Daily Archives: 9 November 2013

MPs summon bankers to explain their valuations of Royal Mail

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http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/08/mps-bankers-valuations-royal-mail-sale-taxpayers

MPs investigate whether the £3.3bn sale of shares in the Royal Mail shortchanged taxpayers

Image of Royal Mail postbox
MPs investigating whether last month’s £3.3bn sale of shares in the Royal Mail shortchanged taxpayers have summoned City bankers to explain how they put a price on the near 500-year-old firm.

The Royal Mail share price has soared some 70% since 11 October when the government sold a majority stake in the postal service, prompting criticism from unions and opposition MPs that the firm was sold off too cheaply.

It was revealed after the float that four investment banks – JP Morgan, Panmure Gordon, Deutsche and Citi – believed the Royal Mail was worth far more than the price achieved. Representatives of those banks will now have to explain their valuations to the Business Innovation and Skills committee.

Goldman Sachs and UBS, which led the float on behalf of the government, will have to justify their lower valuation. Business secretary Vince Cable and a representative from Lazards will also be questioned. Hearings have been scheduled for 20 and 27 November.

At the time of their appointment a BIS spokesman said UBS and Goldmans had been selected for the sell-off work because of their past experience advising the government on Royal Mail.
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How the Orange Bookers took over the Lib Dems

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What Britain now has is a blue-orange coalition, with the little-known Orange Book forming the core of current Lib Dem political thinking. To understand how this disreputable arrangement has come about, we need to examine the philosophy laid out in The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism, edited by David Laws (now the Chief Secretary to the Treasury) and Paul Marshall. Particularly interesting are the contributions of the Lib Dems’ present leadership.

Published in 2004, the Orange Book marked the start of the slow decline of progressive values in the Lib Dems and the gradual abandonment of social market values. It also provided the ideological standpoint around which the party’s right wing was able to coalesce and begin their march to power in the Lib Dems. What is remarkable is the failure of former SDP and Labour elements to sound warning bells about the direction the party was taking. Former Labour ministers such as Shirley Williams and Tom McNally should be ashamed of their inaction.

Clegg and his Lib Dem supporters have much in common with David Cameron and his allies in their philosophical approach and with their social liberal solutions to society’s perceived ills. The Orange Book is predicated on an abiding belief in the free market’s ability to address issues such as public healthcare, pensions, environment, globalisation, social and agricultural policy, local government and prisons.

The Lib Dem leadership seems to sit very easily in the Tory-led coalition. This is an arranged marriage between partners of a similar background and belief. Even the Tory-Whig coalition of early 1780s, although its members were from the same class, at least had fundamental political differences. Now we see a Government made up of a single elite that has previously manifested itself as two separate political parties and which is divided more by subtle shades of opinion than any profound ideological difference.
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Continue ReadingMPs summon bankers to explain their valuations of Royal Mail

Conservative pretend-Liberal Democrat achievements

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/unthinkable-editorial-legislative-cooling-off-nick-clegg?commentpage=1&per_page=50&orderby=oldest&tab=all#comment-28705937

cleggoccio[T]he Lib Dems did not just “join” the tories, they enabled an economically extreme rightwing administration to assume power and achieve objectives that even the previously most extreme version of rightwingedness would never have even tried. As a consequence:


# over one fifth of the NHS is run for profit (but without (say) a Virgin Health or Circle logo, but under the re-assuring NHS banner so we do not notice or worry;

# Royal Mail shares have been sold cheap to enable and ensure that they are quickly sold-on to the venture and vulture capitalists who (at the last count) recovered over a 500% ROCE from buying and destroying the Dutch equivalent;

# Over £20bn of “other” state services have been handed over to for-profit operations, with over £15bn more planned over the next 12 months;

# 500,000 fellow citizens depend on food-banks for at least three days in every month.

# One million children have since May 2010 entered poverty “the scar that demeans Great Britain”.

# 83% of English NHS hospitals report “critically inadequate” levels of Consultant cover.

None of this would have happened had the Lib Dems more conscience and honesty than a lust for power and chauffeured cars.

How the Orange Bookers took over the Lib Dems

…
What Britain now has is a blue-orange coalition, with the little-known Orange Book forming the core of current Lib Dem political thinking. To understand how this disreputable arrangement has come about, we need to examine the philosophy laid out in The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism, edited by David Laws (now the Chief Secretary to the Treasury) and Paul Marshall. Particularly interesting are the contributions of the Lib Dems’ present leadership.

Published in 2004, the Orange Book marked the start of the slow decline of progressive values in the Lib Dems and the gradual abandonment of social market values. It also provided the ideological standpoint around which the party’s right wing was able to coalesce and begin their march to power in the Lib Dems. What is remarkable is the failure of former SDP and Labour elements to sound warning bells about the direction the party was taking. Former Labour ministers such as Shirley Williams and Tom McNally should be ashamed of their inaction.

Clegg and his Lib Dem supporters have much in common with David Cameron and his allies in their philosophical approach and with their social liberal solutions to society’s perceived ills. The Orange Book is predicated on an abiding belief in the free market’s ability to address issues such as public healthcare, pensions, environment, globalisation, social and agricultural policy, local government and prisons.

The Lib Dem leadership seems to sit very easily in the Tory-led coalition. This is an arranged marriage between partners of a similar background and belief. Even the Tory-Whig coalition of early 1780s, although its members were from the same class, at least had fundamental political differences. Now we see a Government made up of a single elite that has previously manifested itself as two separate political parties and which is divided more by subtle shades of opinion than any profound ideological difference.
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Continue ReadingConservative pretend-Liberal Democrat achievements

Guardian editor to face MPs over Snowden intelligence leaks

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24876725

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger is to be questioned by MPs over the newspaper’s publication of leaks by ex-US security contractor Edward Snowden.

Mr Rusbridger will give evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee next month, a Guardian spokesman confirmed.

The Guardian has published information about how British and US spy agencies monitor communications.

The decision to publish the leaks was criticised by the leaders of UK security services on Thursday.

Documents leaked to the Guardian newspaper by Mr Snowden – who is currently in Moscow where he has sought asylum – revealed that agencies are able to tap into the internet communications of millions of ordinary citizens through GCHQ’s Tempora programme.

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New Asbo plans are assault on basic freedom, says former DPP Lord Macdonald

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10437127/New-Asbo-plans-are-assault-on-basic-freedom-says-former-DPP-Lord-Macdonald.html

Plans to replace Asbos with wide ranging new orders clamping down on anything likely to cause “annoyance” amount to “gross state interference” with basic freedoms, Lord Macdonald warns

Image of a preacherman

Christian preachers, buskers and peaceful protesters could effectively be driven off the streets under draconian new powers designed to clamp on anyone deemed “annoying”, according to a former Director of Public Prosecutions.

Lord Macdonald QC said Theresa May, the Home Secretary’s plans for a new civil injunctions to replace Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) amount to “gross state interference” with people’s private lives and basic freedoms.

In a formal legal opinion being circulated to peers, he savages the proposals as opening the way for the outright “suppression” of anything deemed “potentially annoying” with only “vague” justification.

The proposed safeguards to prevent abuse of the new system are “shockingly” weak, he writes.

Under proposals currently before Parliament, Asbos are to be scrapped and replaced with wide-ranging new orders known as Ipnas (Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance).

They are designed to be easier to obtain, require a lower evidential threshod and yet cover a wider range of behaviour.

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Revealed: How Big Six energy firms conceal their profits

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/revealed-how-big-six-energy-firms-conceal-their-profits-8930039.html

Market experts express concern that giants are not being fully candid about profit margins they require to fund investments in bid to deflect growing public anger

Image of an electricity pylon tree

The Big Six energy firms have been accused of misleading consumers about the reasons for their sky-high bills by glossing over the large mark-ups they charge for the electricity they generate.

In interviews with The Independent, several market experts expressed concern that the energy giants are not being fully candid about the profit margins they require to fund investments, in a bid to deflect growing public anger.

Defending the latest round of price hikes last week, the industry’s figurehead, Angela Knight, said suppliers worked on margins of just 5 per cent which were justified to pay for “extremely large” investments necessary in their businesses.

But Caroline Flint, Labour’s shadow Energy Secretary, has accused the companies of a lack of transparency, and of diverting attention from the much higher margins they make from their electricity generation arms. “It’s misleading for energy companies to pretend their profit margins are only 5 per cent when that only refers to their profits on supplying energy,” she said.

“Their profits on generating energy are much more substantial and are often close to 20 per cent. If energy companies want to rebuild trust in this market, as a first step they have to start being straight with people about exactly how much money they’re making.”

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27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

Continue ReadingRevealed: How Big Six energy firms conceal their profits