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Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

independent.co.uk

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Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#131

Post by [deleted] »

Bootvis wrote: post #100
blowski wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blimey, that's a fascinating link to be so public and explicit. They boast about not being funded by Trade Unions, and then invite big business to donate £50K so they can have lunch with the PM to "defeat the rise of socialism".

What's even more amazing, the text right under that header: > Labour has said that they would turn their backs on our nuclear deterrent, abolish our armed forces and has openly sympathised with terrorist groups who seek to destroy our way of life. Their policies for the continued economic recovery of our great nation should make alarm bells ring. > Labour are steadily building an army of far left-wing supporters and…

[deleted]

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#132

Post by ConfuciusSay02 »

_0ffh wrote: post #98
pixel_fcker wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure in this context it's the redistribution of wealth part they're not keen on.

I think they're very much in favor of redistributing wealth. It's just the socialists' preferred direction of the redistribution that they don't agree with.

Funny how they're massive socialists when it comes to supporting the military, but not when it comes to healthcare?

They're just self-hating socialists.

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#133

Post by clumsysmurf »

cstross wrote: post #52

The inadmissible truth about corruption in the UK is that it's endemic. And not just money laundering; the very way governments (both Labour, Conservative, and Coalition) have pursued the business of privatization of state assets since 1979 is uniquely corrupt, on a massive scale. Hint: corruption isn't just about simple bribery and envelopes full of banknotes passing hand. Ask yourself why so many cabinet ministers…

> or why so many long-term viable agencies of government (the Post Office, the Land Registry, the National Air Traffic Control System, the NHS ...) find themselves in need of privatization in the name of "efficiency"

A few articles in The Guardian recently on neoliberalism: First, from Goerge Monbiot's book, "Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-...

and secondly "You’re witnessing the death of neoliberalism – from within"

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/31/witness...

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#134

Post by s_dev »

tomcam wrote: post #104
josephcooney wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that the U.S. is considered to have a well-enough developed system of on-shore tax havens to not require going to Panama.

Please name just one. I pay a lot in taxes.

Nevada, Wyoming, and South Dakota

source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/the-world-...

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#135

Post by rmmfree »

I would confirm that it's my country, Spain. But you can't know it if you just read our main press, because they fake the reality. Our politicians, their relatives, their companies and their mass-media have stolen thousands of million of euros, and nothing happens. Nobody goes to jail, except the people who claims agains it.

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#136

Post by paulddraper »

ajnin wrote: post #57
phelm wrote: post #29

Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

ajnin's law of adages : as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of someone using a popular adage to avoid argumenting approaches 1.

That doesn't make him wrong, though.

If Britain were the most corrupt country, they would state it, not ask it.

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#137

Post by [deleted] »

simonswords82 wrote: post #71
mootothemax wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Hint: corruption isn't just about simple bribery and envelopes full of banknotes passing hand. While I agree with you, I find the bare-faced cheek of publicly-advertised "donor clubs" that promise access to the Prime Minister for a mere £50k/year absolutely sickening: https://www.conservatives.com/donate/Donor-Clubs

Crikey, if you posted this to http://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom their collective heads would literally explode.

[deleted]

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#138

Post by mancerayder »

edko wrote: post #127
fennecfoxen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tax havens, hmm? So around the world, basically, the good honest career politicians from Argentina to Zambia are going around to profitable businesses saying "hey, nice business you have there! We'd like to take, say, 50% of your profits, if you don't mind, and spend it on our friends - government contractors, public-sector unions and the like. All the donations to our campaign afterward are purely incidental, I assu…

I don't know about Zambia, but in Argentina most people don't care too much about campaign contributions. The perception is that most of the corruption there is through cronyism, and kickbacks from outrageously overpriced goods and services bought by the State. It is not politicians robbing businesses, but politicians and some businesses robbing the tax money of, mainly, the middle class.

The thing about campaign contributions is that it's all about the exchange: in return, the contributors get a say in government policy, enforcement, decisions. It undermines democracy. Is it better, or worse, than naked cronyism and kickbacks in the form of contracts, overpriced goods and services, etc.?

Hard to say. Depressing to think about.

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#139

Post by rorykoehler »

dmoy wrote: post #129
rorykoehler wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? Singapore has open and free elections. Anyone can run, it's just that the PAP, for all their flaws, do such a good job that there is no reason to vote them out. This is a reflection of the low corruption environment.

Or, lest we forget PRI, it is a sign of insanely high corruption. (Not saying it's the case in Singapore, just pointing out that a one party system doesn't necessarily point towards low corruption). There's other possibilities (low press freedom, etc).

There's 2 parties here. The opposition are pitiful. Singapore would implode if they came to power.

Re: Britain is the most corrupt country in the world?

#140

Post by cstross »

funkyy wrote: post #82
vijayr wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some examples of democratic countries where corruption is low? Ask yourself why so many cabinet ministers retire and end up on the boards of large conglomerates that specialise in bidding for government outsourcing contracts, or why so many long-term viable agencies of government Doesn't this happen elsewhere too? Example - revolving door in financial institutions

Maybe Switzerland? Direct democracy (kind of) sounds like best bet...

Note that direct democracy has its own drawbacks: for example, in some cantons the franchise was only extended to women on February 7th, 1971: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/...

(Pressure for social change tends to come from the young, voters skew old, so in practice many direct democracies tend to be very slow to adapt to widespread grassroots social change.)

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