Saturday, August 13, 2011

Bankers, looters and the politics of envy...

There were few more shocking images than that of fire tearing through the 26 homes above the blazing Carpetright store in Tottenham, on the first day of the rioting which has so appalled and frightened the nation.

This wanton act of destruction, which signalled the start of four days of anarchy, left families homeless, heartbroken and in desperate need of help.

Yet, as this paper reveals today, when some of these families — several of whom have lost everything they own — asked their banks for permission to delay payment of their mortgages, so they had a few extra pounds to rebuild their shattered lives, they were refused.

Should we be surprised? For such insensitivity has characterised the behaviour of the banks both before and, more pertinently, after the economic crash that they caused through their reckless greed.

No matter that they were bailed out with hundreds of billions of pounds of taxpayers' money, they have continued to award themselves huge, offensively disproportionate bonuses that are scandalously out of kilter with the remuneration available in other equally important parts of the British economy. More...

Don't miss:
  1. Poor looters are the street version of the wealthy ones... 
  2. The tiny dot, or how the few rule the many...
  3. They got bailed out, we got sold out... 
  4.  London riots: What nobody dares to say... 
  5. Why London is burning... 
  6. Capitalism in crisis, a warning from history: 80 years ago... 
  7. Enquiry into Tony Blair's £6 million a year security bill...
  8. Blackout: the great MPs' expenses cover-up...
  9. The disgrace of greedy British politicians...
  10. Britain's ruling class is milking the country...
  11. While they come for our pensions – bank bonuses are back with a bang...

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