That Corbyn fella...

huge number of people are employed at every level, from cleaners, to facilities managers, to back office admin teams all the way through to the tiny number of people leading giant financial institutions.

In terms of where the benefit goes, as well as employment, tax, and funding complementary jobs lots of areas of FS provide gains to lots of people - interest on your bank account, pensions, funding for start-ups. Yes, of course there are certain areas that you can say don't generate any "new" revenue and simply continually move money between different groups. But as a proportion of the whole market I'd guess that is tiny.

in terms of our position as one of the wealthiest and influences countries in the world a large part of that is due to London being the financial capital of the world.

Very well explained. We need our successful financial sector, even if saying so goes against an instinctive dislike of certain elements within it.

I totally agree. But it is the utter dominance of it that is problematic

I've no problem with usury. It's the 'futures' gambling I have issue with. Which is, essentially, unregulated gambling.

Oh and the inequality that sees 50% of the worlds capital in the hands of 1% of the population.

Completely agree. Was just trying to point out the unions weren't blameless in what happened. Management very much to blame too.

Re the financial sector - would recommend John Kay's 'Other People's Money' to everyone. Haven't finished it yet, but thus far it's a pretty astute and balanced description of the bits of finance that work and the bits that have gone very wrong. Not all of it is bad, some of it is very necessary, but it should be a hell of a lot more boring than it has become.

Unions in Germany, for example, have engaged with management about how to reposition industry in the face of a more globalised market.

Unions, just like people who want to depress wages etc. are dependent on reasonably equal global conditions. If they get outflanked by much lower wages for workers elsewhere, there's not a lot they can do. They're only going to be effective when a new International backs up their work, and I don't mean the Capitalist (Globalist) International.

The last one worked so well.

You can also look at futures as insurance, or liquidity provision. And they are pretty tightly regulated, being exchange traded.

Dark pool trading, on the other hand...

I had a dream that Nicola Sturgeon was the new leader or the Labour party and I designed them a new logo which was a pink Batman symbol.

https://thereturnofthepublic.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/martin-a-quick-word/

So, son of successful Oxford-educated novelist (who studied English) studies English Literature at Oxford and becomes, erm, a successful novelist. The pinnacle of his career comes when he accuses Jeremy Corbyn of a lack of intellectual curiosity. They're a curious lot, those intellectuals.

"You can’t keep pronouncing on things you can’t be bothered to understand."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ywYohqoM60

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-corbyn-tattoo-teenager-wanted-to-make-a-statement-by-getting-large-tattoo-of-labour-leaders-a3111026.html

How strange that nobody erupted in spontaneous praise for the Corbyn tattoo.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/14/press-barons-jeremy-corbyn-ken-livingstone-mail-telegraph-sun-times

Always worth a repost:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWXA8O28fso

This absolute moron just so happens to be the chief political commentator for the Independent.

There is already am apology out there, still a cunt though.

Er? Who are you talking about?

Presumably John Rentoul. As in, the bloke wot writes politics stuff for the Indie.

All I can see in Prole.'s post is 'This absolute moron just so happens to be the chief political commentator for the Independent.' (without any link) and I couldn't work out what in this thread that related to. Sometimes, I can't see pictures that people post--is there one?

There's a picture of a now-deleted tweet by John Rentoul asking if Corbyn would say France had made itself a target.

Yeh. There's a picture that's a tweet from John Retouls that says: Will Corbyn say France made itself a target?

Which is a trifle cunty.

Ah, thanks. I didn't see that.

Have you got a plug in blocking twitter posts?

Will Corbyn say France made itself a target?

No, but he was going to say:

"For the past 14 years, Britain has been at the centre of a succession of disastrous wars that have brought devastation to large parts of the wider Middle East.
"They have increased, not diminished, the threats to our own national security in the process".

But decided against it, in light of the attacks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34819130

Instead he said:

"My thoughts are with the people of Paris tonight. We stand in solidarity with the French. Such acts are heinous and immoral. It’s vital at a time of such tragedy and outrage not to be drawn into responses which feed a cycle of violence and hatred."

Which I agree with. You wouldn't want to make yourself a target.