Threshold
The struggle between people and corporations will be the defining battle of the 21st century. If the corporations win, liberal democracy will come to an end. […] If the corporate attempt on public life is beaten back, then democracy may re-emerge the stronger for its conquest. But this victory cannot be brokered by our representatives. Democracy will survive only if the people in whose name they govern rescue the state from captivity.
You may have heard about the Scottish Isle of Skye, of its inhabitants’ ongoing ordeal and most laudable protests:
About two dozen or so casks of Extortion Ale, a real ale brewed on the Isle of Skye especially for the SKAT anti toll campaign, was carried across the bridge by hand, in prams and wheelbarrows, led as usual by the Skye Pipe Band.
Free pints of the ale were handed out to protestors on their arrival at Kyle. The weather had been so cold the previous night that the Ale had frozen, but it still tasted quite nice :-)
in a by now infamous struggle against truly obscene cupidity and perfidy.
In the week the bridge opened, in October 1995, the government-run ferry service stopped: the only efficient means of getting to Skye was the bridge. This might have been uncontroversial had the toll the private companies levied not been the highest, per metre of road, in the world. The one-mile crossing now costs £5.70 each way.
As usual, I’m eons behind the zeitgeist so only just getting around to reading George Monbiot’s brilliant and beautifully-written book The Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain. Finely-researched examples of the increasingly cruel and ubiquitous clutches of corporate dominance and government collusion.
Set in the UK, but offering dire global verities on the demise (foregone and pending) of health care, small businesses, scientific research, environmental protection… tales that would make even the most cynical jaw drop.
The Skye saga – which just makes me want to cry – in brief: a small predominantly low-income island, a mile off the coast of Scotland. Only a creaky old ferry service carries the islanders to and from the mainland. There’s a proposal to build a bridge; the ferry service is so bad and the government is refusing to improve it, so the islanders agree to the bridge.
The problem, says the government, is that they have no money, so it was suggested to seek corporate funding. A bogus call to tender awarded the job to a consortium which is now virtually fully-owned under shady terms by Bank of America.
So the people of Skye must pay a fee to an American bank every time they want to go to or from their island, despite the fact that most of the costs of the bridge have already been met by the taxpayer. The bridge was built with the assistance of a loan illegally obtained by the government. It was 60 percent over-financed and, thanks to commercial confidentiality, no one knows how profitable it will be. Six hundred people [islanders] have been arrested and 378 prosecuted on the basis of a government order which the foremost expert on Scottish legal procedure has described as fatally flawed.
And, oh, it just gets worse…
A summary from the Guardian of Monbiot’s rendering of the Skye saga.
The official report which profers dazzling revelations, including:
We note the Department’s assurance that lessons have been learned from this project, though they have not said what these are.
A very snappy PDF (1.9 Mb) full of corporate bollocks.
And a final word to the bullies, courtesy of Father Jack.
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