Basil Venitis, twitter.com/Venitis, points out there is a golden British revolving door for the movement of Anglokleptocrats between roles as legislators and regulators and the industries affected by the legislation and regulation and pullpeddlers. An unhealthy relationship develops between the private sector and British government, based on the granting of reciprocated privileges to the detriment of Britons, leading to British regulatory capture.
Venitis points out Tony Blair gets ten million euros every year from JPMorgan, just to pullpeddle its Greek-American president Jamie Dimon out of Greek jails for churning the nest eggs of poor Greek workers! His former ministers are not far behind. Steven Byers, a former transport minister, described himself as a cab-for-hire as he asked for 5,000 pounds(5,500 euros, $7,500) each day in exchange for using his influence with the government. Geoff Hoon, formerly defense minister, and Patrician Hewitt, formerly health minister, asked for 3,000 pounds each day.
Venitis notes the U.K. defense giant BAE Systems paid four billion euros in kickbacks to Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia for an eighty billion euros British-Saudi arms deal. The British government abruptly ended its Serious Fraud Office inquiry into BAE. The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office has reportedly accused BAE of bribery in six countries, which should be enough to prompt an inquiry into whether BAE is in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law banning companies that pay bribes.
Cabinet minister David Laws has stepped down from his high-ranking position in Britain's financial ministry after only 18 day in office, following revelations he had claimed more than 40,000 pounds(47,100 euros, $57,800) of taxpayers' money in expenses to pay rent to his gay partner. Laws was deputy to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, has announced an unprecedented drive towards transparency in government. Maude points out HRH PM David Cameron, descendant of King William IV, leader of Tories, wants to harness the wisdom, the common sense and ingenuity of the British people.
Cameron has asked all his ministers to start work on meeting new standards for transparency. Tight deadlines are being set on publishing information that has never been in the public domain before. This drive for transparency is at the heart of what this government is about. It's about cutting waste, improving public services and making them more accountable. It's about a shift of power from the state and a fundamental trust in the ability of people to work together to transform our society.
Key proposals include:
* Items of local government expenditure over £500
* Details of all government contracts over £10,000
* Items of central government expenditure over £25,000
* Names and salaries of all civil servants earning more than £150,000 per year
* Data covering the last three months on the number of cases of MRSA and C.Difficile infection in each hospital
* Data on crime in each street
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