A report on defence spending quotes the “influential” official as telling union officials that manufacturing had “no value” but the financial sector had to be “supported at all costs”.
The alleged comments, made before the collapse of Northern Rock but only now made public, appear to shed new light on the Government’s decision to press ahead with a £1.3 trillion bail-out of the banking sector while being criticised for doing too little to support industry.
The report by the UK National Defence Association (UKNDA), an independent body, quotes the government adviser as saying: “Defence, aerospace, manufacturing and engineering have no real value to us.
“Only high-quality professional services, financial services and the City of London have any real value and they should be supported at all costs. The rest of the country can be turned over to tourism.”
So, according to this 'influential' official, finance is an end unto itself, nothing else has any real value! You have to have an utterly warped understanding of the generation of wealth to make the sort of statements this influential figure has.
I guess Gordon Brown can forget about getting any support from Labour's traditional blue-collar base implementing policies like these. He's not even attempting to hide the fact that he's in power solely to serve the interests of banksters
