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      • To Scare the Monkeys
  • Email Form Page
  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
  • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street
    • Arrival and First Impressions
    • First Week
    • Training
    • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Tempo of the City
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
    • 1984 - 1986 >
      • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
      • Having a go: SDU
      • Starting a Chernobyl family
      • EOD - Don't touch anything
      • Semen Stains and the rules
    • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go? >
      • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
      • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
      • 600 Happy Meals Please!
      • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
      • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Triads
    • The Saga That Rocked Hong Kong's Legal Fraternity
    • Yip Kai-foon - No Hero
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • Blogs Greatest Hits
    • Vennells - In the Faustian Realm Page
    • A Bond Is Broken
    • The English Eccentric Lives On
    • How is democracy working for you?
    • Occupy Central - A creature void of form
    • Brave New World
    • Bob Dylan and Me.
    • Sweet Caroline - Never Seemed So Good!
    • Postmodernism - Spiraling down the sink hole.
    • Why Dad is so important.
    • Man Overboard
    • Suffer the Children
    • Tony Blair, the turd that won't flush
    • Algorithms and Robots - the changing face of work
    • Campus Warfare
    • Are We Alone?
    • There is no motive.
    • The State of Play
    • Crisis, What Crisis?
    • Milk Powder - A Test of public sentiment.
    • Hello Baldy - Free Speech.
    • THe Other Side of the Story
    • The Merry House of Windsor
    • The Utility of the Windsors
    • Civil War?
    • Big Lily - The Headscarf Hero
    • RTHK - Spinning.
    • Occupy Leaders Convicted - What Next?
    • Hypocrites
    • Hong Kong's Lady Macbeth
    • Beijing Says Enough Is Enough
    • The Gardens of Fuyang
    • Beating the Devil - under a flyover
    • Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
    • Gweilo 鬼 佬​
    • What goes around, comes around!
    • The Cobra
    • Liz Truss - A Cosplay Thatcher
    • Liz Truss trashes and crashes.
    • Hong Kong Judicary - has something gone wrong
    • Hubris, arrogance and failure.
    • Carry On Up the Khyber
    • The Unseen Hand
    • The Laptop that won't shut down
    • Legacy Media - the end is near
    • Malcolm Tucker Tribute Act
    • Journalism - Something has gone wrong?
    • Decline of the West? Maybe?
    • Canada's Killing Machine
    • English Uprising
    • South Yorkshire Police Madness
    • Deceitful BBC
    • Fair Dee Well
    • British Policing Needs A Reality Check.
    • Being a man is not a crime yet!
    • Putting Old Oak Common on the map.
    • When the winds stops blowing
    • The Long Read >
      • The Big Game
      • The Hidden Leader
      • British Policing - What's to be done?
      • How The Walls Come Down
      • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
      • New World Order - Something is going on!
      • The Post Office; Lie, Deny, Cheat, Hide & Steal
      • To Scare the Monkeys
  • Email Form Page
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you what life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review
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26/9/2024 1 Comment

Free Gear Kier - He'd be locked up in Hong Kong!

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"The terms 'sleaze' or 'cronyism' are wordplay conjured up to downplay what is corruption."
Local media reported yesterday (24 September 2024) that Singapore's former transport minister, S. Iswaran, pleaded guilty to receiving gifts in office. The case revolves around Iswaran receiving favours, including tickets to English Premier League soccer matches and the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix. He's looking at a spell in jail.

It's crucial to understand that in Singapore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere in Asia, giving gifts to officials is frowned upon and considered a severe breach of trust and a form of corruption. This understanding is vital in grasping the severe consequences of such actions. That's not to suggest that corruption doesn't exist in Asia, far from it; yet, many places have faced the challenge head-on and brought corruption under control, notably Singapore and Hong Kong. 

In Hong Kong, stringent laws hold civil servants and politicians accountable and ensure official business is conducted cleanly and free from any back-door influence. This commitment to clean governance is a cornerstone of the city's administration. 

Under Civil Service Regulation 444 (2), gifts offered to a civil servant by virtue of the official position are regarded as advantages to the officer's department. When it is considered inappropriate to return the gifts to the donor, the officer should report and hand over the gifts received to the department for disposal.

Also, under section 4 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), a Government officer soliciting or accepting any advantage as an inducement, reward, or reason for abusing his official power or position in his official capacity shall be guilty of an offence, punishable by a maximum fine of HK$500,000 and imprisonment for seven years.

Significantly, the POBO does not specify any ceiling of allowable advantages for corruption offences. Hence, the receiver and offeror will commit an offence if he accepts or offers an advantage of any value if it falls into corrupt dealings as specified in the POBO. The key factors are the purpose or motive and the circumstances of the acceptance or offer, not the value.

I recall having to declare a T-shirt given to me at a road safety event. On another occasion, an old man randomly approached my patrolling officers at Chinese New Year to hand over a red packet containing cake coupons. Several officers tried to reject the offer, but the man insisted, stating the red packet contained no money and only a blessing message. At the end of the shift, the officers came forward, and I recovered 15 red packets. These were logged in and handed to the property store. 

Whatever the man's motivation, it was inappropriate for officers to retain the coupons because even the inference of a bribe does damage. 

On the corruption front, Hong Kong's legal system is renowned for its fearlessness in going after the big fish. In 2012, Rafael Hui, the former number two in the Hong Kong government, was arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and convicted of five counts of 'Misconduct in Public Office'. Hui was found to have accepted bribes from prominent businessmen. This case serves as a testament to the fairness and fearlessness of Hong Kong's legal system, reassuring the public of its ability to uphold justice. 

Interestingly, the prosecution did not need to prove that Hui did any acts that favoured the businessmen. Instead, he put himself in the position of owing them a favour because he'd taken bribes. The court judged that sufficient to convict him. 

Likewise, in 2015, a former Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, was convicted by a jury of corruption. In Tsang's case, an apartment he owed underwent redecoration paid for by a businessman seeking a TV broadcast license. On 26 June 2019, the Court of Final Appeal unanimously quashed his conviction and sentence after finding that the trial judge had failed to direct his jurors properly. The Court did not require a new trial of Tsang, who'd already served months in jail. 

These tales bring me to the current British Prime Minister, Sir Kier Rodney Starmer. He stood on a platform of clean government, frequently calling out the alleged sleaze under the governing Conservatives. Fast-track contracts for the friends of ministers to secure lucrative Covid PPE contracts and other unscrupulous actions litter the years of Tory rule. And in response, Starmer made much play of being a 'clean' man.

Yet we now know that Labour-appointed peer Lord Waheed Alli gave Starmer glasses valued at £2,500, clothes valued at £16,200, football tickets valued at about £17,000, accommodation valued at £20,000, and concert tickets costing some £4,400. 

While Starmer declared most of these items, the question of transparency remains: What did the donor, Lord Alli, expect for such generosity? This case underscores the crucial and urgent need for transparency in political actions and the potential consequences of a lack thereof. 

Labour has sought to defend these 'gifts' as being less severe than the sleaze that the Conservatives engaged in. This untenable excuse is fueling outrage and amounts to, “Yes, we broke into your home but didn’t steal as much as the other bloke.”

Moreover, reasonable questions should be asked why Starmer, a multi-millionaire with an estimated value of £10 million, would need support to purchase glasses, clothes, and football tickets. Further, would Lord Alli be handing over these vast sums if Starmer wasn't the Prime Minister? No. 

In August 2024, the press reported that Lord Alli was granted unrestricted access to 10 Downing Street, uncommon for anyone not formally employed in the Prime Minister's office. It looks like the man bought the keys to Nos 10 -  literally!

Even the terms 'sleaze' or 'cronyism' are wordplay conjured up to downplay what is essentially corruption. Just like 'rape gangs' become 'grooming gangs,' the message is massaged to lessen its significance and excuse graft. 

In the bad old days, I'm told that brown envelopes left on desks quietly distributed corrupt money across the Hong Kong Police Force to passive 'bus riders' to taint them. Thankfully, all that stopped before I joined.

In the UK, corruption is facilitated by rules on declaration that offer cover to politicians who hide behind the excuse, "I declared it." These rules and associated processes ignore the underlying motives of donors and the expectations placed on beneficiary politicians.  

If Starmer were in Hong Kong, he'd now face a morning knock from the ICAC. But then again, the Hong Kong government is cleaner, as affirmed by international ratings. So, instead of scolding Hong Kong, British politicians could learn from us how to run a clean government. That assumes they have the willingness and courage, which 'free gear Kier'  appears to lack.

Post Script

​A story is emerging that the governing Labour Party took its largest donation of £4 million from a Cayman Island-based hedge fund engaged in the arms trade. This donation came in on 28 May 2024 but was only published last week, more than two months after Labour won the election. Why the delay? There is no doubt more to follow in this story
.

Update

On 3rd October, S Iswaran, the Singaporean former minister, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for obstruction of justice and accepting illegal gifts. Meanwhile, Kier Starmer has begun repaying the gifts he received, tacitly acknowledging wrongdoing. 

1 Comment

15/9/2024 1 Comment

Starmer's Betrayal of the Pensioners

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"Starmer had many choices he could make. He's opted to punish the old and reward the criminals."
As I pointed out some weeks ago, getting elected was easy for Sir Kier Rodney Starmer and the Labour Party.

He didn't give much away during the election campaign. Now, we know why. The public is left in a state of shock and disbelief to learn that his unstated priority is to kill off some pensioners.

It makes political sense. After all, the old dears probably don't vote Labour, so removing a few from the electorate is a win that culls Tory voters and saves him £1.5 billion by removing their winter fuel allowance. By Labour's estimates from a 2017 report, some 4,000 pensioners may die. Either way, Starmer isn't too bothered as he feels this move affirms his status as a hard man who "can take the tough decisions."

Next up, he's decided to create a new pool of supporters amongst the drug traffickers, gang members and sex offenders. As the first batch of 1,800 criminals exited the over-crowded prisons last week under Starmer's early release initiative, the public's concern and fear grew. The villains applauded Starmer’s decision, promising their vote.

Never mind that one sex offender re-offended on the day of his release or that vulnerable women and girls will see that those who beat them walk free. Never mind that many convicted criminals had nowhere to go and, therefore, ended up in tax-payer-funded hotels. There, they can mix with the well-looked-after illegal immigrants that Britain welcomes while watching pensioners freeze.

This situation would be comical if it weren't true. Moreover, Starmer didn't win majority support for these policies because he hid them. He’s merely a vehicle to remove the appalling Tories from office. Again, as I've pointed out, he only secured 20 per cent of the eligible vote, which must call into question his legitimacy.

Anyway, his premiership is now defined by the attack on pensioners and the favour he's done the criminal fraternity. The optics are terrible and about to get worse. Expect higher taxes, further cuts in public services, and "reform" of the NHS; "reform" is a euphemism for additional cuts.

Of course, Labour's catch-all excuse is to blame the Tories for Britain's financial mess. Sure, there is a £22 billion hole in the public finances, a fact that Starmer repeats as much as his infamous "My father was a toolmaker" claim.

A quick check reveals that £9 billion of that deficit is due to Starmer's political choices, including a pay increase for public sector workers. Hence, pretending that the Tories are to blame is misleading. After all, Starmer had other options.

  • Stop taking asylum claims from those arriving from France. These people are not at risk in France; therefore, the U.K. has the right to refuse them. In the 1980s, when swamped by refugees from Vietnam, the Hong Kong British colonial regime had no hesitation in implementing a closed camp policy and forced repatriation. This approach sent a clear message, saving many as the Vietnamese were dissuaded from attempting the dangerous sea journey here. The amount of aid spent on hosting refugees and asylum seekers in the U.K. rose last year to £4.3 billion—up from £3.7 billion in 2022. Cut that cost in half, and you can keep the pensioners warm and alive.

  • Similarly, why should taxpayers maintain nearly 1.7 million unemployed migrant workers — a uniquely British oxymoron — at an annual cost of £8 billion?

  • How about getting rid of the two aircraft carriers that spend their time between the repair dock and Portsmouth Harbour? Britain can't afford to crew the vessels; they don't have enough planes. Each carrier costs £99 million to upkeep without factoring in an air wing. Without enough escorts, these vessels make no strategic sense. So stop pretending Britain still "rules the waves" because it can't even stop the small boats in the channel. On Saturday 14th September, 801 people crossed the Channel. 

  • How about reducing the guaranteed £3 billion a year to Ukraine for as long as the conflict lasts? The war is a stalemate, and British funds delay the inevitable settlement.

  • Step away from the zero-carbon nonsense. The U.K. effort in this area is tokenism at best. It's already killed the British steel industry and made the country reliant on imported steel. Not only does this hit the individual steelworks closed, but it also reduces the nation's expertise in this area, degrading innovation.
    ​
Starmer had many choices he could make. He's opted to punish the old and reward the criminals.

​Henceforth, everything Starmer does will be measured against how he deals with illegal migrant issues and the funds involved. All his actions will be weighed against the cost to pensioners. But instead of an open discussion around illegal migration, Starmer is intent on shutting down the discussion; he's closing the Overton window by labelling anyone with legitimate concerns as “far-right."


So, Starmer's low-standing support in the polls is slipping further. Sure, he inherited a toxic mess of issues from the Tory clowns, but as his first move, he opted to punish the most vulnerable group. That shocking policy affirms the view that Labour is no longer the party of the working class, nor is it particularly interested in protecting the vulnerable.

Instead, Labour is interested in power and power alone at any cost.

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