Hacks and bankers - two of a kind | Davy Jones Consultancy

Hacks and bankers - two of a kind

Sunday, 10 July, 2011

As the fever pitch rose last week against the NOTW, I was reminded of the anti-banker feeling at the height of the economic crisis three years ago. At that point, it wasn't safe to admit to being a banker. Southwold Pier had a game - Whack a Banker - where you crashed a mallet down on a bankers head as it popped up. Nice.

How things change.....

Yet recent opinion polls now show more British people think the last Labour Government caused the financial crisis than bankers. In other words, things have gone back to "normal". The rich and powerful are keeping us in our place again while they siphon off the world's resources. Bankers have been at least partially rehabilitated and their champagne corks are popping again.

Bear that in mind over the NOTW. The behaviour of their paid hacks and the management who encouraged them was every bit as disgusting, corrupt, ruthless (and incompetent) as their friends in the banking fraternity. Yet the danger is that in a few years everything will have returned to "normal" again. The megalomaniac media magnates will be running things again - corrupting police, scapegoating the weak and the vulnerable, and telling us there is no alternative to their status quo.

Seize the chance

Every now and then, something happens to expose the stark reality of how the rich and powerful govern the rest of us through a trail of greed, immorality, criminality and incompetence - the banking collapse and the NOTW scandal being the two latest. Briefly, there is genuine disgust and anger at their behaviour and a demand that "something should be done" to punish those responsible and to ensure that it never happens again. Promises are made by those in power to make changes but somehow they get delayed, time moves on and somehow we are back to "normal" again. If the nettle isn't grasped to make fundamental change at the height of these waves of anger, it is too late and nothing changes. The failure to tackle the banking world should be a lesson to us now on the NOTW.

Radical solutions are needed to tackle the shocking state of the media too. Let's spread the inquiry into the NOTW to the other Murdoch titles, especially the Sun. Murdoch's bid for BSkyB obviously should be blocked but his existing empire needs to be broken up too. We need an independent media watchdog with statutory powers to defend press freedom from the powerful media moguls. We need mechanisms to encourage and facilitate the development of new independent media.

Back to "normal"?

Each time we fail to take the opportunity to tackle the excesses of the rich and powerful, things go back to "normal". And the rest of the population get even more cynical and feel more powerless to do anything about it. And that suits the hacks and bankers just fine.

Add new comment

Submitted by Thom (not verified) on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 16:32.

Davy,

Great piece as usual. Would like to take you up on something though. I would agree that regarding the banking crisis, things have returned to normal. However, citing a poll that a majority places blame on the government and not the banking industry is a sign that people have woken up to the true problem, they haven't shied away from it, as you seem to be suggesting (definitely correct me if I'm wrong)? Under the Labour Government (and under Clinton and Bush in the US) banking was deregulated to the point that allowed such systemic problems to be created-Brown continually trooped off to the City, and told them they were the people that drove our economy, and whatever they wanted in terms of relaxed regulations they could have...and why not, the Exchequer was getting unheard of tax receipts as a result?
So, I would argue strongly that people are right to blame Government and blaming 'bankers' misses the point entirely-that is to confuse cause and effect slightly.
Anyhows, keep up the blogs, always a good read!
T

Submitted by GE (not verified) on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 17:35.

It seems to me Labour deregulated the banks because they'd bought into a shared ideology that was maintained by just about all the media - but especially the Murdoch franchise. Without a clear commitment to being 'relaxed about' and friendly with both elite groups, they would never have been elected!

Hapless Gordon never faced an election and this was an affront not only to his natural supporters but also to the Murdoch empire which had become accustomed to making these appointments! (Wasn't it a Sky mike that was accidentally left switched on to create Bigotgate?)

And in another strange turn of events, a BBC Newsnight editor is invoking Chomsky to explain it all!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14093772

Submitted by Solihin Garrard (not verified) on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 07:43.

Yes, agree with you Davy that the Sun should have the light of enquiry shone on it, especially if the (hush, hush) idea is that it also comes out on Sunday (lots of light and "sun" around there). But what position do the Times & Sunday Times find themselves in when commenting on the NOTW etc.? Is it for this that we "shouldn't believe all we read in the papers"? A free press - what does that mean now? And interesting perhaps to see how Sky continues to report all this...

Submitted by Colin Miller (not verified) on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 09:56.

Hi Davy
Thanks for this. you are right, people have very short memories, and in a month or two it may seem like nothing has happened, except, perhaps, Murdoch will have been stopped in his tracks re the BSkyB takeover. These people have done so much harm to our democracy, what sort of country do we live in when the then prime minister (Blair) feels it necessary to phone Rupert Murdoch to get his 'permission' to invade Iraq (yesterdays Observer). Thank goodness for the Guardian, Observer, Independent and the BBC, without them there would be no story and our democracy would have been further damaged. Now to the banks, I must hand it to this government, they may be terminally incompetent in most things, but they have done an amazing job shifting the blame from the banks to the last labour government, pretty slick I say. I'm reading a fantastic book at the moment by John Lanchester called 'Whoops! why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay', it explains how the stuff about derivatives, hedge funds and all the rest works (or rather does not work) in a way even I can understand. The book is stuffed with mind boggling facts, here are just two examples, It was estimated that the scale of risks held within the International Swaps and Derivative market was $54 trillion, which is close to the total GDP of the entire planet!!! Now lets bring this down to people, in Baltimore alone, it is estimated that over 30,000 people lost their homes due to foreclosures because of the financial crises, and this figure is replicated throughout the USA in every city thousands have been made homeless. Clearly the fault of the Labour Government in my view.

Submitted by Davy Jones (not verified) on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 11:11.

Thanks for the interesting comments everyone.

And of course I agree that Labour has a lot to be ashamed of when it comes to bankers. Peter Mandelson's famous being "entirely relaxed at the filthy rich" being perhaps the most obvious.

But the point about the last two years is that the main media and the ConDem coalition have specifically attempted to shift any blame away from the banks/bankers/economic system in general and onto the last Labour Government exclusively. This is absurd. Labour can be blamed for indulging the banks, and consciously propping their ridiculous practises but ultimately it was the banks that brought the economy down not Gordon Brown. Colin's comments on the wonderful book Whoops are pertinent. Read also Nicholas Shaxson's Treasure Islands about tax havens.

Submitted by Sue (not verified) on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 16:07.

Peter Vardy has written some interesting books on the nature of evil. One of his better comments has been that when we no longer notice or accept that evil and evildoing are part of our "normal" lives, when acceptance of exploitation, corruption and criminality remain unquestioned, these are the truly dangerous acts of our race.