Wednesday 26 February 2014

GANGSTER ECONOMICS - WHISTLING IN THE WIND?

CHANGE? - NO CHANCE
DAVID & GOLIATH

For those of us who want to improve and change the economic system for the future benefit of mankind, we find that resistance to change remains adamantine. Judging from my 30 years of professional observations and communications about economics and taxation, it seems that the 1% 'HAVES', many of whom enjoy large unearned incomes, and who conceal their wealth in the world's 70 tax-havens, are as determined as ever to starve the 99% of the capital, currently frozen, that is needed to re-boot the global economy.

(Update 28 March 2014 - Hugely overpaid politicians and executives in the UK energy cartels, responsible for planning ahead, threaten power cuts if their monopoly and obscene-greed-rewards are challenged. Do we know where they all - all from 1990 to date - live? We need to visit them at home when the lights go out.)

"They" are deeply embedded in our governments and legal systems, perverting policies and courts to suit their agenda.

Writing letters and blogs has little discernible impact. Even campaigns by major media organisations are largely ignored - with perhaps an occasional tiny sop of apparent change, signaled to us, the massed, ignorant, innumerate peasants.

$32 trillion offshore buys a lot of friends in high and low places. They, the 1%, challenge the majority to take the battle for change to the wire; to risk the world; to bet the pot; to face the chaos of revolution - as is happening now in Egypt and Ukraine. It was ever thus.

But we need not descend into violence. Patience and dialogue will eventually work - and is a million times more preferable to storming the ornate palaces of corrupt leaders over the bodies of fallen comrades. Slowly, slowly there are tentative signs of re-emerging patches of anti-corruption and honesty in OECD governments. For example:-

Today - from Reuters:

U.S. Senate panel blasts government lawyers on Swiss tax crackdown

WASHINGTON Feb 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is dragging its feet on prosecuting Swiss banks that helped Americans evade taxes and on collecting billions of dollars likely owed to the U.S. Treasury by tax dodgers, a powerful U.S. Senate panel said on Tuesday.

27 FEB 2014 US senators want Credit Suisse to be forced to identify tax evaders

Senate committee calls on justice department to demand names of 22,000 US citizens who hid $12bn in Swiss bank accounts...

********************

And elsewhere, even in the UK, where all but a tiny rump of specialist tax-enforcers have been disbanded by the super-wealthy offshore governing elite, an occasional back-tax-case against big earners - usually in our "gangster-economies" exempt from tax, sneaks past the watchful guards who protect the super-rich from impertinent, unwanted intrusions by over zealous public servants. This tax case, of Chris Moyles +450 others, has miraculously found its way into the UK Courts. If, despite all our efforts, nothing has changed, the 450 tax evaders will be exonerated by bent Judges, the cunningly stupid tax-planners will receive an apology, costs and major compensation, and the impudent tax-collectors will be reprimanded and sacked.

Are good honest citizens standing up to be counted? Let us wait and see:

Chris Moyles claimed to be second-hand car dealer to avoid tax on £1 million

HM Revenue and Customs is writing to 450 other celebrities and wealthy individuals who took part in the same tax avoidance scheme to demand they pay the tax they owe...

This now rare type of back-tax case brought by HMRC (note it is defined by the right-wing Telegraph as non-criminal "avoidance" despite the obvious lies of being 'car dealers' on signed Tax Returns - putting it without question in the criminal "evasion" class) involves recovering about £350 million in tax from 450 persons. It is a drop in the ocean of tax-evasion-capital-flight where major corporations evade billions and where the entire infamous 1% (they actually are 0.5% of taxpayers) globally siphon $1 trillion per year to tax-havens - tax-free of course. But a drop can turn to a trickle and then a flood - if the embedded saboteurs can be neutralized and winkled out of our courts, treasuries and justice systems. PRISON FOR NO-TAX VIPs?

**************************

And - thirdly, there are many knowledgeable agencies, now getting quite cross on behalf of the silent majority, who are pursuing fundamental reforms to (a) stop corruption and (b) stop tax evasion:-

This long running pan-European initiative by skilled tax-economy officers is resisted and diverted but is nevertheless making civilized progress against the entrenched gangster economies.

G20 Finance Ministers: crises brewing, but little action. The G20 ministers’ eye-catching (but detail-free) promise to raise global growth levels obscures the fact that little concrete progress has been made, with IMF reform mired in US inaction, no proposals for systemic reform such as debt workout mechanisms, and a reliance for implementation on international institutions such as the OECD that exclude developing country participation.

********************

And finally, I keep writing letters, which are not always totally ignored:-

Letter to the Guardian - 26 FEB 2014.

Monetary policy committee member Ian McCafferty, joins the insistent, and persistent lobby to increase Base Rates (Bank hints at interest rates rise next spring – Guardian 26 Feb 14). Every quarter point rise (0.25%) siphons £3 billion per annum from poor borrowers to rich savers and banks, which causes unearned-income-inflation - which is far more damaging than earned-income-inflation. Higher base rates also attract super-rich foreign depositors to buy higher yield sterling, increasing its value, transferring the income (tax free) overseas and screwing our exporters. Thatcher gave such “Free Market” investors 17.5% of risk and effort free income in the 1980’s, paid for by mass unemployment, mass business bankruptcies and three crippling recessions. While the world’s tax-havens are awash with $21 trillion (OECD) to $32 trillion (Wall Street) of corrupt cash looking for safe-havens, the UK should not increase Base Rates.

(Mr) Noel Hodson

***************

Letter to BBC Radio News. 25 FEB 2014.

Will BBC News properly report the 450 tax evaders (about £350 million recoverable) which your employee/ hireling Chris Moyles was involved in? PRISON FOR NO-TAX VIPs?

It is a most important precedent for reversing tax and benefit frauds. The £350 million recoverable is the tip of an enormous £2 trillion iceberg of UK tax-evasion-capital-flight frozen in tax-havens – 8 million x ten years of jobs. All middle-class people can honestly claim “Some of my best friends (and leaders) are tax evaders” and none of us want to see them in jail – but the UK does urgently need to get the money back. It is a public duty for the BBC to report this as a main story.

Noel Hodson - Oxford

***************

25 FEB 2014. Letter to the Guardian

Your leader, HSBC hands allowances to hundreds of bankers to avoid EU bonus cap (Guardian 25 Feb 14) triggers calls for a Robin Hood Tax on bank transactions, which in another context is a necessary and good initiative. But the simplest remedy to executive greed, in all sectors, is a 1950’s style, 98% super-tax on annual “rewards” above £150,000, (£12.5K /month) which requires no new legislation or powers. It can be applied immediately. Very high taxes on very high incomes rapidly boosted Britain and brought full employment in the 1960’s, after the miserable post WW2 depression.

(Mr) Noel Hodson

PRISON FOR NO-TAX VIPs?

Tuesday 25 February 2014

"CLI-FI" - FAITH OR SCIENCE?

From: Dan Bloom [mailto:danbloom@gmail.com]
Sent: 19 February 2014 11:09
To: Noel Hodson
Subject: Re: Thames Floods - Dutch Solutions

Journalist and visionary Dan Bloom sent this extract from an article in the New Yorker:

(Visit Dan's CLI FI CENTRAL: 'Cli-fi' - a new literary genre http://pcillu101.blogspot.com/ )

THE NEW YORKER

"O LORD - NOW WE BELIEVE IN GLOBAL WARMING"
BUT WE AIN'T GOIN' TO CHANGE ANYTHING!
EXTREME WEATHER STRIKES THE US - AGAIN.

...Americans’ beliefs about climate change fall along a broad spectrum, argues Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of Yale University’s Project on Climate Change Communication, who has been studying perceptions of global warming since the late nineteen-nineties. He groups people into six categories. At one end of the spectrum are the “alarmed,” who think that global warming is both urgent and caused by humans. At the other end are the “dismissive,” who don’t believe in the phenomenon or the risks it may pose. These two groups make up roughly twenty-two per cent of the population, according to Leiserowitz’s most recent survey data. They are “deeply committed to their views,” he told me, and that makes them much more likely to engage in what’s known as motivated reasoning: when an event conforms to their prior beliefs, they use it as a data point in support of their views; if an event doesn’t, they simply disregard it. In one of Leiserowitz’s studies, for instance, people dismissive of climate change denied that they had experienced a heat wave that had objectively occurred.

Members of the groups in the middle, however—the vast majority of people—are likely to adjust their views on global warming based on irrelevant, subjective factors like the current temperature. These are the “concerned,” who believe that global warming is a threat, but only in the long term; the “cautious,” who follow the debate but are generally uncertain; the “disengaged,” who know little about global warming, apart from its name; and the “doubtful,” who think that climate change is probably not happening and that, even if it is, that humans can do little about it. “The cautious and disengaged in particular,” Leiserowitz said, “are most likely to change their views based on their recent experience of the weather.” In a recent study, which tracked people’s views on global warming in the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2011, Leiserowitz and a colleague found that people who weren’t strongly engaged with the issue were significantly affected by their personal experiences of the weather, while people more invested in the topic retained their initial beliefs no matter what happened. In other words, they simply interpreted the weather in light of their prior assumptions.

A slight change in presentation, however, may shift attitudes in the direction of climate science and away from the vicissitudes of local weather. A study out this month, from the Cardiff University psychologists Stuart Capstick and Nicholas Pidgeon, found that periods of exceptionally cold weather in the United Kingdom had the opposite effect as they did in the United States: more people believed in the truth of climate change.

International Journalist and Commentator Dan Bloom is pioneering and promoting a new genre of futurist novels, Cli-Fi, to inform the public about the development and effects of Climate Change.

LONDON FLOODS - 300ft UNDERWATER
LONDON FLOODING 2014

Friday 21 February 2014

PRISON FOR NO-TAX VIPs?

"WHO IN GOVERNMENT USE TAX-HAVENS?"

A UK media figure, BBC disk jockey and TV presenter Chris Moyles earned $1 million a year taxable income. He is far too elevated to pay tax, as only little people pay taxes, so he fraudulently pretended that he was also a second-hand car dealer, sent himself tax-deductible invoices for $1.5 million car dealing "losses" in 2007/08 and paid no tax. 450 London "high earners" did the same - on the advice of NT Advisors (NT stands for No Tax) who convinced the VIPs the false accounting was legal ("complex" but legal). Moyles paid these cowboy tax-planners $120,000 for their advice. Presumably the other 450 clients did the same - making $54 million in fees. It is almost a certainty that NT Advisors tried to pay no tax on the $54 million. Now Moyles must pay the tax he evaded, plus interest, plus penalties, plus legal and accountancy fees; probably for just that one year, by 2014 totalling $1 million. Assuming the other 450 VIPs earned similar amounts - that's $450 million dollars - plus NT Advisor's tax and interest and penalties, say, $40 million, means the UK Treasury gets a much needed $490 million. UK tax collections are way below target in January 2014.

And, presumably, the 450 clients will sue NT Advisors, who in turn will claim the damage on their Professional Indemnity Insurance policies. Good old Lloyds of London will cough up. Maybe! Whether the clients and professionals will be imprisoned for False Accounting or Fraudulent Conspiracy, as happens in America I SAY AVOIDANCE - YOU SAY EVASION remains to be seen. After all, Justice Must be Seen to be Done. We cannot have one law for the rich and another for the poor; particularly in tax-law.

"They" are all at it. Given the scale of this one uncovered fraud of nearly half-a-billion dollars, for just one tax year, among 450 otherwise respectable pillars of the community; it is little wonder that even The Guardian shies away from publishing letters such as mine, below, that point out that no-one, including major companies, can send themselves invoices (usually from tax-havens) to reduce their UK taxable profits. It is time for a Tax-Truth-and-Reconciliation global task-force to unearth the few million souls who have defrauded their homelands of the $32 trillion hidden in tax-havens - and time to bring it home, invest it, and re-boot the world economy. Like blood in the body, money must circulate to keep communities healthy; it is no use frozen in false names by the paranoid, sociopathic super-rich in tax-havens.

Letter to the Guardian - 20 FEB 2014.

Many congratulations to The Guardian, The Midcounties Co-operative, Richard Murphy and the other experts “at the table” for designing and promoting the “Fair Tax Mark to reward tax justice” – Guardian 20^th Feb 2014. Execution pivots on the vexed question of what is “the right amount of tax” for businesses to pay, in the regions where their sales and revenues actually occur. Honest auditors are highly paid to report correct sales figures, from which taxable profits can be (and internally are) accurately calculated. The real data for levying Fair Tax exists. However, the evasive businesses send internal invoices, usually retrospectively, from associated firms, to siphon the profits to tax-havens. These transactions (transfer-pricing; loan interest; management fees; royalties; dividends to wives in Monte-Carlo etc.) always have been and are illegal in tax law in all OECD regions – contrary to your bland statement “These companies aren’t breaking any laws – they are simply taking advantage of the complexity of the corporate tax system”. They are not complex; and they are criminal false accounting. Most tax experts work for or with auditors who since 1980 have signed false audit certificates and submitted false tax returns to reduce tax, as happened at Parmalat and ENRON, the latter case killing Arthur Andersen. In the 34 years 1980-2014, many top accountants and directors have become so habituated to creating false-invoices, increasingly unquestioningly approved by politically bullied local tax collectors, that the accountants convince themselves and their trainees that they are acting legally. They are not now and have not been legal. They were and are guilty of fraudulent conspiracy to evade tax. Tax collectors still apply tough penalties on local people who send themselves “tax deductible” invoices. Try it yourself if you doubt me. We do not want to see hundreds of top executives jailed for fraud (who signed all the false Balance Sheets and Tax Returns?) but the UK must recover the estimated £2 trillion (8 million jobs for ten years) of tax-evasion-capital-flight gouged from our UK businesses over the past 30 years. It is vital to apply long established tax laws, as are applied to small businesses, to all UK trading since 1980, in order to claw-back past tax deductibility and to repatriate the massive illicit offshore funds, frozen in 70 or more tax-havens. As the Guardian revealed last year, there are 130,000 anonymous bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) alone; just one of 70 criminal tax havens. Then, all nations will follow the UK lead, refill their public treasuries and re-boot the world’s economy. Latest estimates from Wall Street and the OECD are from $21 to $32 trillion hidden offshore – it all got there through false accounting. Fair Tax accounting will bring it home.

Noel Hodson, Oxford

Founder - McVeigh Hodson Blackstone Franks Accountants

Member – Global Alliance for Tax Justice

Contributor – Eurodad Capital Flight and Tax Justice Network

Thursday 20 February 2014

SEA LEVEL RISE OF 300 FT - 100 METRES

Letter to The Guardian 14. 02. 2014.

Mercifully, rainfall floods will recede but sea-level-rise floods will persist for millennia. The Guardian’s 14 Feb 2014 editorial “Hard rain, hard truths” cites sea-level-rise due to ocean warming and expansion (a real but minimal effect) but ignores observed Polar meltdown, which is the major factor. NASA director James Hansen used 2007 data (see attached graphic) to warn that when land based Arctic ice melts, seas will rise by 213 feet (64 metres). If so, most of London and New York will be submerged. Holland has floating villages – Britain needs to build floating cities – which are realistic, affordable, sustainable marine engineering proposals (Read AD2516 - After Global Warming). To start - Boris Johnson’s estuary airport should be on a floating island – long before 12 million Londonrefugees try to retreat to higher ground.

LONDON FLOODS - 300ft UNDERWATER

Saturday 15 February 2014

DISSIPATIVE PHENOMENA (2)

SHELDONIAN THEATRE OXFORD: A MUSIC-ATOM

All objects/ matter/ things/ systems/ phenomena on every scale and of every complexity in the Universe are dissipative systems in an ocean of "pure" energy that continually absorb and dissipate energy while acquiring and retaining identity - which identity implies a template for each and every phenomena. (Continued from 29th Nov 2013 THE FIFTH FUNDAMENTAL FORCE & GRAVITY ).

Thinking of complex phenomena, I draw an analogy with an orchestra. Last night we attended The Sheldonian Theatre, for an excellent concert by Oxford Philomusica, of Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 - with a superlative pianist Tatiana Kolesova, and of Prokofiev Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet, Op 64. Both pieces are often used in films and so their themes are well known to millions - including me. In universal terms it was an event; it was an energetic event; it had identity; it was complex; it manifested organisation, purpose and intelligence.

Including the (very skilled) Conductor and the Concert Pianist, there were 74 musicians. To create this event they came together, played in harmony and in concert, orchestrated by the conductor, made music for about 2 hours; and dispersed. Scientifically, the music vibrated the air and subtle electrical and atomic forces in the theatre, which in turn vibrated the planet's atmosphere and created electromagnetic waves, which in turn broadcast the event in spherical waves, out into space; into the universe. An identifiable event, a physical phenomena, which might well baffle distant alien radio astronomers with instruments delicate enough to detect the concert, was broadcast from The Sheldonian and is even now streaming across the universe; in-forming and re-forming the stuff of the universe - the "pure" energy of the universe.

Like an atom, examined by our most powerful microscopes and recently photographed (see previous article), the waves of this energetic event in a small building, on a small planet, in an average galaxy, do not die, and they broadcast and remain identifiable for all time.

I began to imagine the 74 music makers as sub-atomic particles of a single vibrant atom (all atoms vibrate continuously). This music-atom though short lived (two hours) emits its signal, location and scale of coherent energy, which travels or propagates at light-speed, in human terms - forever - until the end of days. Theoretically, the music could be detected in, say 22 billion light years, on the horizon of this observable universe.

This music-atom dissipated energy that signaled its existence - as music, to our ears, and to infinity. The musicians provided the energy and gave it identity by their disparate and then collective intent and will.

But the music-atom is not only energized by 74 players. Each of them brought an instrument, made and honed by instrument makers and played for tens or hundreds of years, adding to the characteristics of the instruments. The artisans' energies and previous players are also in the music-atom - but invisible. The 800 or so audience also bring energy and intent to the music-atom, energy which they energetically multiply as their enjoyment and empathy increases - and each brings a history of the universe. The event is contained in an historic building, designed for human gatherings by Christopher Wren, and built with skill and intent by hundreds of craftsmen and women. The coherent, organised energies of all these people in turn relied on their antecedents, back to the the first life forms. All parts ultimately cohere and manifest intent by dancing to the tune of the composers.

This entire music-atom for this short event is created by contemporary and historic energetic forces. It absorbs all these sources and strands of incoming energy and organizes and compresses them into an identifiable phenomena - which throughout all the complex interactions between the multitude of sub-atomic particles over time, retains its clear identity. The signals it sends are unmistakably and uniquely communicating the music-atom's existence. It is absorbing and dissipating energy via an identity pattern, a template which though shifting and altering split second by split second with every movement of every participant - is a persistent object /phenomena in the universe. It is extended in space and in time - almost infinitely (as far as humans can judge infinity).

Which lastly brings me to neutrinos. You will know that one USA university is creating a beam of neutrinos, described as the ghost of the ghost of a particle, and will fire trillions of them through 800 miles of rock to another university - which will measure changes in the neutrinos. Very little change is expected because of the trillions of trillions of trillions of neutrinos that the Sun emits (dissipates) which pass through planet Earth every split second, hardly any strike any other atom, sub-atomic particle, photon or electromagnetic wave. The music-atom in its most extended and complex existence is at all times experiencing neutrinos passing through. Perhaps the barely detectable collisions that do occur also carry data about the music-atom into the Aether-Matrix (which I insist exists) just as sunlight casts ephemeral shadows.

Imagine viewing this event telescopically from, say, Mars, and detecting the broadcast music; from which distance the Sheldonian might be compared to the size of an atom examined under a microscope in a laboratory. The whole would be fuzzy but with a distinguishable signature - the music. The individual orchestra players might be logically inferred from their interactions - each unique but very similar to each other; analogous to sub-atomic particles (the particle zoo). The audience would be a fuzzy but stable, larger but individually less energetic presence set in precise quantum orbits (electrons) around the nucleus of players. The two body's present mass/energy alone would not add up to the broadcast energy - would not be enough to explain the whole. The far larger number of past historic contributors, now dispersed, would be invisible but their energies as instrument makers, previous players and audiences, builders, composers etc. would inform the vibrations being broadcast in this 120 minute performance - the lifetime of the phenomena being observed. Additionally, adding to the mass/energy equation, the performance broadcasts into the future, as described above. And it is written of, remembered, recorded and replayed. All these actions are part of the total mass/energy of the music-atom.

A brilliant mathematician could compare the inflow of energy with the outflow of energy, which would perhaps balance. The phenomena would exist in a stream of smaller and less identifiable merging past, present and future events - where the players have learned the music; are drawn together to play; are organized by the music; and produce the music; in a unique performance.

GRAVITY - It is the balance of inflow and outflow, over time, while maintaining identity, stability and inertia within clearly defined variables and activities - say of the planet Earth or of one's own body that is my conundrum at the base of this orchestral analogy. I guess that all gravitating bodies (science assumes all things have gravity) are attractive due to a constant in-falling and equivalent out-flowing or broadcasting of energy, onto, and so from, their centres (centres from where we very accurately measure and calculate gravitational mechanics). The in-falling could be caused by Hubble expansion.

IF, this is true then a body such as the Sun, is maximally compressed at its centre - from which mass/ energy must be emitted. We are fully aware of the out-flowing heat and light, presumed to mostly be caused by in-falling pressure; we know of neutrinos, emitted in their trillions every second. We know the Sun broadcasts its identity as a star across the visible universe - in the past, present and future (perhaps in all three time zones simultaneously), which requires huge amounts of energy. Do the energies and masses falling into the Sun, balance with those emitted? Is there an energy emitter at the heart of the Sun that draws in and expels mass/energy, constantly compressing down and pumping up mass/ energy. Is this, manifest in all matter from atoms to galaxies, the pulse of the universe?

And ...from where does the Sun acquire its characteristic identity? Where do our bodies acquire their identity? Where are the invisible, Past, Present and Future energetic seeds and templates that confer shape, size, dynamic pulse, purpose, activities, inertia and lifespan to all things; ...and enable all things to exist , with identity, in the flow of pure energy. Each human is an organisation originating from the first pulse of life (where ever it might have emerged) through the long past, to the present and into the far future, standing - or lying if you prefer to be horizontal - in a containing pipeline of pure energy, dynamically moulded by a template for our (unique) existence.

(Continued from 29th Nov 2013 THE FIFTH FUNDAMENTAL FORCE & GRAVITY ).

Friday 14 February 2014

STERN FLOOD WARNING 2014

LORD NICHOLAS STERN

GUARDIAN FRONT PAGE 14 FEB 2014

Climate change is here now and it could lead to global conflict Lord Stern 14-02-2014

Extreme weather events in the UK and overseas are part of a growing pattern that it would be very unwise for us, or our leaders, to ignore, writes the author of the influential 2006 report on the economics of climate change

The record rainfall and storm surges that have brought flooding across the UK are a clear sign that we are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. Many commentators have suggested that we are suffering from unprecedented extreme weather. There are powerful grounds for arguing that this is part of a trend. Four of the five wettest years recorded in the UK have occurred from the year 2000 onwards. Over that same period, we have also had the seven warmest years.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/13/storms-floods-climate-change-upon-us-lord-stern

************
Letter to The Guardian

14 02. 2014.

(Mr) Noel Hodson 16 Brookside, OXFORD, UK

Tuesday 11 February 2014

LONDON FLOODING 2014

The Dutch are the world's experts at managing inhabited flood-land. They have amphibious homes that float when the water rises. Its not rocket science. Other nations just sit in dank traditional homes that are flooded every few years - DOH! Its called masochistic inertia... " But we can't do anything about it" Check these links and get busy. Ask your insurance company what they think of floating houses.

http://www.opp-connect.com/work-on-europes-first-floating-development-set-to-start-soon/

http://www.bowcrest.com/dutch-barge-specialists/index.php/floating-homes/

LEYLESTAD – PONDS EDGE
At the edge of the Park, a new neighborhood on the south side of the city in the Kestrel area now boasts a New Floating Residential community with eight energy-efficient, low-maintenance and durable floating homes. Built in collective private commissions (CPO) the lagoon was dug into a beautiful large bowl large enough to accommodate eight large Floating Homes with an average living area is approximately 171 m2, the content whopping 493m3.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/21/weather.architecture

Thames flood defences among schemes hit by coalition funding cuts

Avoidable damage estimated to cost £3bn as projects at Heathrow, Dawlish and Somerset Levels delayed or downsized - The Guardian - updated 18 FEB 2014. (& it is still raining - a light drizzle)

********************

2.30 PM 12 FEB 2014 - HEATHROW, LONDON AIRPORT IS THREATENED WITH WATER FLOODING FROM THE RIVER THAMES - A FEW MILES FROM CENTRAL LONDON. AND IT IS STILL RAINING HARD.

BRITISH BANK EXECS DONATE ONE YEAR'S PAY $6,000,000,000 ($6 billion) TO FLOOD RELIEF - ten times the UK Environment Agency's annual Budget. (Do you believe this generosity? And do you also believe in fairies? Or will the execs gouge out this money to tax-havens as usual - and screw their homeland?)

Despite the Tory Government's utter determination that only the poor should pay for climate damage, bankers have announced that they have donated all the 2013 executive pay - a total of over $6 billion, to relieve those ruined by the current floods and build all necessary Flood Defences.

"Barclays stoked the row over City pay on Tuesday by announcing a 32% fall in profits but a rise of 10% in the bonus pool. Antony Jenkins, promoted to run Barclays in the wake of the £290m fine for rigging Libor, defended the decision to increase bonus payouts as he warned that between 10,000 to 12,000 jobs would be cut this year as he races to cut costs. Some 820 senior roles are to go along with 7,000 jobs in the UK. In a move that sparked the fury of the TUC, which accused the bank of "sticking two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain", the bank announced it was paying bonuses of £2.4bn – up from £2.2bn a year ago – across the bank. Within that, the investment bankers enjoyed bonuses of £1.6bn compared with £1.4bn a year ago, even though the investment banking side suffered a loss in the fourth quarter and its annual profits tumbled 37%. The bank as a whole saw its profits fall to £5.2bn from £7bn."

Prime Minister David Cameron, crushing humble, craven peasants under the rising waters with his Hunter rubber boots, vowed to press on and "...get rid of all that Green Crap" from UK budgets. "When will people face the facts that the UK is bust - bankrupt - Kaput!" he said. "All we have left is about $3 trillion in our private tax-haven accounts and that is sacrosanct." ... "Where on earth do these half-witted envious plebians imagine we can find a paltry $500 million dollars to dry out their grim little hovels?" ..."That's nearly 0.00005% of what we VIP Britons have stashed offshore." "...My government won't spend a brass cent on all this green crap, until water laps across the floor of The Palace of Westminster - We MUST protect The City of London".

WHERE'S ALL THE F*****G MONEY GONE? UK.Gov says - In 2014/15, we (are) investing £344 million (0.01% of offshore UK capital) in new and ongoing flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCRM) schemes. 42 new schemes have been confirmed for 2014/15, bringing the total number starting construction this year to 55. Once complete they will reduce the risk of flooding for around 43,000 houses (out of 3.5 million homes at risk) across England.

WHERE'S ALL THE MONEY - WHO IN UK GOVERNMENT IS HIDING ASSETS IN TAX HAVENS?

FLOATING HOMES IN HOLLAND.

LONDON FLOODS