBC and particularly Robert Peston during the Northern Rock debacle.
It was the first domino in the banking crisis – and handled very badly by Gordon Brown and the BBC.
Peston was outside NR braches every day interviewing people in the queues whipping up panic.
It all seemed to be a bit stage managed – all that was needed was a bit of inaction from Gordon for the contagion to spread.
If on the other hand he had immediately said that NR was a small player and it had managed itself badly and would not be rescued it might have obliged the bigger players to put their houses in order.
But it allowed him to strut the world stage as the great saviour having taken several banks into public ownership – which was always the aim of old time socialists like himself and Peston’s father the Labour Lord Peston who incidentally is on the Lord’s committee reviewing the BBC charter.
Weren’t there questions regarding how many Labour MPs had mortgages/loans with NR? Regardless, as NR was based in mainly labour supporting areas, there was no chance that it would be allowed to fail under a labour govt.
As for Peston’s reporting, some of his comments could have been construed as causing trouble. If only Millibean would call for an inquiry into the timing/content of those comments.
IIRC The Spectator found that NR were asking for peoples political leanings as part of the information collected for mortgage applications.
It was the Kingston upon Thames branch of Northern Rock where Peston set up semi-permanent filming. He was there day after day, deliberately attracting crowds.
Maybe those floods were due not to gay weddings but to BBC hubris?
Worth a punt in the local rags thereby-and far more plausible than..er…”climate changey”
“contrasts so strongly with how the BBC deal with”
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Two wrongs of course do not make right.
But as the BBC keeps telling everyone to trust them, and indeed how much everyone does trust the BBC (if safely tucking the editorial decision making for such claims to be broadcast behind transparency exemptions on the basis that their self-puffery is on the basis of journalism, etc,), it does get noticeable when they tend to focus solely on certain wrongs to the exclusion of others that don’t suit.
How many Labour MP’s and prospective MP’s will they be subbing at the next Euro, General and local elections, and what will be the total cost ?
They still get time to boycott produce from the only democracy in the whole of middle east though.
Once again, Ed Milipede shows he really can pick ’em. What this bank needs is a CEO with socialist leanings and proven financial acumen. Ed’s favourite politician, M.Hollande springs immediately to mind. He will be available to take up the post quite soon, I would think.
No worries, though, a new bandwagon will soon pass by, and Mr Milliband will be able to effortlessly leap on board and get all sorts of unchallenged airtime, quotes, and ‘plugs’ from the truth-seeking (Pravda-style) BBC.
I remembered, not too long ago, hearing or reading that the Co-operative Group, as a whole, was heading towards a £2 billion+ loss. These figures were supposed to be outaround 24th March. Can’t see what the actual final result was, because they have postponed releasing the group results for a month or so (hmm seeking to bury bad news about the rest of the Co-operative Group behind the banking arm ?).
But another billion or so here or there doesn’t seem to worry the Labour slush fund much. No doubt it will be digging deep to fund Labour MPs who might like to bail out this socialist sump if they get into power, with money which can then be re-circulated back to the Labour Party, of course – much like the taxpayers fund the Labour Party courtesy of government funding to support Unions.
The BBC never seems to want to discuss these arrangements much, though.
I hope that any oafs still thinking of voting Labour can envisage a pantomine horse with Ed Balls, Harriet Harman and Paul Flowers in it.
That is the current state of Labour philosophy and socialist practice.
Hollande and his current experiment in France is the template-only the BBC could want this insanity.
What of coop mortgage holders are they subsidising the Labour Party ? And is it more costlier to bury people ? Ditto ?
Is there ANYTHING linked to the Labour Party that isn’t bankrupt?
Margaret Hodge and her family trusts.
I wonder if the co-op are expecting a little cash injection…up north! After Miller’s unexpected resignation on Wednesday (9th), not sure anyone of us noticed Ed Millipeed ‘big’ policy speech included ‘Devolution of Power’ to the ‘squeezed middle’ of England to places like….(shock) Manchester! The BBC move to (Salford Quays), Manchester is puurrfeect for a 20 billion pound ‘booster’ package for Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle. We know where this 20 billion pound ‘carrot’ would go ‘up north’ and onto to benefit city buying voters in the same way taxpayers funds did NOT go to support ‘business’ but went direct to Labour voter ‘benefits’. Of course Millibeans speech is featured on the BBC website – but in Australia, there is no obvious media BBC bias to entrall.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ed-miliband-promises-biggest-economic-devolution-century-1443868