早上聽著BBC 4 Six O’clock Daily News, 很快地被一則新聞吸引了, 這則新聞其實已經討論了好幾天, 不過今天又因事件爆炸性的發展, 成為全英目前最受矚目的問題! 當聽著主播念著各大報對這件事的報導篇幅, 我注意到了Daily Mail好像有詳細事件追縱, 因為這原因, 一到學校, 我立即買了來英國後第一份Daily Mail。 翻了報紙一下,跟我平常喜歡的 Independent 跟Times相比, 有趣的新聞實在不多, 但是在這件需要正義感報導的時刻, 它扮演了很好為民喉舌的角色….究竟是什麼事件沸沸揚揚了一個星期呢?
對許多人來說, 這已經不是什麼稀奇的事, 英國政府在工黨首相Gordon Brown領導之下, 真的做得很爛! 在5月後的歐洲議會選舉及之後國會大選, 早有許多人看衰工黨的表現….現在英國似乎有點像我們去年政黨輪替前的情形, 執政黨每天疲於奔命當救火隊, 可是火種卻是遍地開花………..
我要談的這件事, 最早是發生在星期一, Gordon Brown身旁許多重要內閤大臣陸續被發現有詐領特別津貼費用情形,。其實在英國, 有關特別津貼的發放還是有一套規定, 不過比較大的問題是, 國會議員(MP)將這些規定訂的相當寬鬆, 以致漏洞百出, 結果方便了官員跟MP上下其手。
工黨被抓包的人很多, 尤其是位高權重的人做了下列事, 更讓英國社會群情激憤:
(1) 首相 Gordon Brown,利用他之前MP身份, 在履新時, 立即申請了加碼津貼, 結果他用來做什麼呢? 竟然是拿人民納稅錢去買他第二間豪宅, 請注意他當時已是準首相身份! (ps: 當國會議員時, 他其實已向政府申報名下有一間房子, 而且當了首相後, 他就光明正大搬去Downing Street官邸享福)
Name: Gordon Brown
Job: Prime Minister
Salary: £194,250 (年薪折合台幣約970萬)
Second home in Westminster: 1st January 2006 – 31st March 2006 (這個他買在西敏寺的第2間房子, 部份是拿納稅人的錢,不是他的薪水買的, 另外他這間私產維修費也都是用公款)
Ground rent: £37
Food: £650
Utilities: £374.38
Telephone: £83.70
Cleaning: £1403.90
Service/Maintenance: £581.87
Repairs: £90.14
Other: £108 (three months of Sky at £36 a month)
Other: £1396 (internal decoration)
(2) 財政大臣Alistair Darling 有樣學樣, 在買倫敦第二間房子時, 也是拿了部份特別津貼好處, 請問一般老百姓為什麼沒這種好康的??
(3) 外交大臣 David Miliband 拿了特別津貼 去修不是自己住,卻要租人的房子, 因為太浪費, 連他的園丁都看不下去, 跑去跟狗仔告密。
(4) 司法大臣Jack Straw拿了特別津貼去抵了一半的稅, 看在許多英國百姓眼中,心中真的是百味雜陳….
(5) 社政大臣Miss Blears 申請了特別津貼, 一口氣在一年內買三間房子….
出包官員太多, 族繁不及備載, 懶得寫下去…………基本上, 這一連串事件, 已使得一般英國百姓對政府失去信心。看到工黨政府失去民心, 保守黨原本暗自竊喜….可是不幾天的工夫, 同樣的問題也發生在它們重要成員身上, 理由更是千奇百怪, 連買狗飼料也在報特別津貼費用, 拿兩萬鎊幫親戚修房子的, 貸款買一堆房子….這些醜聞也逼得保守黨的帥氣黨主席David Cameron不得不因黨員這種貪污行為向全國人民道歉! 未來幾天, 我想大概兩黨會去協商出一個政治性解決問題辦法, 不過這並不是我關心的重點, 比較讓我感觸良深大概是下面幾點心得:
(1) 人性貪婪中外皆然, 只是西方社會對人性本質比我們有更深的體驗,。這幾天, 我一直在觀察他們新聞評論的內容, 結果發現, 道德或很多情緒性的東西, 他們討論的不多, 相反地, 怎麼找出一套制度制住貪念才是他們的討論焦點。所以對照台灣的情形, 總有一堆人在計較貪多貪少, 誰是聖人….在我看來, 其實對防治貪腐沒有太大意義!
(2) 貪污真的就是特定個人的乖張行為? 不是喔! 英國的貪污可是跨黨派, 跨性別的, 大家可以看下面那張圖, 有拿著特別津貼去買二房的可是兩黨都有, 男女都有吧! 如果人是有私心的, 不管他們是什麼性別, 甚至加入某政黨前,就一定有那個傾向啦! 所以有時看看國內一堆名嘴在指責某些政黨才是貪腐政黨, 聰明的人, 你會信這麼簡單的說法嗎??
<<拿著人民納稅錢去買二房的國會議員, 兩黨都有,週末前爆料重點.....英國人民大概是忍不住了,我猜>>
<<>保守黨要員Cheryl Gillan連台幣900元狗飼料也在報公帳, 英國人民氣瘋了!她跟寵物都紅了!>>
(3) 看看英國人這些報社, 只要貪瀆的MP, 不管你是什麼黨派, 全部都爆料出來, 比台灣壹週刊更狠! 也許有人說它們是為了商業利益, 也許吧!不過無形中, 它也在發揮促進社會正義的功能…..如果是台灣, 我想現在那麼和諧, 唱旺的氣氛下, 會有報社有這種道德勇氣嗎?很難
在回家山路, 想著這些事情, 不知不覺發現有點喜歡了這個社會, 尤其報紙跟他們就事論事, 不偏不倚的觀點。 我的家-台灣, 不知道有沒有機會能有不受政治箝制之獨立媒體的一天, 還有啊!對於政治人物 (應該是政客), 我們不該再存在任何虛妄的幻想! 一個文明社會的公民, 永遠是採懷疑批判的態度去檢視他們的所做所為, 英國如此, 我想歐洲大陸許多地方也是如此…… 總之,高素質政治社會絕對不是由所謂愚民跟順民所組成, 他們的公民富而有禮, 但是為了共同理想, 他們懂得團結行動……
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後記
Jun 23 2009
下午去union shop 買coffee時, 不經意瞄到有報紙竟拿我研究的東西當headline, 破例那麼晚買了 newspaper …… 頭一份的daily express, 蠻勁暴的編輯風格, 尤其喜歡它一針見血的政治評論, 就像下面令人鼻酸的的英國工人現況…. 看了之後,不禁想想我最愛的臺灣, 我們的教育市場, 勞動市場不也都要繼金融市場後逐步開放了嗎….
開放的效益是否真如上位者所講的那樣? 看看英國經驗, 底層工人的斑斑血淚, 也許我們的下一代會比我們更恨政治吧.......
HOW LABOUR HAS BETRAYED WORKING PEOPLE IN BRITAIN
Tuesday June 23,2009
By Patrick O'Flynn
THE growing estrangement between the Labour Party and working people, one effect of which has been the rise of the BNP, is rapidly turning into a formal separation.
Mass demonstrations are taking place at industrial sites such as the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire in protest against the hiring of foreign labour while local dole queues are lengthening.
They are greatly frowned upon by Government ministers such as Peter Mandelson, whose primary loyalty appears to lie with the European Union as a whole rather than with the United Kingdom.
He has spoken out against such “pro-tectionist” outbursts, saying they are fuelled by “the politics of xenophobia”.
In fact they are a rational protest against the failure of Labour to live up to its name by representing British working- class communities.
They could even be seen as an admirable expression of solidarity by British tradesmen for their out-of-work
compatriots.
Many lies have been told during the New labour era.
The allegation that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction takes some beating.
Labour’s manifesto pledge that “we will not introduce top-up fees” will be regarded as particularly outrageous by thousands of new graduates emerging into a decimated jobs market with average debts of £20,000 after being stung for three years worth of the very same. (跳票!)
But in this new age of mass unemployment the pledge to create “British jobs for British workers” has become the falsehood central to political life. (跳票!)
In a speech to the GMB trade union – the very body organising the lindsey protests – in June 2007, on the very cusp of starting his premiership, Gordon Brown said:
“It is time to train British workers for the British jobs that will be available over the coming
few years and to make sure that people who are inactive and unemployed are able to get the
new jobs on offer.” (當初政客的說辭)
What Brown did was the precise opposite.
He failed to impose Labour market controls on people from the new European Union member states, scattered around work permits for foreign nationals like confetti and generally acted as if his claim to have “abolished the cycle of boom and bust” was indisputable fact.
But the new jobs Brown predicted have not materialised.
Instead we are seeing the fastest increase in unemployment for a generation while foreign workers continue to arrive
in their thousands.
Rather than British workers being trained to match the vacancies on offer we now have one in six British 18-year-olds categorised as “Neets” – not in education, employment or training. (尼特族.....)
Young people at a formative stage of their lives are drifting into drug dependency, crime and the sort of chaotic lifestyles that will mitigate against them ever having a successful working life.
The Government’s failure to reserve powers to shield our Labour market from foreign
workers in a recession is symptomatic of its elevation of European citizenship above British
citizenship.
The men demonstrating at lindsey and elsewhere clearly take a different view.
Until the recession began to bite about a year ago the primary impact of the flood of plumbers, carpenters, electricians, production-line workers and agricultural labourers from Eastern Europe was to depress pay rates in these occupations.
British workers derided by metropolitan socialists as belonging to the “white van man” fraternity became increasingly disillusioned with Labour and fed up with being accused of racism for wishing to protect employment conditions.
But at least they were still in work.
Labour’s guilty secret was that the bulk of those out of work were not actively looking for jobs.
Most were either on incapacity benefit or women following the Karen Matthews template of bringing children into the world for the sake of an endless stream of benefits.
What has happened over the past 12 months is that thousands of self-reliant, hard-working people have lost jobs
through no fault of their own.
They are desperate for work and willing to accept positions below those they have lost.
This rapid change in labour market conditions is seen in the thousands of applications received for seasonal jobs at zoos and theme parks. (心有威"焉)
Displaced British workers have found to their horror that the jobs market, especially at the lower end, has been stitched up by Eastern Europeans.
For companies whose production lines are now entirely staffed by Poles it makes for an easy life to fill any vacancies with friends of their existing foreign workers.
In Boston, also in Lincolnshire, hundreds of jobs at a vegetable packing plant were offered to Eastern Europeans last week without locals being invited to apply. as one unemployed local, Andy Pearson, explained: “In the past a lot of
people turned their noses up at these sorts of jobs.
"It is hard work and not very well paid. That’s why all the farmers started getting foreigners in. But times have changed. If they advertised these jobs locally they’d get some takers.”
But thanks to the arrogance of Gordon Brown, the man who claimed he had abolished the Trade cycle, our jobs market is open to all-comers.
It is a biting irony that people protesting for the “right to work” – a slogan once used in a bid to
mobilise the working-class against Margaret Thatcher – must now direct their rage against a
Labour regime. (這大概是我們年紀愈大,會恨政治的原因吧....)
A demonstration by workers at the Lindsey oil refinery on the U.K.'s eastern coast resumed in a blizzard Monday.
