Politics and business mix badly
It can’t only be for the peerage. Why would any businessman put himself forward to help a political party or government?
Retailer Sir Philip Green is under attack for advising on spending cuts; property man David Rowland has thrown in the towel and quit as Tory party treasurer.
Both appointments were greeted with criticism and scrutiny of their personal and business affairs. They accepted the roles because of public duty but they have ended up subject to public examination.
Businessmen have many skills that they can share with the public sector. Green is a notorious squeezer of costs to improve margins, not scared to tell suppliers to reprice their orders to ensure they are considered for future business.
Nevermind whether he can teach government departments about employment practices or other matters, he can teach how to make real savings on procurement.
Yet his own background and reputation as a rough diamond irritates many members from the Liberal democrat side of the coalition.
Green’s retail businesses are owned by his wife who is based offshore and thus pays no tax on the substantial dividends that the successful private company pays.
For a government that is trying to maximise its tax revenue as well as seeking to reduce spending, such a corporate structure rankles.
Rowlands has been criticised for his own past tax avoidance. Maybe both businessmen have thick skins but if they didn’t realise before accepting their posts that the appointments would attract adverse publicity, they were naive.
And any other businessmen inclined to accept the invitation to work for government or party will have watched what happened to them and wonder whether it is worth bothering.
The last Labour government relied heavily on business people – Lords Browne, Myners, Davies, Sugar, et al. In some cases it looked like the politicians merely wished to surround themselves with corporate celebrities to show they were business friendly.
Lord Digby Jones found the bureaucracy too frustrating to continue: others will find they have written reports that are never implemented.
Green is not being made a minister, but some businessmen, may decide the reward is not worth the effort.
September 10th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
..DOF online
10th September 2010
….Sir. Shock! Horror! Hacking. Or just the new Rubik Cube.
We do not need a select committee to tell most of us what we already know, and that they should also know, hacking, listening, interception call it what you like, but so long as you have prompt command and remote script enabled which is the default for all new digital sales you have or will be listened to by someone somewhere sometime and countering that takes a few simple common sense precautions.
First just let them because there is always someone listening to the listener, second, give them nonsense that only you and yours can fully understand and thirdly if they intercept you and you can trail them without leaving a trail then that is simply the rules of the game, they listen to you then you can quite reasonably listen to them, some would call it communication self defence, and before you ask, the answers no! I have better things to do its called ‘Life’ and getting on with it.
So you want to know how prevalent it all is then check out the ten year old on You Tube, he has produced a video along with thousands of others showing you how to access anyones OS by skirting the password and secret question and all using Dos Prompt and a little bit of Note book, and as he tells you in his own words “I will show you quickly before my dad comes in” does that not say it all.
Now if you want to convene a committee for anything then start with who or how these people are gaining access to our licence numbers because without that you couldn’t hack into a coconut, that is the question, how is that being achieved not who is using it, and which country has these codes and which company is hacking the hacking authorities, yes those that have the legal authority to demand those codes and who is watching them in order to check out their key strokes.
For me its not who is doing it, as that’s simple its a guy at night trying to impress his friends with his tech skills and see’s no harm in it, but those willing to take my money each month for using their network then leave me vunerable by disclosing highly sensitive information on a command of a phone call and not a warrant now there is the job for the select committee and if you want brownie points then do a thorough job with definitive conclusions and name these treasonous dogs, because that’s what it feels like to me, personal treason against me and mine.
Yours
kk
PS: Someone anyone tell me this can not be true >: http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html
Its the Retro look of it that rattles me.