The mother of all bailouts - time for Politics 2.0

This morning I thought we had a sensible, pragmatic solution to the UK bank crisis - an £50m recapitalisation, so We the People actually took ownership of the banks our money propped up. Next thing I know, its the evening news and its a £500bn deal, only £25bn recap, and most of the rest are various forms of taxpayer guaranteed loans. The BBC showed it in scale in the diagram above - its 3x more than we spend on health and schooling etc pa for example.

To put this into perspective - £50bn (c $90m) is about equal on a pro rata GDP basis to the US $700bn bailout. £500bn is an equivalent of a c $6- 7n TRILLION bailout pro rata'd into US terms - its about 30% of the UK GDP. Or looked at another way, every UK taxpayer is on the hook for £20k if it goes belly up, ie about 80% of the annual average wage. Because we have two earners at home, thats this household on the hook for (on average) £40k. Thats c $75k.

And what do we get for this in return? Its all very vague right now. It was cooked up* behind closed doors by the same politicians and bankers who got us into this mess, so the probability of this being a deal where the good stuff lands on my side of the fence is.....interesting. No Senate style hearings yet even to get a bit of pork back.

Now, if I may have a small rantette - No, If I'm going to keep the buggers who lost our money in their jobs, I don't want it to be just so they can repossess my house when I lose my livelihood thanks to their activities. Heck, between Gordon Brown's raids and the stock market shenanigans they've already ruined my pension - maybe a quid pro quo on last 5 years bonusses, chaps?

Something of this size needs ever person in this country on the front line to make sure it gives us what we want - irrespective of party or any other affiliation. We need politics at the level of the individual, and of the polity at the same time.

Its time for Politics 2.0

If ever there is a time for a people to take some control of what is being decided in their name, its now. If not, every type of abuse of that £500bn trough you can possibly imagine will occur - starting with the Olympic lot, some Councils, and no doubt a horde of other unworthy causes.

*No, turns out they sent out for curry takeaway