Bob diamond gone but this is about more than one bad apple

As Bob Diamonds resignation news still filters through and the cheering from liberal quarters continues I am acutely aware that this is just one man, yes one man who was powerful don’t get me wrong and a very wealthy one at that but he was by no means the sole problem from our banking crisis or the global financial crisis in capitalism. Bob Diamond was just one apple in a rotten apple cart the whole system is corrupt and systemically bankrupt.

It’s the system of capitalism today which should be under the spot light not Bob Diamond. By focusing on one individual we miss the picture.

As Marxists we don’t just look at one still photo we look at the motion picture of the coming in to being and fading away and the causes behind these changes.

The pressure from other shareholders on Bob Diamond was very telling this had a quantitative change when their share price plummeted on Monday something had to happen to stem this decline. Bob our good friend was the one to be sacrificed. But those liberal types and some very naive characters in our movement think this is it a reason to celebrate. I don’t. I think Bob is the symptom not the cause. Bankers are just one part of this crisis no doubt it was their wreck less gambling which got us into this position but it wouldn’t have been possible without deregulation of the banking sector over decades by Tory and labour governments alike.

An enquire which many bourgeois commentators are calling for even Ed Milibland is calling for one jumping on the popularise opportunist band wagon only a guy like Ed can even Ed can’t miss this open goal to score political points. But his so called enquire would not look too favourably on his labour party either they were in power for many of these deals and over saw the biggest economic crash since the late 20’s.

What we need is a large scale nationalisation of all of the banks. Bringing into full proper public ownership under workers democratic control. With measures to see about compensating those who the banks have faded and paying compensation to investors on basis of need. Which at present looks like very few. Some very rich individuals have made a quick buck out of the financial sector in this country and around the world. It’s time that wealth was in the hands of the many not just the few.

Capitalism is rotten here Bob Diamond too but do not let one man deter us from tackling the bigger beast and removing this corrupt system from our lives and freeing millions of people from the grip of the millionaires.

Who are the real scroungers in society ?

As many of you who know me will know i am registered as blind and have been since 2004. I lost my sight due to a rare genetic disease which attacked the cells at the back of my eyes connected my eyes to my brain the optic nerve in otherwords.
This has left me using a white cane and finding jobs and opportunities hard to come by despite my determination to try and live my life as normally as i possibly can still.
I do claim for Disability Living allowance and feel no shame in doing so. I cannot drive and i cant reach places by walking all the time so a taxi or two or to pay a bus fare is needed. I have never played the system as some of the capitalist media like to put it so kindly.
I do work part time at present mostly down to the fact there is little work around at the moment where i am at and a part time position i feel is better than sitting at home doing nothing. I feel proud that i can contribute in my own little way. Its not much i know i'm basically costing up parts for electrical control panels and quoting for prices. This gives me experience in the work place and a sense of belonging too.

But i do get benifits a working tax credit to top up what i dont earn as my wages are so low and a disability living allowance to aid with me living independently as best i can. Life is tough at times i have no bones about that and dont cheat the system but benifits are there to help people live not to fund a lifestyle which is where the government and the labour party have disabled people all wrong.

Benifit fraud although a tiny 1% of claiments are frauding the system is clearly a serious thing people shouldnt be cheating the system of course but we can all understand why people may be forced into such measures by this system we live under. The increasing desperation of people in todays society may be forced into such hard choices.

But we are always being told by every newspaper and every polititian these days be them tory labour or lib dem that benifit cheaters are more of a problem than anything we have ever faced.

In cash terms, it amounts to around £1bn. Yeah, I know. A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking big money. Even so, it is little more than small change in comparison with the £850bn spent on the bank bailout. That comparison is one that everybody on the left should commit to memory ahead of the debates with the right that inevitably lie ahead.

HAVING MUGGED the public with £83 billion of cuts in public spending (to plug the budget deficit caused by bailing out the failed banking system), millionaire chancellor George Osborne has, hypocritically, rounded on alleged benefit fraudsters, accusing them of 'mugging taxpayers'.

While identifying an estimated £1.5 billion in benefit and tax credit fraud, Osborne failed to mention any measures the government will implement to resolve the estimated £16 billion in means-tested benefits and tax credits that currently goes unclaimed every year.

According to Citizens Advice: "Up to three million households are missing out on an average £13 a week in council tax benefit, while as many as 1.7 million pensioners are missing out on an average of £31 a week in pension credit."

Applying for means-tested benefit is complicated and many are discouraged from claiming.

While speaking out against benefit fraud, Osborne is also silent over the estimated £120 billion that is lost to government income through tax avoidance, evasion or uncollected taxes. Collecting this enormous sum has been made more difficult by the government sacking 25,000 tax workers and closing 200 tax offices. Osborne may also be reticent to pursue these billions as several high profile Tory backers are 'non-dom' tax dodgers.

Prime minister David Cameron recently announced that Experian - a profit-making company - will get a 'bounty' for each person that it identifies as defrauding on benefit payments. Such a system is open to abuse as Experian has a financial incentive to throw accusations at people.




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I am a socialist for the reasons i have previously stated i care about others and want us all to be equal. I dont want the world i just want to live comfortably and not ahve to worry about money and i wish for the same for everybody else too. I joined the socialist party last year for this very reason. Finding like minded people who share my outlook on life and the world is a place i want to be involved in.

I think its always important to present the facts as they are and link them to a personal situation it helps you get your point across better i always find and asking people to look up from their copies of the sun and the mail and open their eyes to the real injustices in the world and to find taht people who have benifits oftn often do not wish to be on them and feel stigmatised for it. But it is something they need to help them live. If there were enough well paid jobs to go around for all we wouldnt have this problem. For those who cant work there should be sufficient things in place for them to be still able to contribute to society in some way or fashion.

This is my idea of a socialist society of the future where society is based on the needs of the many not the profits of a few, what is your future world going to look like ?