Labaik's above post is very chilling and demonstrates the degree to which the rich and powerful can protect their own interests, whatever the economic and political situation may be in the UK.
The print media is virtually sewn up in favour of the Conservatives, with many newspapers owned and controlled by ultra wealthy individuals who frequently don't even live in Britain. Even The I has now been bought up by the group owned and controlled by Lord Rothermere who owns the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Metro. The other big player, of course, is Rupert Murdoch who owns The Sun, Sun on Sunday, The Times and the Sunday Times.
Now all TV channels need to watch their step - but particularly the BBC which the Conservatives have always wanted to get rid of. Other commercial channels also need to be granted a licence to broadcast, and Johnson has already threatened Channel 4 with a review of its licence.
On a separate issue, but one that also relates to the abuse of power - in the business section of the I today:
"Top Bank official faces calls to quit in briefings scandal"
"Hedge funds are revealed to have been eavesdropping on a faster livestream of key briefings [of the Bank of England].
"The central bank said it had found a third-party supplier was misusing an audio feed to certain press conferences, selling access to its clients.
"The lag on the official broadcast of the meetings means traders may have gained an advantage of a few seconds when listening to comments made by the Governor.........
"Traders reported paying between £2,500 and £5,000 to gain access to the audio feed ...."
The Business Editor commented separately on the very serious nature of these revelations -
"Hedge funds could have made millions from cock-up"
............"While a few seconds heads-up on what Bank of England officials say about the future directions of interest rates or the wider economy may not sound significant, it truly is.
"Armed with that information, the tech wizards at hedge funds can make thousands of transactions in those seconds. It can net them millions...............
"One thing is for sure, however, if it's not illegal under current laws, then new laws need to be introduced."
Given that hedge funds are one of the major donors to the Conservative Party, it will be interesting to see how quickly this government reacts to this. In my view this confirms the fact that many of the people in the finance sector appear to have no sense of right and wrong and are willing to use any strategy, however improper or unethical, to make "loadsa money". The whole system works in these people's favour and the dice is, and it has always been, loaded against those who challenge it.
