A Carillon is a set of twenty three bells arranged in a chromatic sequence so that they can play a melody or struck together they play a chord.
Carillion is possibly a misspelling of carillon, it is possibly a play on words, it is possibly intended to have some significant meaning.
According to Construction News in July 1999, reporting on the change of name from Tarmac, a London based image consultant came up with the name, and a 'company insider was quoted as saying that, rather being a misspelling of Marillion, it was meant to reflect the harmonious ringing of a Carillon.
Well the bells are ringing now.
The basic stratagem of capitalist companies is always to 'privatise profit and socialise risk'. So there is no doubt that senior executives have pocketed some very large sums of money, whilst the shareholders have been well rewarded also, but despite the company racking up debt levels that went beyond risky and burning money to service the debts, the bonuses continued to be paid,
Apres Moi la deluge so to say and now the deluge has arrived, not just a deluge a Tsunami of debt that has wiped out the company and left a maelstrom of damage in its wake, from employees left relying on the state, the pensions fund left relying on the state and suppliers left relying on nobody but themselves.
Hospitals unbuilt, ring roads left as bike tracks for local kids and Carillons HS2 partners picking up the pieces.
So the bells are ringing:
Certainly this must announce the end of PFI. It was never a good idea to start with but when the market gains precedence over common sense and public ownership is discredited then the idea that private sector operators, disciplined by the market, can invest to build and the public sector then leases the output, whether it is a hospital, a road or railway, is sold a a 'win win'.
Except it never was a win because the profits are privatised and the risks are socialised, ergo the East Coast Franchise.
It might mean the end of the market as king and queen and moderator and play maker. As be all and end all of all things. The neo-liberal market consensus which emerged in the Thatcher Reagan years allowed that the market could be thought of as weather. It was something that existed in a self regulating and benign way.
Carillon's demise surely now should require a sensible and grown up conversation and especially around the privatisation of profit and the socialisation risk?
Sadly government's don't do grown up. Mrs Thatcher, I am told on reasonably good authority and as it was possible to read in the newspapers and watch on TV, always sought simple answers to complex questions. Well, PFI was a simple answer as was, the market knows best, but we can now see that the question of how we invest in and build infrastructure was a much more complex question.
It might, but almost certainly will not mean, the end of capitalism.
Bernie Sanders writing in the Guardian this week described how the richest 1% own more than the other 99%. That 1% hides its bounty in Tax Havens, doesn't pay its fair share in Tax, and as Sanders points out these are not secret people we know there names, we even know where they live.
In medieval times, carillons were first used as a way of notifying people of church, services, and as a warning for such secular events as fires, storms and wars.
Again the bells are ringing.
In the Celtic Eucharist at Carlisle Cathedral (but not only there) the bell is rung three times to signify the real presence of Christ at the Eucharist, it is rung twice, at the elevation of the cup and of the host. As it rings we are reminded that in response to Christ's presence there must be change, in our lives, in our communities, in our societies and in our politics.
The prophets are ringing the bells of change, it is their job under God to do so, it is our job to heed their warnings.
Carillion is possibly a misspelling of carillon, it is possibly a play on words, it is possibly intended to have some significant meaning.
According to Construction News in July 1999, reporting on the change of name from Tarmac, a London based image consultant came up with the name, and a 'company insider was quoted as saying that, rather being a misspelling of Marillion, it was meant to reflect the harmonious ringing of a Carillon.
Well the bells are ringing now.
The basic stratagem of capitalist companies is always to 'privatise profit and socialise risk'. So there is no doubt that senior executives have pocketed some very large sums of money, whilst the shareholders have been well rewarded also, but despite the company racking up debt levels that went beyond risky and burning money to service the debts, the bonuses continued to be paid,
Apres Moi la deluge so to say and now the deluge has arrived, not just a deluge a Tsunami of debt that has wiped out the company and left a maelstrom of damage in its wake, from employees left relying on the state, the pensions fund left relying on the state and suppliers left relying on nobody but themselves.
Hospitals unbuilt, ring roads left as bike tracks for local kids and Carillons HS2 partners picking up the pieces.
So the bells are ringing:
Certainly this must announce the end of PFI. It was never a good idea to start with but when the market gains precedence over common sense and public ownership is discredited then the idea that private sector operators, disciplined by the market, can invest to build and the public sector then leases the output, whether it is a hospital, a road or railway, is sold a a 'win win'.
Except it never was a win because the profits are privatised and the risks are socialised, ergo the East Coast Franchise.
It might mean the end of the market as king and queen and moderator and play maker. As be all and end all of all things. The neo-liberal market consensus which emerged in the Thatcher Reagan years allowed that the market could be thought of as weather. It was something that existed in a self regulating and benign way.
Carillon's demise surely now should require a sensible and grown up conversation and especially around the privatisation of profit and the socialisation risk?
Sadly government's don't do grown up. Mrs Thatcher, I am told on reasonably good authority and as it was possible to read in the newspapers and watch on TV, always sought simple answers to complex questions. Well, PFI was a simple answer as was, the market knows best, but we can now see that the question of how we invest in and build infrastructure was a much more complex question.
It might, but almost certainly will not mean, the end of capitalism.
Bernie Sanders writing in the Guardian this week described how the richest 1% own more than the other 99%. That 1% hides its bounty in Tax Havens, doesn't pay its fair share in Tax, and as Sanders points out these are not secret people we know there names, we even know where they live.
In medieval times, carillons were first used as a way of notifying people of church, services, and as a warning for such secular events as fires, storms and wars.
Again the bells are ringing.
In the Celtic Eucharist at Carlisle Cathedral (but not only there) the bell is rung three times to signify the real presence of Christ at the Eucharist, it is rung twice, at the elevation of the cup and of the host. As it rings we are reminded that in response to Christ's presence there must be change, in our lives, in our communities, in our societies and in our politics.
The prophets are ringing the bells of change, it is their job under God to do so, it is our job to heed their warnings.
No comments:
Post a Comment