Revealed: The £93m City lobby machine (excerpt): The British financial services industry spent more than £92m last year lobbying politicians and regulators in an ‘economic war of attrition’ that has secured a string of policy victories. As the industry prepares to fight off renewed calls for root-and-branch reform in response to the Barclays rate-fixing scandal, an investigation by the Bureau has revealed the firepower of the City’s lobbying machine, prompting concern that its scale and influence puts the interests of the wider economy in the shade. The Bureau’s four-month study also gained previously undisclosed documents that show how finance lobbyists won a host of important policy changes in Whitehall and Westminster. These include: • The slashing of UK corporation tax and taxes on banks’ overseas branches, after a lobbying barrage by the City of London Corporation, the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and the Association of British Insurers. The reform will save the finance industry billions. • The neutering of a national not-for-profit pension scheme launching in October that was supposed to benefit millions of low paid and temporary workers. • The killing of government plans for a new corporate super-watchdog to police quoted companies. I do worry that Britain’s financial sector, particularly the banks, is too dominant and is too easily assumed to represent the national interest.’ Vince Cable, business secretary An extensive trawl of registries, consultations and hundreds of interviews has identified 129 organisations engaging in some form of lobbying for the finance sector, with over 800 people employed directly and at a cost of £92.8m. Lobbyists include in-house bank staff, public affairs consultancies, industry body representatives, law firms and management consultants.

Revealed: The £93m City lobby machine (excerpt):

The British financial services industry spent more than £92m last year lobbying politicians and regulators in an ‘economic war of attrition’ that has secured a string of policy victories.

As the industry prepares to fight off renewed calls for root-and-branch reform in response to the Barclays rate-fixing scandal, an investigation by the Bureau has revealed the firepower of the City’s lobbying machine, prompting concern that its scale and influence puts the interests of the wider economy in the shade.

The Bureau’s four-month study also gained previously undisclosed documents that show how finance lobbyists won a host of important policy changes in Whitehall and Westminster. These include:

• The slashing of UK corporation tax and taxes on banks’ overseas branches, after a lobbying barrage by the City of London Corporation, the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and the Association of British Insurers. The reform will save the finance industry billions.

• The neutering of a national not-for-profit pension scheme launching in October that was supposed to benefit millions of low paid and temporary workers.

• The killing of government plans for a new corporate super-watchdog to police quoted companies.

I do worry that Britain’s financial sector, particularly the banks, is too dominant and is too easily assumed to represent the national interest.’

Vince Cable, business secretary

An extensive trawl of registries, consultations and hundreds of interviews has identified 129 organisations engaging in some form of lobbying for the finance sector, with over 800 people employed directly and at a cost of £92.8m. Lobbyists include in-house bank staff, public affairs consultancies, industry body representatives, law firms and management consultants.

Financial Sector Lagging in Transparency (Bureau of Investigative Journalism) In addition, only five of the 24 financial institutions looked at reported that they prohibit facilitation payments – payments to a foreign official to facilitate transactions. The line behind payments and bribery is blurry and any kind of facilitation payment is banned in the UK under the Bribery Act. Amongst the 24 financial institutions assessed by the NGO is UK bank Barclays. The bank, which scored 4.0 overall, has recently been at the centre of the Libor rate-fixing scandal. They are ranked 71st out of the 105 companies. Chair of Transparency International, Huguette Labelle linked the findings of the report to the current economic downturn. ”As the world continues to recover from the deep economic pain of 2008, the leadership at more companies must commit to stopping corruption’, he said in a press release. Speaking of Barclays: Barclays has been fined more than $450 million for its part in manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, the interest rate that underpins transactions worth hundreds of trillions of dollars… Barclays is among more than a dozen global banks under investigation by authorities in North America, Europe and Japan and the only one so far to admit wrongdoing.

Financial Sector Lagging in Transparency (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

In addition, only five of the 24 financial institutions looked at reported that they prohibit facilitation payments – payments to a foreign official to facilitate transactions. The line behind payments and bribery is blurry and any kind of facilitation payment is banned in the UK under the Bribery Act.

Amongst the 24 financial institutions assessed by the NGO is UK bank Barclays. The bank, which scored 4.0 overall, has recently been at the centre of the Libor rate-fixing scandal. They are ranked 71st out of the 105 companies.

Chair of Transparency International, Huguette Labelle linked the findings of the report to the current economic downturn. ”As the world continues to recover from the deep economic pain of 2008, the leadership at more companies must commit to stopping corruption’, he said in a press release.

Speaking of Barclays:

Barclays has been fined more than $450 million for its part in manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, the interest rate that underpins transactions worth hundreds of trillions of dollars…

Barclays is among more than a dozen global banks under investigation by authorities in North America, Europe and Japan and the only one so far to admit wrongdoing.

In Sum: shit’s gettin realer by the day y’all

The most important fact in Roger’s arrest, trial and imprisonment is that nobody knows the detail of what happened to him. What were the names and numbers of the police officers? What was the Court? What was the number of the case? Who was the Magistrate or Judge? Were any public present to see justice being done?

Roger was arrested at home and 9 hours later he was in prison, on the decision of one Magistrate. This must be yet another very dangerous example of the rise of the ‘secret’ courts and ‘secret justice’ - Kenneth Clarke MP is still pushing for yet more Courts without Juries.

Calls to the police and Liverpool prison where he is being held, have all been met with a wall of silence under the ‘we can’t say’ and ‘data protection’. We can see from this how yet more secrecy is introduced to keep the public interest at bay.

It is understood that the police have received many calls - one member of the public had the phone slammed down on him when he mentioned Roger’s name.

Roger’s family have also been refused direct information and access to him. They have now started the paperwork trail for formal permission to visit.

I haven’t been keeping track, but here in the US you can be federally disappeared (federal court injunction notwithstanding) and/or murdered at will ‘legally’ thanks to the Obama administration…I wonder how the ‘legal’ evaporation of rights compares across the pond.

This is important: DemocracyNow.org - A major force pushing for ex-IMF and Bankia chief Rodrigo Rato’s prosecution has been the May 15 Movement, or M15, known around the world as the “indignados.”

See also: Sarkozy Raided

Sarkozy, 57, who has taken a low profile since his defeat, could come under the spotlight in a number of legal cases now that he is no longer head of state. He could also become a focus of the separate investigation into whether or not there was a shady “cabinet noir” at the highest reaches of the French government which used the secret services to spy on journalists at Le Monde to uncover their sources for stories about the Bettencourt affair. A security chief and Sarkozy ally has been placed under investigation in the alleged political spying scandal. Sarkozy has denied any links to the case. (h/t mbalmed)

global revolution à la anonymous 

i disagree with one thing here- love and compassion have to be the affective motor for a true global revolution, this entails forgiveness at a level that is not abstract

global healing is possible when we take seriously the social, physiological and psychological nature of humans. no system of human arrangements can stave off the suffering that comes from corruption-  only sincere, individual commitment to love and compassion projected collectively can maintain truly egalitarian norms necessary for human survival and human flourishing