by Hazel Lewry
According to CBS news over the pond the United Kingdom has just spent a little short of $50 billion on a wedding, put into “real dosh” that’s about £30,000,000,000 to you and I. That was all the associated costs, not just the ceremony. Simply put, more than Scotland’s budget for next year, 2012.
The CBS number seems a little high, but even if double or treble the “real” figure, it’s simple maths.
In the words of the CBS’s independent economist, Philip Shaw “It better be one hell’uva party”.
That’s the equivalent of about 25 more years of massive budget cuts in Scotland to pay for a wedding in England. Benefits reduced to the elderly, cuts in valued and vital services, carers sacrificed, all for pomp and circumstance south of the border. Was it worth it for an afternoon’s telly?
That’s almost £300 a year for every man, woman and child in Scotland for one days’ entertainment, for the next 25 years. If you had been given a choice, would you willingly pay for that. Sort of takes the edge from that nice glow at loves’ first kiss. If Scotland was paying for it alone, before interest charges that’s £7,200 per human being, after tax. Interestingly Scotland IS paying for it, as we’re the only nation in the UK in surplus. If you’re bleeding red ink you can’t pay for anything. Next time you think on that new car, you know where the money went in those hidden taxes, and the items it’s paying for.
Britain is effectively bankrupt, how can we afford £50 billion gross for a wedding when we can’t put aircraft on the new carriers or afford to keep air bases open, have increased tuition fees (England), increased prescription fees (England), are having to privatize the NHS by the back door (England) or have to sell off the coastguard and sections of the Royal Air Force.
This really is unbelievable in an “Age of Austerity”, one can just imagine the conversation in the palace –
“Mr Cameron, you know Will’s is getting married – how do you propose we pay for the wedding”,
“Well we’re a bit short right now ma’am, been selling that Austerity thing you know, but perhaps we could sell some of your air force to the Americans and the French, cover the deposit at least?”
“That’ll be fine Mr. Cameron, I’ll just call the Abbey then and advise them of the date”.
The pot of public money is only so big, it has a set amount to go around, and especially now Westminster has about come to its credit limit. The only thing keeping the UK afloat is Scottish Oil, any doubts, just look at the value of Sterling on the world market – it tracks oil pretty precisely lately.
Oil up, pound up, oil down, pound down.
So essentially it came down to £6 billion to keep the air sea rescue, over the next few years, within the Royal Air Force and Coastguard or five times that for a wedding. We could probably have built a couple of hospitals, armed a carrier or two, and eliminated student debt with the loose change. Perhaps that’s a bit optimistic, but again maybe not seriously so.
Why on earth would the United Kingdom go to this insane expense at a time of national demise, when almost every citizen is being required to tighten the belt, spend less, prepare for the worst cuts in a century and they haven’t even really arrived yet.
We did it because all authority in England is derived from the Monarch. The monarchs’ desires are the ultimate need. Parliament sits at her whim, that’s the reality as it can be dissolved and legislation refused by the monarch. The aristocracy owes its existence to the monarch, without the monarch there is no justification for “landed gentry”. The knights, orders and organizations at every level are set up to uphold the monarch “to do our duty to god and queen” even in the cub scouts.
Therefore, in England, when her majesty “requests” the nation jumps. The price is irrelevant.
Scotland is different, her laws and allegiances are different, and we’re again waking up to the fact. In Scotland the Windsor’s rule by our sufferance and fifty billion is a lot of sufferance to expect from a bankrupt nation.
May 5th is election day here, and we have to consider well our path. We have to consider that the money for the Royal Wedding came from one place and one alone, our own children.
There is no other conclusion, as the UK, PLC is fiscally, morally and in government circles at least, apparently intellectually bankrupt.
The fact of these statements becomes clear as it is apparent most of these festivities had to be paid for with borrowed money. It’s not the Windsor’s who get to hold the tab, it’s us, the UK taxpayer.
Incredulously, what actually happened was that the UK treasury printed what was effectively an IOU on our future, they did this by issuing more money on top of the bucket-loads already swishing around in the world economy. This is money that’s now only backed up by our promise to make good on the debt. There’s no real collateral behind it.
That money for the most part finds its way into the City of London financial system – “the banks”, where it becomes available for “borrowing” for items such as this. It’s the ultimate money laundering scheme, because here “dirty money” doesn’t suddenly become “clean money” but “non-existent money” becomes “real money”. Money only has true value when something of true value is exchanged for it.
The catch is that “promise to pay”, that’s what mortgages our children and our grandchildren to the City of London, that’s what really creates our “Age of Austerity” while the bankers rake in their bonuses.
This is where we come full circle, ultimately Scottish politics are no different today than the relationship between the City of London and the UK Parliament, if you wish to see where the real power lies, simply follow the money. Absent the Greens and SNP, the trail almost invariably leads to the “City of London” by way of Westminster.
This is where the UK government authorizes the printing of money to lend to the banks to borrow the money back from the banks to keep the economy afloat while paying interest on the money it first printed to loan to the banks. We the taxpayers get the bill. Conservatives, Labour or Lib-Dem, they’re all just “Fronts” for their real paymasters and puppeteers.
The bulldog is eating his tail, and he’s about to start in on the real meat of his backside. Scotland is the rump steak.
And there’s many more royal offspring that need wed.
This is democracy in action, UK style, where a vote for the Union essentially equals a vote for the bankers, their bonuses and corruption.
It’s time to move on.