Russell Brand.........

[BadFish]

Well have him full time.

What does that mean? How can we have him full time, he has a global media presence, tours the world with his comedy shows, writes books available across the world and writes for online publications accessible from anywhere on the planet. In this day and age there really is no concept of a country 'having' anyone let alone 'full time'.

 

[kevo]

Thought this was worth sharing.

http://blog.squandertwo.net/2014/12/an-open-letter-to-russell-brand.html

And Brand's brilliant reply:


Hello Jo, thanks for your open letter, I do remember you from the melee outside RBS and firstly, I’d like to say sorry for your paella getting cold. It’s not nice to suffer because of actions that are nothing to do with you. I imagine the disabled people of our country who have been hit with £6bn of benefit cuts during the period that RBS received £46bn of public bail-out money feel similarly cheesed off.

I can’t apologise for the RBS lockdown though mate because, I don’t have the authority to close great big institutions – even ones found guilty of criminal activity.

The locking of the doors and your tarnished lunch came about as the result of orders from “the faceless bosses” upstairs after I wandered in on my own while we secretly filmed from across the street - then security swarmed, all the doors were locked and crowds gathered outside. I must say Jo; it felt like RBS had something terrible to hide. But more of that in a minute.

Neither was I there for publicity, although you could be forgiven for thinking that; for many years I have earned my money (and paid my taxes) by showing off. If I needed negative publicity (and, believe me, that’s all talking publicly about inequality can ever get you) I could get it by using the “N word” on telly, or putting a cat in a bin, or having a romantic liaison with the lad from TOWIE.

I was there with filmmaker Michael Winterbottom making a documentary about how the economic crises caused by the banking industry (RBS were found guilty of rigging Libor and the foreign exchange) has led to an economic attack on the most vulnerable people in society. I don’t want to undermine your personal inconvenience Jo, I’d be the first to admit that I’m often more vexed by little things; iPhone chargers continually changing makes me as angry as apartheid - so I can’t claim any personal moral high ground, but a chance to make a film that highlights how £80bn of austerity cuts were made, punishing society’s most vulnerable during the same period that bankers awarded themselves £81bn in bonuses was irresistible.

The mob upstairs at RBS who exiled you with your rapidly deteriorating lunch have had £4bn in bonuses since the crash. Do they deserve our money more than Britain’s disabled? Or Britain’s students who are now charged to learn? Is that fair?

They were some of the questions I was hoping to ask your boss – but we got no joy through the “proper channels” so we decided to just show up.

Not just to RBS, but also to Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays. I know that the regular folk on the floor aren’t guilty of this trick against ordinary people; they’re like anyone, trying to make ends meet. As you point out though, it’s hard to get to the men at the top so we were forced into door-stopping and inadvertent lunch spoiling. The good news is that this film and even this correspondence will reach hundreds of thousands of people and they’ll learn how they’re being conned by the financial industry and turned against one another - that’s got to be a good thing, even if it makes me look a bit of a twit in the process and the national dish of Spain is eaten sub-par.

Now I’ll be the first to admit your lunch has been an unwitting casualty in this well-intentioned quest but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask new RBS boss Ross McEwan if he thinks it’s right that he got a £3.2m “golden hello” when the RBS is sellotaped together with money that comes from everyone else’s taxes. I wonder what he would’ve said? Or whether it’s right that Fred “the shred” (he shredded evidence of impropriety) Goodwin gets to keep his £320k a year pension while disabled people have had their independent living fund scrapped.

And it’s not just RBS mate. Lloyds, Barclays, Citibank and HSBC have all been found guilty of market rigging and not one banker has been jailed.

Trillions of public money lost and stolen and no one prosecuted. Remember in the riots when disaffected youth nicked the odd bottle of water or a stray pair of trainers? Criminal, I agree. 1800 years worth of sentences were meted out in special courts, to make an example. Some crime doesn’t pay, but some crime definitely does. My school mate Leigh Pickett, a fireman is being told that he and his colleagues won’t be able to collect their pension until five years later than agreed, five more years of backbreaking, flame engulfed labour – why? Because of austerity.

Put simply Jo, the banks took the money, the people paid the price.

I was there to ask a few questions to the guilty parties, now I know that’s not you, you’re just a bloke trying to make a crust and evidently you like that crust warm - but again, it wasn’t me who locked the RBS, I just asked a few difficult questions and the place went nuts. The people that have inconvenienced homeowners, pensioners, the disabled and ordinary working Brits are the same ones who inconvenienced you that lunchtime. They’ve got a lot to hide, so they locked the doors. You said my “agro demeanor” reminded you of school. Your letter reminded me of school too, when the teacher would say, “because Russell’s been naughty, the whole class has to stay behind”.

I’d never knowingly keep a workingman from his dinner, it’s unacceptable and I do owe you an apology for being lairy.

So Jo, get in touch, I owe you an apology and I’d like to take you for a hot paella to make up for the one that went cold – though you could say that was actually the fault of the shady shysters who nicked the wedge and locked you out, I’d rather err on the side of caution. When I make a mistake I like to apolgise and put it right. Hopefully your bosses will do the same to the people of Britain.

 

[OzMike]

I like him because he's funny, articulate, a crusader and at least trying to change things albeit I don't hold out hope he will because he's the he establishments no.1 enemy right now and they want blood. Good on him for continuing to fight the good fight in the face of far more powerful forces. Funny as the letter was, I too think the RBS wrote that. Not an employee. So ultimately it's a bit rubbish.

Think what you like, he is still a ****.

 

[Lower West Stander]

Privatise the profits and socialise the losses, that's the banking industry isn't it?

Loans granted without proper risk assessment, endowment scheme misselling, PPI misselling, LIBOR rigging, currency rate rigging. Sale and resale of toxic assets that ultimately are picked up by the state. A bonus culture that encourages short termism, greed and exploitation, and when the economy is in need of banks lending to SME's to help generate growth the banks don't want to know.

An industry that is so shamefaced that, rather than do the right thing in terms of ethics and culture, instead regards the fines and criticism that are regularly charged by the regulators as (adopts judges voice at the start of Porridge) an occupational hazard, safe in the knowledge that none of the miscreants will be jailed.

Oh do stop preaching.

How do you define banking then? Investment banking or retail banking, is it the same in your eyes? Is trading the same as working behind the counter? Of course the industry screwed up, but not all of it. How do you decide whether to grant a loan to an SME or not? Just say yes in order to help the economy and get positive press reports? Or should there be a business plan which actually needs to justify a request? It is the easiest thing in the world to say yes to a loan and very difficult to say no. Even the most intelligent people fail to understand why business plans are rubbish and then go running to the press when they don't get the money. Look at Roisin in The Apprentice tonight, highly intelligent, well educated and a totally unworkable business plan. When Alan Sugar says no its an intelligent business decision, if a bank had said no, they'd have been slammed.

You also make no reference to the thousands of hard working people working in banking (and not everyone in investment banks gets paid a fortune either). Many of these staff have had future retirement plans destroyed as banks share prices have collapsed. You never hear of the customers who try and pull every trick in the book to get one over on organizations who are criticized for the mistakes of the few. I do not deny at all the screw ups made by banks principally through short term bonus cultures, but far more balance is required than the perspective you provide.

 

[W.C.]

Think what you like, he is still a ****.

Well that's that sorted.

 

[XSE25]

It frustrates me how people lazily bandy around the 'champagne socialist' label to disregard what he is actually saying. Can I not criticise sexism and misogyny because I am male or racism because I am white?

Also he gets criticised for pulling 'stunts' . Well that maybe the best way he has of making his message heard. He isn't stupid, he wouldn't think they have a direct impact, but we wouldn't be discussing it otherwise.

"Champagne Socialist" is a term often bandied about by "working class Tories" . A bitter irony if ever there was one.

 

[smillie's garden]

Oh do stop preaching.

How do you define banking then? Investment banking or retail banking, is it the same in your eyes? Is trading the same as working behind the counter? Of course the industry screwed up, but not all of it. How do you decide whether to grant a loan to an SME or not? Just say yes in order to help the economy and get positive press reports? Or should there be a business plan which actually needs to justify a request? It is the easiest thing in the world to say yes to a loan and very difficult to say no. Even the most intelligent people fail to understand why business plans are rubbish and then go running to the press when they don't get the money. Look at Roisin in The Apprentice tonight, highly intelligent, well educated and a totally unworkable business plan. When Alan Sugar says no its an intelligent business decision, if a bank had said no, they'd have been slammed.

You also make no reference to the thousands of hard working people working in banking (and not everyone in investment banks gets paid a fortune either). Many of these staff have had future retirement plans destroyed as banks share prices have collapsed. You never hear of the customers who try and pull every trick in the book to get one over on organizations who are criticized for the mistakes of the few. I do not deny at all the screw ups made by banks principally through short term bonus cultures, but far more balance is required than the perspective you provide.

Ahh bless. Doggedly trying to hold on to the notion that it's a few bad apples in a basically upstanding industry.

 

[Napper]

And Brand's brilliant reply:


Hello Jo, thanks for your open letter, I do remember you from the melee outside RBS and firstly, I’d like to say sorry for your paella getting cold. It’s not nice to suffer because of actions that are nothing to do with you. I imagine the disabled people of our country who have been hit with £6bn of benefit cuts during the period that RBS received £46bn of public bail-out money feel similarly cheesed off.

I can’t apologise for the RBS lockdown though mate because, I don’t have the authority to close great big institutions – even ones found guilty of criminal activity.

The locking of the doors and your tarnished lunch came about as the result of orders from “the faceless bosses” upstairs after I wandered in on my own while we secretly filmed from across the street - then security swarmed, all the doors were locked and crowds gathered outside. I must say Jo; it felt like RBS had something terrible to hide. But more of that in a minute.

Neither was I there for publicity, although you could be forgiven for thinking that; for many years I have earned my money (and paid my taxes) by showing off. If I needed negative publicity (and, believe me, that’s all talking publicly about inequality can ever get you) I could get it by using the “N word” on telly, or putting a cat in a bin, or having a romantic liaison with the lad from TOWIE.

I was there with filmmaker Michael Winterbottom making a documentary about how the economic crises caused by the banking industry (RBS were found guilty of rigging Libor and the foreign exchange) has led to an economic attack on the most vulnerable people in society. I don’t want to undermine your personal inconvenience Jo, I’d be the first to admit that I’m often more vexed by little things; iPhone chargers continually changing makes me as angry as apartheid - so I can’t claim any personal moral high ground, but a chance to make a film that highlights how £80bn of austerity cuts were made, punishing society’s most vulnerable during the same period that bankers awarded themselves £81bn in bonuses was irresistible.

The mob upstairs at RBS who exiled you with your rapidly deteriorating lunch have had £4bn in bonuses since the crash. Do they deserve our money more than Britain’s disabled? Or Britain’s students who are now charged to learn? Is that fair?

They were some of the questions I was hoping to ask your boss – but we got no joy through the “proper channels” so we decided to just show up.

Not just to RBS, but also to Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays. I know that the regular folk on the floor aren’t guilty of this trick against ordinary people; they’re like anyone, trying to make ends meet. As you point out though, it’s hard to get to the men at the top so we were forced into door-stopping and inadvertent lunch spoiling. The good news is that this film and even this correspondence will reach hundreds of thousands of people and they’ll learn how they’re being conned by the financial industry and turned against one another - that’s got to be a good thing, even if it makes me look a bit of a twit in the process and the national dish of Spain is eaten sub-par.

Now I’ll be the first to admit your lunch has been an unwitting casualty in this well-intentioned quest but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask new RBS boss Ross McEwan if he thinks it’s right that he got a £3.2m “golden hello” when the RBS is sellotaped together with money that comes from everyone else’s taxes. I wonder what he would’ve said? Or whether it’s right that Fred “the shred” (he shredded evidence of impropriety) Goodwin gets to keep his £320k a year pension while disabled people have had their independent living fund scrapped.

And it’s not just RBS mate. Lloyds, Barclays, Citibank and HSBC have all been found guilty of market rigging and not one banker has been jailed.

Trillions of public money lost and stolen and no one prosecuted. Remember in the riots when disaffected youth nicked the odd bottle of water or a stray pair of trainers? Criminal, I agree. 1800 years worth of sentences were meted out in special courts, to make an example. Some crime doesn’t pay, but some crime definitely does. My school mate Leigh Pickett, a fireman is being told that he and his colleagues won’t be able to collect their pension until five years later than agreed, five more years of backbreaking, flame engulfed labour – why? Because of austerity.

Put simply Jo, the banks took the money, the people paid the price.

I was there to ask a few questions to the guilty parties, now I know that’s not you, you’re just a bloke trying to make a crust and evidently you like that crust warm - but again, it wasn’t me who locked the RBS, I just asked a few difficult questions and the place went nuts. The people that have inconvenienced homeowners, pensioners, the disabled and ordinary working Brits are the same ones who inconvenienced you that lunchtime. They’ve got a lot to hide, so they locked the doors. You said my “agro demeanor” reminded you of school. Your letter reminded me of school too, when the teacher would say, “because Russell’s been naughty, the whole class has to stay behind”.

I’d never knowingly keep a workingman from his dinner, it’s unacceptable and I do owe you an apology for being lairy.

So Jo, get in touch, I owe you an apology and I’d like to take you for a hot paella to make up for the one that went cold – though you could say that was actually the fault of the shady shysters who nicked the wedge and locked you out, I’d rather err on the side of caution. When I make a mistake I like to apolgise and put it right. Hopefully your bosses will do the same to the people of Britain.

Fantastic

 

[dazzer6666]

Oh do stop preaching.

How do you define banking then? Investment banking or retail banking, is it the same in your eyes? Is trading the same as working behind the counter? Of course the industry screwed up, but not all of it. How do you decide whether to grant a loan to an SME or not? Just say yes in order to help the economy and get positive press reports? Or should there be a business plan which actually needs to justify a request? It is the easiest thing in the world to say yes to a loan and very difficult to say no. Even the most intelligent people fail to understand why business plans are rubbish and then go running to the press when they don't get the money. Look at Roisin in The Apprentice tonight, highly intelligent, well educated and a totally unworkable business plan. When Alan Sugar says no its an intelligent business decision, if a bank had said no, they'd have been slammed.

You also make no reference to the thousands of hard working people working in banking (and not everyone in investment banks gets paid a fortune either). Many of these staff have had future retirement plans destroyed as banks share prices have collapsed. You never hear of the customers who try and pull every trick in the book to get one over on organizations who are criticized for the mistakes of the few. I do not deny at all the screw ups made by banks principally through short term bonus cultures, but far more balance is required than the perspective you provide.

Well put. Unfortunately the actions of a (relative but powerful) minority have massively tarnished the industry but all staff are tarred with the same brush by many which is deeply unfortunate for the majority (who you'll find behind counters, in call centres, operations hubs and the like and who aren't well paid and who mostly don't get meaningful bonuses). Until there are proper, visible penalties for those at the centre of the scandals, and there is a change in 'bonus culture' for the 'lucky' few at the top of the food chain, the industry is always going to have a problem.

Re granting loans, the regulators have also made this more difficult by putting much more stringent capital requirements in place for the banks (look at the 'stress test results published this week) so saying 'yes' is harder than it ever was.

Good reply by Brand......

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Brand 2, Jo 1

 

[Guinness Boy]

Russell Brand has been doing some fantastic work over the last year or so. In particular I've been impressed with his efforts to change our failing drug policy, making a huge difference for working class people including firefighters and people in London who are losing their homes, and also creating awareness about other important issues, particularly inequality.

What good work have you been doing over the last year that gives you the license to brand him a 'c*** of the highest order'?

I don't have to have done ANYTHING to earn that right. It's a free country. But since you're at it I started forming the opinion around the time of the crack-addled broadcasting mentioned in the link and finalised the opinion when he teamed up with that well known People's Poet Jonathan Woss to leave abusive messages about people's daughters on their answer phones. That he has now re BRANDED himself as some kind of revolutionary JUST in time for his latest Bookie Wookie to come out for Christmas seals the deal even further.

Since you ask though I make a number of charitable donations throughout the year both personally and through the company I'm on the board of. We choose not to publicise it but just make the donation.

 

[El Presidente]

Oh do stop preaching.

How do you define banking then? Investment banking or retail banking, is it the same in your eyes? Is trading the same as working behind the counter? Of course the industry screwed up, but not all of it. How do you decide whether to grant a loan to an SME or not? Just say yes in order to help the economy and get positive press reports? Or should there be a business plan which actually needs to justify a request? It is the easiest thing in the world to say yes to a loan and very difficult to say no. Even the most intelligent people fail to understand why business plans are rubbish and then go running to the press when they don't get the money. Look at Roisin in The Apprentice tonight, highly intelligent, well educated and a totally unworkable business plan. When Alan Sugar says no its an intelligent business decision, if a bank had said no, they'd have been slammed.

You also make no reference to the thousands of hard working people working in banking (and not everyone in investment banks gets paid a fortune either). Many of these staff have had future retirement plans destroyed as banks share prices have collapsed. You never hear of the customers who try and pull every trick in the book to get one over on organizations who are criticized for the mistakes of the few. I do not deny at all the screw ups made by banks principally through short term bonus cultures, but far more balance is required than the perspective you provide.

Hold it, you started the issue by saying that critics of the banks didn't understand the role of banks, and I merely listed (some) of the misdemeanours that they get up to, and you accuse me of preaching.

As for it all being due to the investment banks, it wasn't them who mis-sold endowment schemes, PPI etc, it was the retail arms.

As for the people who do all the donkey work behind the counter, in the branches and in the back office, they get shafted as much as anyone else, agree entirely, but its the culture of manipulation and greed that is encouraged and celebrated at the top that creates the problem, and everyone else is worse off as a result of it.

After what happened in 2008 you would have thought that the whole industry would have perhaps taken a hard look at itself and tried to get its house in order, but there is zero evidence of that happening.

 

[cunning fergus]

Privatise the profits and socialise the losses, that's the banking industry isn't it?

Loans granted without proper risk assessment, endowment scheme misselling, PPI misselling, LIBOR rigging, currency rate rigging. Sale and resale of toxic assets that ultimately are picked up by the state. A bonus culture that encourages short termism, greed and exploitation, and when the economy is in need of banks lending to SME's to help generate growth the banks don't want to know.

An industry that is so shamefaced that, rather than do the right thing in terms of ethics and culture, instead regards the fines and criticism that are regularly charged by the regulators as (adopts judges voice at the start of Porridge) an occupational hazard, safe in the knowledge that none of the miscreants will be jailed.

Too simplistic.............bank profits during the good times were "socialised" as quite literally billions of pounds of profit were paid out in dividends.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...elds-on-bank-shares-reach-historic-highs.html

The beneficiaries of these windfalls were the shareholders (predominantly Pension Funds) and HM Govt, which then taxed the dividends. You may recall that corporate dividends paid to pension funds used to be tax free, however in his budget (I think in 1998) Brown removed the tax free incentive for those saving via pension schemes in a grab for money from savers.

Given the size of these dividends paid during the good times, the boost in income for the Govt from corporation tax and stamp duty was unprecedented, literally tens of billions generated every year. Its little wonder at that time, politicians were lining up to congratulate themselves on light touch regulation in the city and resisting any regulatory crackdowns..........

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jun/22/politics.economicpolicy

That's not to ignore the grandiose statements such as abolishing boom and bust, leveraged from a narrow "if it's not broke don't fix it mentality" that ignored an economy growing from irresponsible lending which in turn was heating up a housing market that was white hot.

Yes, the bankers were irresponsible, but then they were faced with unprecedented demand by consumers and most importantly they were tacitly encouraged to be irresponsible by those in charge..........

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/sep/26/ed-balls-sorry-labour-failures

Had the Govt been more responsible with regulation and the money generated in the lead up to the crisis, there may not have been any need to burden the taxpayer...........but then that wouldn't help the narrative that it's ONLY the bankers that are evil.........

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Too simplistic.............bank profits during the good times were "socialised" as quite literally billions of pounds of profit were paid out in dividends.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...elds-on-bank-shares-reach-historic-highs.html

The beneficiaries of these windfalls were the shareholders (predominantly Pension Funds) and HM Govt, which then taxed the dividends. You may recall that corporate dividends paid to pension funds used to be tax free, however in his budget (I think in 1998) Brown removed the tax free incentive for those saving via pension schemes in a grab for money from savers.

Given the size of these dividends paid during the good times, the boost in income for the Govt from corporation tax and stamp duty was unprecedented, literally tens of billions generated every year. Its little wonder at that time, politicians were lining up to congratulate themselves on light touch regulation in the city and resisting any regulatory crackdowns..........

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jun/22/politics.economicpolicy

That's not to ignore the grandiose statements such as abolishing boom and bust, leveraged from a narrow "if it's not broke don't fix it mentality" that ignored an economy growing from irresponsible lending which in turn was heating up a housing market that was white hot.

Yes, the bankers were irresponsible, but then they were faced with unprecedented demand by consumers and most importantly they were tacitly encouraged to be irresponsible by those in charge..........

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/sep/26/ed-balls-sorry-labour-failures

Had the Govt been more responsible with regulation and the money generated in the lead up to the crisis, there may not have been any need to burden the taxpayer...........but then that wouldn't help the narrative that it's ONLY the bankers that are evil.........

So, in summary we should be grateful for the obscene payouts as the goverment get some tax back? Nice. And it also completely misses the point that this money would still be generating taxes and arguably more benefit and value if it were distributed in a more democratic manner.

 

[Tony Towner's Fridge]

Great blog.. Bland is a typical BBC luvvie like his pal Jonathan Woss... and the guy makes some great points, humorously delivered.

TNBA

TTF

 

[portlock seagull]

Great blog.. Bland is a typical BBC luvvie like his pal Jonathan Woss... and the guy makes some great points, humorously delivered.

TNBA

TTF

Correction. RBS made some good points, told humorously. This guy was the front but he didn't write it all by his lonesome self or do you actually believe he did?

 

[Buzzer]

Brand 2, Jo 1

"Sydney murders were not a terrorist attack"

Brand 1 Engaging Brain 0

 

[Mr Banana]

It frustrates me how people lazily bandy around the 'champagne socialist' label to disregard what he is actually saying. Can I not criticise sexism and misogyny because I am male or racism because I am white?

Also he gets criticised for pulling 'stunts' . Well that maybe the best way he has of making his message heard. He isn't stupid, he wouldn't think they have a direct impact, but we wouldn't be discussing it otherwise.

I feel like this kinda sums it up:

[yt]CbSIaVIwGV4[/yt]

If we're going to have slebs, let's take any positive use of their "power" as a good thing. I can totally relate it to politics: we know Caroline Lucas is part of a defunct and rotten premise, but at least she's human and trying to make some sort of positive change, and I'd rather focus at least partly on that than being continously grouchy and down on the whole shebang.

 

[JCL666]

Just so I understand.

You're not allowed to criticise rich people unless you're poor.

If you're main "skill" is being famous, you can't use that as a way to highlight inequality.

If you've previously taken drugs or made a prank call (that wasn't funny) you are not at any point in the future meant to try and do something worthwhile.

Oh and the banking sector isn't obsessed about making money at all costs.. (it is btw, I used to work in it)


Which means only a poor person with no access to mainstream media, who's never done anything wrong is able to highlight inequality and point out that there's mismanagement and fraud in the banking system. Basically we have to wait for Jesus to show up.


hmmmm......

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I feel like this kinda sums it up:

[yt]CbSIaVIwGV4[/yt]

If we're going to have slebs, let's take any positive use of their "power" as a good thing. I can totally relate it to politics: we know Caroline Lucas is part of a defunct and rotten premise, but at least she's human and trying to make some sort of positive change, and I'd rather focus at least partly on that than being continously grouchy and down on the whole shebang.

I tend to agree. Brand is highlighting a number of important issues which are affecting vulnerable people and all a lot of folk want to do is make snipes at him. Odd behaviour. It is very easy for dullards with comfy lifestyles to make a dig at someone who is actually giving some time to a campaign. And it is piss easy for someone who has a few pennies to give some money but donating your time requires more effort. So what if you dont like him, just concentrate on the issues he raises....it really is this simple. But then sniping is such a middle class wanky thing to do people probably aspire to it.