The Rise and Rise of Global Corporations.

My intuitive antennae have been twitching of late regarding large corporations and their role in global government.

Let me explain: Most recently we had the Swine Flu scare and instantly, the World Health Organisation ramps it up to a pandemic, triggering huge orders of anti-viral drugs in the first instance, then once a vaccine against swine flu is created, huge quantities of that as well. It seems that the relationship between the WHO and pharmacological corporations is a bit too close.

Now of course swine flu didn't turn out as bad as we thought, us the taxpayer are saddled with billions of pounds worth of worthless drugs, with the profits of the big pharma corporations swelled.

Then we get this nugget which came to my attention thanks to Old Holborn, where the WHO want to start a global tax on internet access in order to fund their activities to (supposedly) help improve the health of poor countries. But who really benefits? If its funding research and not actually buying an supplying drugs, then certainly not the poor countires mentioned. To be honest, the main beneficiary of such a tax would be big pharma corporations.

The same can be said of global warming: a scare whipped up about nothing, some dodgy science and hey presto, we have a new funding source for a number of big corporations. Financial trading corporations get to skim the money off carbon trading, the pharma companies will probably come up with some pharmalogical-based solution to carbon capture and/or alternative fuel production. Even the oil companies can profit, by changing to Hydrogen production and supply, because its infinately easier to produce than drilling for oil and all that refining they have to do currently.

You might think the push to ban smoking was health related, but just stop to think again. Why was there an outright ban on public smoking as opposed to some sort of compromise? Who gets to benefit? Well, directly the big pharma corporations do, because they are the people supplying the drugs to either wean us off, or directly replace cigarettes. Yes, to an extent we the people benefit as we lead healthier lives, but in quitting smoking, we may get away from one big corporation, only to fall prey to the clutches of another. Not only that, but if our lives are healthy and we live longer, there is more of a chance we will need medication to extend our latter days. Yes, medication supplied by big pharma corporations.


Now, cast your mind back to the days of GM crops and the unfathomable enthusiasm for GM crops shown by our government, despite the vast majority of the public being against. In the end the government for once had to bow to public pressure, but for a while there was a sense that the government would railroad the issue against public opinion. Again, ask yourself who profits from such a policy? Not us, the little people, but big corporations.

So You Think the Recession is Over?

Think again.

900 Jobs go at Bosch in Wales.  Thats a plant that builds alternators for cars (for the non-techie, the thing that charges up your battery) and despite the much-vaunted scrappage scheme, production hasn't recovered enough to save the factory.

There will be more high-profile closures, of that I have no doubt. I still see shops and offices closing on a daily basis. There are some parts of Portsmouth that are getting chillingly like the eighties, with a large proportion of empty shops.

Mark my words, this is not the end. We are still on the slope towards the abyss. It WILL happen. Thanks to Gordon Brown's profligacy there is no other course.

Police Sledging on Riot Shields.

Nice to see Policemen as human beings, rather than automatons following orders.

I can see the attraction, understand why they did it, but it doesn't look good when the rest of us are paying them to do it through taxes.

Gordon Brown's Winter Pledge

Gordon Brown has stepped in and pledged that grit and gas supplies won't run out. Lord help us, because we all know as soon as Gordoom meddles in something, it all goes to hell.

I was at work yesterday and didn't see much of the headlines, but now I know why all the panic buying has been going on.

How is it that we have an unelected Prime Minister that no-one in the country - not even his cabinet trusts or supports, yet still remains in power. What do we have to do? Storm Westminster and demand his head?

For me, there is something seriously flawed in a system that allows a leader to stay in place despite having absolutely no backing from the overwhelming majority of the country. It certainly calls our so-called democracy into disrepute. For me, the concept of being allowed once every 5 years by the political elite to choose which of their pre-selected candidates gets to govern us is wearing a bit thin. I want choice: choice not only to select the MP that represents me amongst the 646 in Parliament, but I want the choice to select which of those 646 represents the country. I want the ability to have my say, for my concerns to go directly to Westminster and if necessary be debated there. I want the ability to sanction my representative if he fails in his duty or becomes corrupt immediately and not have to wait until the next election is gifted to me.

I want true, representative democracy. Maybe then I won't begrudge paying all these taxes.