As much as I disagree with leftist idealogy, they have a point about it not being a recession and more like a robbery. The banks got bailed out for billions then decided to not lend it out, and got away with it. Then they paid themselves bonuses on par with the good ol' days.

Too true; this is not a left right argument at all, but a moral crusade. Are we prepared to let greed run riot in our society, with all the devastation it causes, like a plague of locusts, or do we introduce regulation to curb the excesses of the greed merchants who would destroy everything that is worthwhile for their own ends?

I have left leaning tendencies in some things, and right in others. I appreciate what capitalism can give us by way of a comfortable life, but what we have had since 1979, when Thatcher was let lose on our society, and she deregulated the banks to enable them to pillage as they will, is not capitalism, but rape of the wealth of our country solely for the benefit of a few. In this case a mere 1% of the population who have ripped off the resources belonging to the other 99%.

The people who have done this are not brilliant business men who can open factories and employ people to create wealth, but profit chasing brigands who employ very few, pay themselves fat salaries and bonuses, and only make money for themselves.

Capitalism as a force for good has therefore been usurped, and even our democracy has been eroded away. We are no longer as free as we thought we were, and we can do nothing to curb the excesses of those who rule us. Witness their overinflated salaries and bonuses too, and you get an idea of how far we've drifted away from a more equal society.

Thus the Occupy movement is a response to all this. OK, it may not be ideal; it may seem to be directionless, but we have to make a start somewhere to make economics work for all of us, not just a few who call the shots for their own benefit.

And when you've spent as much of your time and your energy as you can searching for a job, only to find nothing, or be turned down time after time, what then? Sit back and wallow in self pity and despair, or do you stand up and refuse to be cowed and turned into a docile and servile non-entity?

This spouting of the Tory press and their hangers on that the people without jobs or on benefits are nothing but scroungers and idle scum who deserve nothing, is a trap that many an unthinking, ignorant idiot falls into.

The real culprits of course are not the ones with the courage to protest or strike, but the upper echelons who milk the system dry by tax dodging or paying themselves far above what they are actually worth. You don't hear the Daily Express shouting too loud against those parasites, do you?

How about the councillors in our midst, who we've already mentioned several times already; how about the amount of money they squeeze out of us? Now there's a bunch of scroungers if ever there was. Same for the MPs and AMs, who are all on the take at our expense.

I can add another statistic to that list of shame: During its 18 year tenure in office, the Labour government is reputed to have squandered about £80 billion of taxpayers' money on defunct projects like IT systems that never worked, or overpriced goods and materials for its various departments.

I'm willing to bet that when this present lot of specimens leaves office they too will have squandered billions more of our money. It's public money, so there's no comeback on the criminal waste that goes on. And I just wonder how much the Welsh Assembly and local councils squander, starting with our own local lot of bunglers.

Now I'm one of the first to condemn the likes of Phillip Green and his fellow tax dodgers, but when I think of it sometimes, I've no choice but to pay tax that I know they're going to squander. In Green's case, he clearly uses top class accountants to steer his finances through the deliberately engineered tax loopholes.

Maybe he donates vast sums clandestinely, and we never hear about it, but the point is, he can decide who he donates it to and how it will be spent. He doesn't have to witness his taxes being wasted by idiots in government.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet between them have set up funds to help out the poor and destitute in Africa via schools and medicines. That's what I'd like to do with my taxes, but a bit closer to home. Instead, the government here decides that my taxes will go towards defunct IT schemes and Ministry of Defence contracts that turn out to be three or more times their original estimates, before being scrapped altogether.

There may well be some good reasons for tax dodging after all.

OK - you have to be careful with what you read in the press but this seems to be based on some credible research. It's brief but says a lot.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/12/11/bankers-cost-each-on...

Graeme.

ahh the smell of corruption usually involves brown envelopes stuffed with wonga.com or nice holidays in marbella courtesy of wonga.com or trips to see top concert in london theatre, three nights in top hotel with wifey and all the caviar you can stuff into your undercrackers.

plus the odd extension, double glazing.co.uk

At the top the figures are unbelievable