Hardly a day now seems to go by without some scandal or
resignation rocking the British Establishment. The BBC is presently engulfed in
a major scandal involving the Savile paedophile cover-up and the blunder over
the erroneous exposure of an alleged Chief Tory child abuser, apparently based
upon uncorroborated evidence now revealed to have been a case of mistaken
identity.
The
head of the BBC, Mr Entwistle, and others have resigned. But this is only the
tip of the iceberg. A whole series of scandals have emerged exposing the
rottenness of the British Establishment, its lies and its cover-ups.
Hardly a day now seems to go by without some scandal or
resignation rocking the British Establishment. The BBC is presently engulfed in
a major scandal involving the Savile paedophile cover-up and the blunder over
the erroneous exposure of an alleged Chief Tory child abuser, apparently based
upon uncorroborated evidence now revealed to have been a case of mistaken
identity.
The
head of the BBC, Mr Entwistle, and others have resigned. But this is only the
tip of the iceberg. A whole series of scandals have emerged exposing the
rottenness of the British Establishment, its lies and its cover-ups.
First
we had the MPs’ expenses scandal, which showed that many of our top
politicians, including those in the unelected House of Lords, and who were
intent on cutting benefits for the most disadvantaged of society, were caught
stuffing their pockets. Then we had the illegal phone hacking scandal, which
included the hacking into phone messages of a dead girl, a practise promoted by
newspaper tycoons, starting with Murdoch. Metropolitan police chiefs, linked to
the newspapers, were paid handsomely for their services.
Politicians,
including Prime Ministers, had until then been fawning over the newspaper barons.
Andy Coulson, a former Murdoch editor, was employed by David Cameron as his
Number 10 press officer. Cameron was also close friends with Rebekah Brooks, the
top boss of New International, and ex-editor of the Sun/News of the
World,
as well as her husband and old Etonian pal, Charlie Brooks, with whom he regularly wined,
dined, and went horse riding. This again showed the intimate social and class
ties between different wings of the Establishment in Britain, the real
powers-that-be.
Then
we had the horrendous Hillsborough scandal, where police chiefs tampered with
evidence so as to make it appear that unruly Liverpool fans were to blame for
the Hillsborough tragedy. This went as far as taking blood samples of children
to “prove” they were under the influence of alcohol. This was followed by the
scandal over Orgreave, where during the miners’ strike police chiefs again
deliberately told lies, manufactured “evidence” and framed striking miners on a
whole series of serious criminal charges. This whole business was conducted
under the instigation and protection of the Conservative government of Margaret
Thatcher.
Further
to all this, it has now come to light that Sir Jimmy Savile [disc jockey and TV
show presenter who died in October of last year] had abused children and
sexually molested many young women for decades, despite complaints to the
police. This scandal has revealed what amounts to a systematic and massive
cover-up of this abuse by the authorities. It was clear that top people
connected with Savile would have been exposed if a proper investigation had
been held at the time. That probably explains why several police forces,
including Surrey, Sussex and Jersey, who were made aware at the time of the
allegations involving Savile, chose not to pursue matters.
Savile
had been allowed free access to special residential schools established in
Rochdale and elsewhere, where his systematic abuse of young girls took place.
He also abused children on BBC property, which must have been known but was
hushed up. Other celebrities are now being suspected of having been involved
along with Savile in the abuse, such as Gary Glitter, who was arrested and
released on bail pending further investigations. But these were not the only
ones involved. It has now been alleged that leading politicians were involved
in this paedophile ring and even that members of the Royal Family may have been
party to this in some way. It has been openly speculated on that this
conspiracy goes all the way up to the top, including the Tory party and even Downing
Street.
Jimmy
Savile was in fact part of the Thatcher Establishment, photographed many times
with the former Prime Minister and was indeed knighted for his services. He was
also friends with Prince Charles. He is understood
to have visited Prince Charles’s official London residence several times in the
late 1980s when he was acting as a kind of “marriage counsellor” between
Charles and Princess Diana. A spokesman for the Prince of Wales confirmed the
Prince and Savile formed a relationship in the late 1970s after coming together
through their work with wheelchair sports charities. Charles led tributes to
Savile when he died last year.
Dickie Arbiter, who handled media relations for the Prince and
Princess of Wales while spokesman for the Queen between 1988 and 2000, said the
suspected paedophile TV presenter used to rub his lips up and down the bare
arms of Prince Charles’s young female assistants as a greeting when visiting
the Prince’s office. Apparently, Arbiter did not raise his concerns formally and
there is no suggestion as yet that Savile committed any crimes while on royal
premises or when he was with Prince Charles on numerous occasions from the
1970s onwards. However, the concern over his behaviour expressed by a senior
aide will raise questions over how Savile, who is now under investigation in
relation to child abuse involving 300 potential victims, managed to develop
such a long-standing relationship with the heir to the throne. Arbiter
struggled to understand why Savile was granted such access to the Royal Family.
That is a question many will be asking.
Prince Charles met Savile on numerous occasions. In 1999 he
accepted an invitation to a private meal at Savile’s Glencoe home which has now been daubed with graffiti reading "Jimmy the beast".
Savile, it is said, asked three local women to dress up in pinafores emblazoned
with the letters HRH and Charles subsequently sent the television presenter a
Christmas card with the note: "Jimmy, with affectionate greetings from
Charles. Give my love to your ladies in Scotland." Charles reportedly also
sent him a box of cigars and a pair of gold cufflinks on his 80th birthday with
a note that read: "Nobody will ever know what you have done for this
country Jimmy. This is to go some way in thanking you for that.”
Presently,
there are at least eight investigations going on into the Savile affair, on top
of the new enquiries announced as each new scandal emerges. The BBC has now
been embroiled further. Not only was abuse undertaken on BBC premises, which
must have been known to some at least, but the Savile investigation documentary
which was to be shown by Newsnight was axed, while a favourable film about
Savile’s life achievements was broadcast. Now the BBC director-general has been
forced to resign after the broadcasting of apparent false allegations of abuse
by a named-leading Tory.
Recently
systematic and widespread abuse has been revealed in children’s homes in North
Wales during the 1970s and 1980s. Children were regularly “sold” to clients to
be abused. Chauffeur-driven cars, owned by rich clients, would collect and take
the boys to a safe place, where the rich people would abuse them. Boys would
even be subject to torture as some were marked as a person’s property with a
Stanley knife. One of the abusers, it has been alleged, was a senior Tory
official, who threatened to have the boys murdered if they talked.
When
these boys eventually went to the police, they were not believed and the
allegations were swept under the carpet. Then, in 2000, an investigation by Sir
Ronald Waterhouse QC into abuse in North Wales children’s homes found that 240
children had been abused in 40 homes. And yet, although 200 were involved in
the abuse, the identities of 28 people were protected, which included two top
Tories, and only a handful were ever charged. Although the identity of the
senior Tory remains a mystery, since the BBC managed, it appears, to have
leaked the wrong name (itself an indication that they lack proper journalistic
input), the fact that the rich and powerful were involved in some way remains
an open question.
The
media is full of interviews about the crisis at the BBC and the need to
re-establish its “credibility” and “independence”. The BBC has always
cultivated an image of itself as being impartial and objective, but the truth
is that it has always been the mouthpiece of the British Establishment. It has
never been independent ever since it was established, despite the attempt to
maintain the fiction of independence. The head of the BBC Trust is Lord Patten,
a former chairman of the Tory Party, hardly an “independent”. Even the former
chairman of the BBC, Gavyn Davies, who resigned after the Hutton Report, said:
“I don’t think they (the government) are interfering in this particular
instance. They often do.” (our emphasis, Financial Times, 12/11/12) This clearly
gave the game way as to the real “independence” of the BBC.
These
scandals have now opened the lid on a cesspit. They expose the rottenness at
the top of British society. Like a stinking fish, the head starts to rot first.
These Establishment figures – whether they be top Tory politicians, media
barons, celebrities, or police chiefs – have all behaved as if they were
untouchable and free to do as they please.
They
are a reflection of the much deeper malaise affecting society at all levels.
Capitalism is in an impasse. During the boom years, epitomised by banking and
property speculation, a whole class of degenerate parasites came to the fore.
They felt as if they owned the world and they could do as they pleased with it.
They were “masters of the universe”, an untouchable elite, who despised the
rest of society. They were a product of Thatcherism and the marketplace, where
everything had a price, including morality. This was the dog-eat-dog society of
free market capitalism, where finance capital was king. The rich got richer at
everyone else’s expense, not by producing things that people need, but simply
by making money from money.
The
more successful these creatures became the more outrageous their behaviour.
There was no morality except to get rich. This class of decadent entrepreneurs
now rules the British Establishment. The Coalition government of millionaires
is their government, a government that is attempting to make the working class
pay for the crisis of capitalism, and where the weakest sections of society
face the brunt of the cuts.
British
society is in a blind alley. A malaise is affecting everything. Even our town
centres and high streets are in decline, with more and more shops being boarded
up, or taken over by pawn shops, pound shops, charity shops, and legalised loan
sharks. Soup kitchens and food banks have returned. A sign of these sick times
is graphically revealed when the new sponsor of Newcastle United football team
is Wonga, the internet based high-interest money lender! It is a tragedy that
in an area with a high degree of poverty, this sponsor of working class sport
is dedicated to sucking the blood of the region’s poor.
While
these scandals expose the rottenness at the top of society, the ruling class is
attempting to impose Dickensian conditions in Britain. They come at a time when
more than 500,000 disabled people are facing massive cuts to their benefits.
According
to charities led by Disability Rights UK, children will go hungry with the
introduction of Universal Credit. Around 100,000 disabled children stand to
lose up to £2 a week. Another 230,000 severely disabled adults who live alone
will lose up to £58 a week. And up to 116,000 disabled people in work could
lose £40 a week in additional support.
One
in ten told reporters they would not be able to stay in their own homes and
faced eviction, while two-thirds said they would have to cut back on food and
more than half said they would have to go into debt.
In
addition, a report from the Resolution Foundation found nearly 1.2 million
low-paid and part-time workers would lose out under Universal Credit unless
they found longer hours, an extra job or a pay rise.
The
reductions in housing benefit means that people will be faced with eviction,
especially in London. In fact, London boroughs are presently looking at ways to
unload their homeless families onto other authorities when benefit caps are
introduced next April. At least 17 have already started sending people out of
London.
The
government’s reassessment of those on incapacity benefit by the private company
Atos has resulted in one-third being disqualified. Their benefits will be
stopped and they will be forced to “seek work”. People who have since died from
cancer were told they were fit for work. This is how bad things are for the
workers and poor.
As
billions of pounds are cut from the welfare budget, millions will face hardship
and even hunger, as people lose the means of feeding themselves or their
children. This is the real face of capitalism in this new Millennium. It means
a return to Victorian conditions for large sections of the most vulnerable in
society.
Ed
Miliband’s appeal to Disraeli and the “One Nation” is very wide of the mark. We
have never had such a class-ridden society as now. And the recent scandals have
revealed but a small glimpse of the rottenness that engulfs the Establishment.
This glaring contradiction between the real suffering of working people and the
opulence in which the rich live adds to the growing anger within society.
This
shows clearly that the system we live under cannot be reformed. Capitalism can
no longer afford the welfare state or even minimal living standards. It is time
we put an end to this madness and reorganised society on socialist lines where
things can be rationally planned for the benefit of all and not the excesses of
a parasitic few.
