UK Government and Lack of Responsibility

I see that across the water from us, in Ireland, politicians have come to realise that there is an economic crisis on the go. Usually, on St Patrick’s Day, March 17^th, around  30 of the Irish Government cabinet ministers take a trip to various overseas countries, supposedly to showcase Ireland abroad, but which are really “junkets”  for those lucky enough to be involved. Reason has prevailed this year, however, and only 17 are taking flights to foreign parts. For the past few years, Ireland has been nicknamed “The Celtic Tiger”, and rightly so, because of its vibrant economy. It is refreshing to see that they are taking note of the present downturn, and listening to ordinary people’s concerns.

During some of those years, Britain had a Chancellor who told the people that everything in the proverbial garden was lovely, that Britain was going through a golden patch, and that we could spend as much as we wanted to, by borrowing as much as we wanted to. During that time, when there were a couple of years that the economy did reasonably well, he failed to put by reserves that would be available later to cushion the ensuing low times. He got rid of our gold and our money, and now that he’s Prime Minister, amnesia seems to have set in, and he proclaims that he had nothing to do with it.

Amnesia doesn’t seem to be the only problem with Lord Myners, who was appointed Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury in October 2008. He has been in trouble ever since then, being the person blamed for sanctioning Sir Fred Goodwin’s £693,000 pension. He still insists that he had not been told how much the former Royal Bank of Scotland was to be paid, although he knew that it would be a “large sum”. Surely it was part of his job to find out what the exact figures and conditions were. No – it seems that others should have made those enquiries, and informed him. He has made a habit throughout his life of becoming directors with various bodies, ten as far as I can gather, as well as being a trustee or chairman of others. In fact, he was Chairman of the Trustees of the Tate Gallery when two Turner paintings were stolen. Those were recovered, but it’s thought that a secret sum of close to £3,000,000 was splashed out for their return. Seemingly, Lord Myners expressed his surprise, as he assumed that the gallery got them back for free. Doesn’t anyone tell the poor Lord anything?

Those are only a couple of examples of people at the top of the tree in our country, and it would take up too much of my time to cover a host of other instances that seem to crop up on a daily basis. This habit of passing the buck seems to be ensconced in the corridors of power everywhere in Britain nowadays, and things certainly won’t improve until folk begin to accept responsibility for their actions.