Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Trivia 2 Substance 0
The Pound watches its value plummet, the banks still struggle to function, unemployment continues its climb, mortgage defaults result in increased repossessions, the chances of power cuts this winter loom due to limited generating capacity, and the government tells the world "copy us", but naturally the big story is George Osborne. It is pathetic.
Some still laughingly regard the British media as the best in the world, but they tend to be members of the British media itself. Yes, it is Day 2 of Nondonationgate and the media has moved on to become all moist about Nathaniel Rothschild unveiling a 'witness' to a discussion about a possible donation of a meagre £50,000 from a super rich Russian billionaire. The witness is none other than James Goodwin, a former adviser to Bill Clinton and a man who is trying to secure a place as a nonexecutive director of Oleg Derispaska's company, Rusal. No conflict of interest there then, he could not possibly be biased. Could he?
While the lynch mob continues its attempts to drag George Osborne to a convenient branch, the architect of this witch hunt, Peter Mandelson, sits back smugly and smiles contentedly. For while the media chases its own curly tail and is captivated by this supposed intrigue among the super wealthy, questions about Mandelson's efforts to give Deripaska's companies advantage over its Russian and European competitors go unasked and unanswered. Lord Mandy can rely on the BBC's political editor to hold the line and actively resist calls to delve deeper.
Just to put things into context, something the Socratic wonder that is our media seems incapable of doing... The allegation against George Osborne and Andrew Feldman is that they discussed a £50,000 donation from Deripaska. The fact remains that no donation was never made and no law broken. The allegation against Peter Mandelson is that he changed the import duty applicable to Deripaska's company (Rusal Sayana) to zero, while its rivals continued to pay 14.9% - saving Deripaska's company millions of pounds. Mandelson's department then went on to advise European ministers to halve the duty on raw aluminium (major beneficiary, Rusal) resulting in Deripaska's costs of sending his aluminium to Europe being reduced by at least £50m.
So who has a case to answer here? Well, of you are the BBC's business editor, who prefers to act as the character witness for Rothschild rather than focusing on the British currency freefalling, or a Times columnist with a close personal bond to Labour's friend Andrew Marr, clearly it has to be Osborne. Welcome to the wonderful world of moral inversion. But worry not dear reader. If you are desperate for information and analysis about the financial crisis' effects on Britain you can always rely on this man to fill the cavernous gap left by the press.
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