I Love It: London Rioters Get Jail But Bob Diamond of Barclays Keeps His Job

This opinion piece in the guardian makes the point - a man got six months jail for stealing bottles of water in the London riots, where as who is facing criminal charges and jail after the giant Libor/Barclays bank rigging scandal? And what about all the other major banks who are involved?

It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds and who actually, if anyone, ends up in jail. But it does hark back to the days when you could be wealthy in England and get away with murder, but be poor and steal a piece of bread and you're sent on a perilous journey to Australia.. you know.. back in the 1700's.

Addendum: Diamond has finally fallen on his sword  - though he was apparently pushed rather than willingly jumped.. I'm sure it was this post which tipped him over the edge ;) I wonder how many more heads will roll?

Jubilee Critique

I don't know how you spent the jubilee celebrations, but I mostly hid inside from the unpleasant yet characteristically British weather. I tuned in a little to the BBC's not-so-shining commentary of the river pageant but that's about it. Maybe with some sunshine I would have been more enthusiastic and visited the jubilee stalls at a nearby village which promised cakes and other goodies.

I did however indulge and absorb myself in some of the coverage and was surprised to find very little that was critical of the celebrations and the cost involved at a time when some of my hard working neighbours are struggling to find a job or pay the mortgage.

So it was with interest that I read this criticism here in the Guardian by Tanya Gold who is very unimpressed with the unquestioning celebrations that we've seen over the last week.

Her opinion piece titled "The Queen's jubilee was a celebration of pure fantasy", argues the monarchy is doing us no favours in these gut-wrenching economic times.

Here's Nick Clegg's Turn

His reaction to the Lib Dems massacre in the UK local elections...

UK Meritocracy? I'm not so sure...

This is a real corker! American writer Gary Younge making a few well-aimed points in The Guardian about the UK's class system.

He argues it must be tough to be someone with inherited wealth telling poor people to 'buck up' in tough economic times...

I took one thing away from it -- I would LOVE a starting salary of 90,000 pounds! Where do I sign up?