New Book- The Prostitute State

[nexus]

New book out, nothing new to any of us, but may be interesting nevertheless. Here's a summary of his argument:

Pillar 1 – Our Corrupted Democracy
As a senior Lib-Dem I got a wide range of eco-friendly and progressive policies adopted by the party-conference. But invariably the corporate lobbyists, who surrounded the party’s leadership, smothered almost every single democratic decision. Reams of the top party echelons are or were corporate lobbyists. It is the same in the other major parties. Corporate lobbyists are calling the shots, not we the voters. Take for example the nuclear industry.

Almost every single former Labour Minister for Energy is a lucratively paid nuclear-lobbyist, as was Nick Clegg’s last general election Lib Dem Treasurer. Despite the public favouring renewable-power over nuclear by huge margins, all three main parties are now committed to pouring billions of our money into poisonous new nuclear white-elephants. Huge swathes of government are now under corporate influence including our civil-service, the armed forces and police, the House of Lords and even our regulatory systems.

Pillar 2 – Our Prostituted Academia
Our sacred halls of learning whether they be primary schools, secondary schools or university research departments are increasingly being taken over by corporate funding. Even in inner-city Peckham, the local academy’s teaching policies are now dictated by a Tory Party-donor rather than professional teachers. The national think-tanks which frequently guide government policy are now often merely propaganda fronts for corporations, whether they are oil corporations or robber banks. All of the centre or centre-right think-tanks refuse to reveal who is funding them, despite the fact they are quoted in the prostituted media as “independent” think-tanks. The prostitution of our education system means the potential extinction of any independent thought being taught to our future voting citizens.

Pillar 3 – The Criminal Tax-Havens
My efforts to clean-up dubious Lib Dem funding by rich-donors who then received peerages or personal access to the leader, were opposed by senior Lib-Dems connected to the off-shore tax-haven cartels. I only made the connection after resigning from its Federal Executive over their refusal to halt the corrupt practice of Lib-Dem peers selling political-lobbying services to corporations. When I then examined fund-raising in the other parties, I realised they were all dependent on massive funding from these appalling tax-havens. Nick Clegg’s Treasurer again was a lobbyist for the truly obscene Cayman Islands. Almost all Tory Treasurers have been linked with tax-havens. So were almost all Labour party millionaire donors during the Blair years.

The UK’s tax-havens are instrumental in shifting the UK tax-burden from corporations to ordinary workers and the creation of our huge public-spending deficit. They are also the route by which the wealth of the poorest nations on earth is funnelled into western banks, leaving a trail of poverty, disease, and environmental destruction in their wake. By funding our democracy they ensure their control on international finance and power.

Pillar 4 – Our Prostituted Media
But it is the final pillar The Prostituted Media which ensures that all of the above corruption of democracy is carried out without fear of the population rebelling to defend our rights and interests. Five tax-avoiding billionaires control over 80% of UK daily newspapers. 18% of the rest is largely in the hands of international financial corporations, leaving only the Guardian at 2.6% to represent the interests of the non-billionaire section of society. These five billionaires also own vast swathes of our TV, film and book industries, thus exerting an iron grip on almost everything our culture even thinks about.

As long as Murdoch (Sun/Times), Desmond (Express), Rothermere (Mail), the Barclay Brothers (Telegraph) or their ilk monopolise our prostituted media, we will never create the social and environmental justice that so many of us dream and work so hard for.

Thus to summarise, if the rich elites and corporations control the production of thought, the dissemination of thought, the implementation of thought and the funding of thought, then we no longer live in a democracy but The Prostitute State.

[Little John]

Who is this? Do you have a link? I am amazed that a parliamentarian would write such revolution-inciting stuff. Either he/she's no longer a parliamentarian any doesn't expect to be for much longer. All of the above, by the way, is a good portion of the reason why, as much as I want them to stay, I don't blame the Scots for wanting to F--k off and leave England to it.

[Snail]

Who is this? Do you have a link? I am amazed that a parliamentarian would write such revolution-inciting stuff. Either he/she's no longer a parliamentarian any doesn't expect to be for much longer. All of the above, by the way, is a good portion of the reason why, as much as I want them to stay, I don't blame the Scots for wanting to **** off and leave England to it.

donnachadh mccarthy

http://liberalleft.org.uk/site/the-prostitute-state/

[emordnilap]

The first and simplest thing is for each of us personally to stop feeding The Prostitute State. Stop giving it your money. Move your bank accounts, energy supply, newspaper, food buying etc away from the corporate controllers. Buy local products, install or use green energy, read The Guardian, invest ethically and eat organic food from Farmers Markets.

Come on in folks, the water's lovely.

[kenneal - lagger]

Where's the LIKE button?

Corporatism is the death of capitalism and small businesses and is the epitome of Big Brother, 1984 and all that is horrific about life in the future.

In the end there can only be the One and we will all belong to it.

[emordnilap]

[A] capitalist company, meaning that its goal is to make money virtually any way possible.
[...]
Its goal of making money is accomplished regardless of the consequences, be it environmental degradation, pollution, abuse of and destabilizing water use, worker assassinations, discrimination in the work place, or the health of individuals [consuming] its product, to name but a few. Promoting a product that requires purchase by huge numbers of individuals in order to make a profit necessitates deliberate efforts at creating a positive public image. It’s good at that also but it is simultaneously considered by some as one of the most evil corporations in the world – a designation that suits it well.

Taken from a piece in Counterpunch. It refers to a specific company - but most of us here would think of many such corporations. Stop giving those businesses money.

[biffvernon]

I ordered my copy as part of his crowd-funding for publication a while ago. He's a good bloke. (He's also right at the centre of the campaign for safer cycling in London.)

[RenewableCandy]

Yes, he's done a lot of good stuff. But can someone tell me how his name's pronounced?

[biffvernon]

Donnacha is probably as close as a Yorkshire lass will get, but try http://es.heracleums.org/tools/pronunci ... onnachadh/

I've just read the book. It has some new revelations in terms of personal anecdotes, but the bulk of it is sourced from already published stuff, so we know it all already. That is, if one has been a very astute follower of every bit of Westminster scandal for many years, remembered it all and joined the dots. That's where Donnachadh McCarthy's book is really helpful and will be hated by just about every MP and Peer bar Caroline Lucas, Jenny Jones and Tom Watson.

It's a rollicking good read - go buy it.

And the front cover is something else!

[emordnilap]

Yes, he's done a lot of good stuff. But can someone tell me how his name's pronounced?

McCarthy. Come on.

[kenneal - lagger]

The Irish can be such a simple race(in a nice, uncomplicated way) until it comes to spelling their language!! Neave (English pronunciation; God knows how you spell in in Irish!) is an example!

[Blue Peter]

The Irish can be such a simple race(in a nice, uncomplicated way) until it comes to spelling their language!! Neave (English pronunciation; God knows how you spell in in Irish!) is an example!

Niamh?

I remember a teacher, called Siobhan saying that a pupil had once excitedly said to her, "Miss, I know you're first name! It's Sio-b-han!"


Peter.

[emordnilap]

Irish spelling is a tad complex but the pronunciation is relatively simple, once a few rules are borne in mind.

So OK: Donnachadh? Donner-hah will do and he'll not be offended at that, though in reality the 'ch' is in the throat, as though you're getting phlegm up.

Phlegm...and you think Irish is difficult?