use Perl

The good news is that our Members of Parliament have voted for a complete ban on hunting with dogs. The Countryside Alliance (a lobby group for bloodsport enthusiasts and home&country wannabies) reckons that a ban would damage the economy, this is rubbish it was these same people (farmers and large landowners) that cost the rural economy millions thru not only causing the foot and mouth epidemic but through their lobbying the government to protect them rather than the tourist industry, which while far larger and with many more jobs has a small and ineffective lobby.

You could ask 'what does he know about the country ?' well I was brought up in cornwall and have lived in rural wiltshire and the shetland islands. Hunting isn't part of country life - country life is struggling to pay the bills and find a job. Country life is being unable to buy a house because of the horse-riding toffs who make up the Countryside Alliance push up prices with their second homes, and their NAMBY stick in the mud attitudes to any regional development and dodgy backhanders and whispering. How many people on a hunt actually work in the country? Very few! Only those who actually work with the horses and dogs for a living. If the rural economy was really this important then the 'Countryside Alliance' would be calling for affordable homes, decent public transport but in their top of the range 4x4 range rovers and laura ashley country cottages they don't care about anything but their shares and their hobbies.

The bad news is that network rail who are supposed to keep the tracks and infrastructure of the railways running and working and safe have announced 2000 people are to be laid off - this is the same day that I had 2 trains cancelled on my way to work and my colleagues travelling in the opposite direction did as well. Just to reinforce the point - the Gatwick express derailed today. At the same time the directors have awarded themselves non-performance related bonuses - surely a bonus is just that a bonus - not something to be expected regardless of missing targets. When developers miss targets or underperform we don't get bonus's I know games programmers who work 12 hour days for weeks and not get a bonus at the end. Surely if the company does meet targets it will be because of the workers on the ground but unlike B and Q who (although I think their stuff is cheap and tacky) have done so well that every single employee got a significantg bonus the workers who actually fix the tracks are mostly contractors or getting laid off.

Isn't the free market great! Who cares about customers and employees - as long as the directors of these large companies get a second house in the country and more money than they can spend, we all win - maybe some of that will trickle down to us lowly workers through tips - but I have yet to have an employer pay money into my pension or recieve a pay-rise above inflation . Call me cynical but capitalism seems to be primarily to syphon money and resources from the many to the few.