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Michael Bear says 'anti-this and anti- that' banners are 'difficult to get a handle on'
Michael Bear, the lord mayor of the City of London, has waded into the debate over the Occupy protests at St Paul's, saying: "If there was banner calling for jobs that would be different, but when it's 'anti-this' and 'anti- that', it's more difficult to get a handle on how to respond."
While claiming he was "a supporter of the democratic process", Bear added: "In a market economy, which is what we are, you need to have banks. The economy is an engine that needs oil, and the oil is finance, well-regulated finance.
"But it has to be connected to the real economy – I think people don't understand the connection and we haven't explained it very well."
Bear is backing efforts to persuade the chancellor to scrap the 50% tax rate, suggesting there are more effective ways to raise revenue. "I haven't heard an argument (about the higher tax band) that it will do anything other than punish," he said.
His remarks angered the Unite union, which represents financial workers, thousands of whom have lost their jobs in the wake of the banking crisis.
General secretary Len McCluskey said: "The Lord Mayor of London's views on the protests and the 50p tax shows he stands for the vested interests of the City elite.
"He is completely out-of-touch with ordinary Londoners, many of whom are paying the price for greed in the City. There is a great deal of sympathy and understanding for what the protestors are doing at St Paul's."
Asked whether the Occupy movement had a point, Bear replied: "On one level, yes. I think we have probably failed to communicate what the City actually does. The City isn't only about banks, we have 16,000 small and medium sized businesses; the City deals with maritime, insurance and professional services such as accountancy; so you see it's not just a collection of very large, amorphous banks." (10.21.2011, Richard Wachman)
"To Achieve One World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification." (Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization)
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." (Ian Williams Goddard)
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson