Monday, 8 November 2010

1533 Bullingdon Boys Forever

It has been a good day so far. I have invested in a photo card memory reader as the new "free lap top from AOL Carphone warehouse does not have one and that on my desk top does not work. This cost £20 and is exceptional value for money given the extent of my use with 291062 photos made of my work and outside photo shoots since commencing the project in August 2003. This total also includes traditional photos and slides transferred into digital.. The mini hardware contains its own software and worked immediately.

I had been using my everyday lap top useful for information searches when writing on the desk top but managed to drop it on its side resulting in the DVD CD player and writer not registering and therefore not able to transfer the work to disk. I therefore also acquired an external DVD CD writer which cost more at £40 but has the software to create a secure system so disk cannot be read without the password. I have neglected transferring work to disks for sometime so this is my next work project when all the completed sets have been registered and photographed. It also worked without the special software which I will add another day

I was rereading the inaugural John Beishon open university memorial lecture by Professor Naughton and his comments the extent to which all windows software becomes corrupted through use confirms my own experience. However my problems of recent months have more to do with hardware, This also applies to the digital cam where the problem is the battery charge unit and the Digital TV where the handset is playing up. These are tomorrows tasks.

Reading the memorial lecture gave me a further idea about the construction of my memoirs into a single volume, or first volume and that of the memorial lecture which no one else will give. I am have always been a great believer in DIY. It is a form of living will and ideal should have the music and sound effects and the pictures integrated with the words. Someone else will put it into practice long before I get around to completing my own, if the concept is original. I shall recommend this to Cock a Snook a new friend art group whose concept is to cock a snook at the art establishment, I think.

Although sunny most of the day it was cold so restricted the work of clearing the handing baskets and planting the spring bulbs to half an hour and three of the eight hanging baskets. However this was the extent of physical activity today where I had one slice of toast this morning, a salami and olive salad for lunch with a pear and this evening a full glass of red with four anchovy halves on one slice of toast and a medium portion of stir fry with Italian Pancetta followed by one of Mr Kilpling's small apple pies. I am getting so big I fear I will explode.

This evening also found a replacement long life low electricity usage pointed light bulb at the supermarket for the five bulb chandelier fitment in my downstairs work room. I had made the visit for some tomatoes and grapes and some more sweets to give out at Halloween night.
During the day a story unfolded which follows on from the Tory party miscalculation of not waiting as they said they would of attacking the Prime Minister and his Government for being the cause of the present financial and economic crisis as they said they would. I suspect what unfolded today is the caused of the mistake which I believe had the initiative back to the Government and Labour Party, and which it will be appreciated by regular readers is not the same thing. The party has always distrusted and opposed much of what its Governments have attempted to do. During that first head four year term of Tony Blair when he seemed invincible, something which the next General Election proved, the only damage was caused by discontented party stalwarts and ambitious back benchers giving stuff on Tony's side kicks to the media. The main target was the Prince of Darkness because Tony took his advice which was usually right. It reminds of what Winston Churchill or another well known politician is alleged to have said to a backbencher facing the Labour Party government after their landslide victory in 1945. The newcomer said so that is the enemy to which the reply was given, no, they are your political opponents, your enemies sit around you.

During the summer the Tory front bench spokesperson on finance accepted a week's holiday at the villa of a friend from Oxford days on Corfu. Those who followed by writings on Brideshead will know that the book is about the Aristocratic set based at Christchurch but that reference is made to the Bullingdon Club Hearties who put Antoine Blanche in the river, on more than one occasion. Whereas Brideshead is fiction the Bullingdon Club is not. This is a club restricted to the noble and wealthy by invitation and an application requires attendance by existing members to the rooms of the individual which are then trashed in celebration. Trashing along with drunkenness is a feature of the this club and the annual dinner is when members arrive is specially made full length tail coat and other dress requirements which in 2007 cost £3000. Such is the reputation that private dining rooms have to be booked in secret as restaurateurs grew wary of the club which although paying for subsequent damage nevertheless went as drunken wild as it is possible to get. Comparatively harmless compared to Yank nuclear bomber pilots buzzing the English countryside high on coke in the 1980's or the workers building a nuclear power station in the same area also getting high on snorting stuff brought in with the ladies by criminal gangs to where the itinerants were temporarily resident.

Two former British Kings were Bullingdon men as were former Tory grandee John Profumo the Tory Minister who resigned after lying about his relationship with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice Davison and another Tory Minister and womaniser Alan Clark who boasted of bedding a mother and her two daughters. The present colourful Mayor of London, Boris Johnson along with I am a good family man and Leader of the Tory Party David Cameron, the present Shadow Chancellor Mr George Osborn and the present Tory Party Chief fund raiser, Andrew Feldman who was also staying also staying at Corfu at a neighbouring villa. Osborn and his family stayed at the Villa of Nathaniel Rothschild, of the Rothschild's family who precipitated the current by writing a letter to the Times, although the real perpetrator was Osborn himself who broke his oath to the Bullingdon club, in the sense the is the reported instigator of telling his Westminster colleagues what Peter Mandelson said when relaxing at social functions on the same island where he was the guest of the Russian billionaire at the centre of the scandal and also attend what will become an infamous dinner at a Greek Taverna where he and George said what they thought of British politicians in the presence of their host for the evening, Mr Rothschild.

Other well known members of the Bullingdon club have been David Dimbleby the chairman of Question Time, interviewer and TV personality and Lord Pakenham with whom I had contact in relation to Prison Reform and Cyril Rhodes.

That four former Bullingdon boys are in a powerful position in the Tory party at the present time is a coincidence as may have been that Mr Osborne and Mr Feldman were on Corfu at the same time albeit in separate villas but were obviously in touch.,
And I also need to make it clear that no evidence has been made available that Mr Osborn directly initiated political donations from a foreign national on the luxury boat or anywhere to that the Russian capitalist billionaire (another how did they make so much money so quickly character) make a donation. This is the basis for the Tory leader and those rushing to defend the position saying there is no case to answer in relation to the specific allegation.

But, and I have read the Tory Party statement carefully, the question of the Russian making a donation was discussed at least by Mr Feldman and Mr Rothschild, who is said to make his money through Hedge fund trading to an extent that subsequently it was established it would have been legally possible via a British company which the Russian owns, but the matters was not progressed and there was further discussion with key Tory figures back in London. I assume one of those figures was the Party Leader himself or is he not consulted when interest in making major political donations is being considered. The vehicle for the donations was to have been a fund raiser organised by Mr Rothschild for the Tory party, something he has done before

To understand why what could have been a non story is likely to blow the present Tory leadership out of their commanding lead in the polls is because it harks back to the days which led to the Party being kicked out of office in the first place and it also demonstrates that when faced with a major crisis Mr Cameron, unlike Prime Minister Gordon Brown funked his duty to his Party by not asking Mr Osborn to offer his resignation rather than cause the Party prolonged embarrassment. He and Mr Osborne will not be forgiven by colleagues in the House and their Party members in the country at large, let alone the mischief which will now be made by the Labour Party, political commentators and the media in general. I gather some papers are already saying that Mr Osborn is fighting for his political life to which must be added Mr Cameron. If they do not recognise this they are arrogant fools and certainly no one rational will support them when it comes to the possibility of being in charge of a British Government. It puts them both in the Palin class. Mark my words it will take a miracle for them to be at the helm of the Party at the next General Election. I did say that though about Mr Brown and he got one and now two.

The reason why this has become the scandal it has nothing to do with the Bullingdon Club as such but it has to the nature of Oxford which I have mentioned before and how politics operate at the level of governments in a world economy.

Oxford is about giving young men and women the self confidence to become rulers of the world and feel comfortable in the society of anyone from Kings Queens to hospital cleaners and constituency political party workers and the likes of you and me. It has always been a situation that aristocratic land owners and the wealthiest of business men have funded and mixed with the leading politicians of the day, those in power and those identified as future leaders. Also in this mix has been media moguls and sporting and media international entertainers.

There are social gatherings in London, house parties at country estates over weekends, including hunting and shooting parties and villa and yacht parties in the summer. There is a convention that whatever is said and done at these social gatherings they are confidential and not disclosed to the media for public broadcasting or used in public political debating and campaigning.

Of course this is a convention which everyone breaks to a degree, Husbands and wives pass on what happens to each and to their closest friends and the information sometimes finds its way into the media often via an enemy within ones own party political circle. But there is an acceptable way how this done and the seriousness of the present situation is that one of those involved writes a letter to the Times, traditionally a way to bring down people and governments. One wonders for how long the story and letter was held before publication and did the convention of passing the contents to Mr Osborn Mr Cameron and the Tory central office beforehand take place. Obviously the Time s and its lawyers will have done their homework and become prepared for the onslaught on Mr Rothschild who one media outlet is already saying is the black sheep of the Rothschild family.

The official response is to admit that Mr Osborn and Mr Osborne and Mr Feldman met the Russian four times, with Mr Osborne meeting him in January at Davos. So why four times over that holiday weekend first going on the Yacht invited by Mr Rothschild on the Friday, the at Part at the villa in he ebbing where they sat at the same table with Rothschild, the Russian and Peter Mandelson, then at dinner at the Taverna and then the following day Mr Feldmen came to the Villa for drinks and the two politicians went over to Yacht to see the Billionaire for more drinks.

The purpose of these social get to-gethers was to eat drink and be merry gossiping about Russian, British and American politics and politicians as is done on such occasions, If anyone believes that the conversations were about political theory and policy then they t have never been to such occasions. I attended the bar of the House of Commons on one occasion frequented by influential Labour Party members and their political friends when the main topic of conversation was who would get what in a reshuffle and one Minister talked to someone in the Party about whether he should accept what if offered and the implications of doing so. I have also attend political social evenings at a local level including on one occasion shepherding local politicians with the officers and men of a visiting British warship to the second most notorious night club in the town, and I also remember the occasion when after a social event for a Russian warship I and the solicitor to the Council who I was driving home noted we were being followed although whether this was by local journalists, the Russian or British Security we did not bother to find out. Missing from reports of these gatherings is the security provision which ensures people can relax, say what they like and know it will not be used to cause those involved embarrassment. One of the reasons politicians go accept such invitations from wealthy men and women is that the security is good.

The problem in this instance is that George Osborn not only noted what Mr Mandelson had to say about Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and also that Mr Mandelson European Trade Minister/Commissioner was staying on the Russian owned Yacht of a man who is said to have made his money through aluminium the subject of then current EEC consideration it is reported. These may things would not have been used by Mr Osborn in the way he did had Mr Mandelson not become a member of the Government again, and worse still this signalled a truce between Blair and Brownites for the first time since Tony took the Labour Party leadership away from their original first choice among the New Labour Group a decade and a half ago.

Mr Osborn and presumable Mr Cameron or at least the Tory High command could not resist going for Mr Mandelson as quickly and as hard as they could before he could get himself established and become the threat they feared to their ambitions for the next Parliament. The stakes became very high indeed. However in releasing information gained at private functions he angered his host and former friend and become a doomed politician among people presently more influential that he is likely ever likely to now become. Does he think he will ever get invited to any of their homes again whatever position eh subsequently holds and what is Mr Cameron thinking off in supporting his friend? Tony sacked his closest political friend twice from Government.

Those involved were all male in this instances but it also applies to political and business leaders of all sexes meet together in social activities arranged in relation to major gatherings of political and business leaders held throughout the year and throughout the globe, One of the most influential is the Davos annual meeting held in January each year, mentioned in the Tory statement and which holds as many as ten regional meetings during the year and other activities which involves international business leaders with 1000 of the main world companies funding the enterprise including banks and oil companies Goldman Sachs, HSBC JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers Merrill Lynch, Dubai World and the Emirates Group, also Google and Microsoft, Pepsi and Coca Cola. They invite leading politicians: the Prime Minister, then Mayor London Ken Livingston as well as Mr Osborne attended the January annual meeting this year where Mr Osborne first met the Russian. Also among the 250 at the annual meeting were Condoleezza Rice, Pervez Musharraf, Viktor Yushchenko, Shimon Peres and Queen Rania of Jordan. In past years Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Bono have been invited. In other words the Global elite. Proceedings are not only public but live. What happens after the official meetings in another matter. There are parties and why not as those attending pay 28000 dollars unless sponsored. Peter Mandelson was reported to have given his version of the Punjabi dance technique at one party according one published source and Ken Livingston crashed his car on the way back while others made off to their next venue in their helicopters.

This has been quite a day as Governor of Bank England admitted that the UK banking system was close to collapse earlier this month at any time since the start of World War One, and presumable that also meant the USA system and capitalism in general. Senator Obama broke off his campaign to go to the bedside of his seriously ill grandmother and one wonders how the McCain Palin negatives campaigners will make of that and on top of the defection of Co-lin Powell and that articulate Pop star, opps I nearly said crumpet, Joss Stone, followed with her endorsement as part of the get out and vote young people project

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