Toothless Watchdogs

In England, we specialize in picking on little people for doing little things, while we ignore serious ripoffs. We have a highly sophisticated system for doing this, known as the Toothless Watchdog.

This is how it works. In any industry, the government allows some self-regulation. this cuts down on wasted legal time, is supposed to avoid the inflexibility of law, and, of course, allows loopholes you could fly an A380 through.

Here's some examples:

Advertising Standards Authority

The ASA exists to fob off, deflect and otherwise undermine criticism of the advertising industry. Despite claiming to be the "independent regulator for advertisements, sales promotion and direct marketing in the UK", it is fully funded by the advertising industry, and - surprise, surprise - serves them like a poodle.

For example, they have their own guidelkines for investigating complaints, and in their industry, time is of the essence - no point in complaining once the campaign is over, is there?

Trouble is, in high-profile cases (eg where some idiot has used a ten-year-old to advertise bikinis), they scream and shout and puff and pant until the ad is withdrawn. Quite right too. Except that they do this with 'specimen' cases, so that non-one notice that 99% of cases are NOT investigated within their guidelines, and never acted upo until waaay too late.

Try complaining about an advertisement. You'll see.

The Charity Commission

The CC exists to cover up exploitation of people through charities. It's well known in England that people associated with charities do very nicely, thank you. Trustees often get sumptuous meals and expenses, officers get 'grace and favour' apartments, all get flights all over - all paid for by the cash that volunteers find, in the expectation it will go to a 'Good cause'. Like heck.

Don't get me wrong - many charities are simply magic!

But many are not - and the CC ensures they get away with it. For example, the Children's Welfare Foundation claims to collect used clothing "to provide help and support for terminally ill babies and their families". They do this by contracting out the collection to "Fortune International Limited". This is a simple and obvious scam, which has been investigated by the Guardian - and alsoby the CC.

If you read the Guardian's account, there's little doubt about the scam. But the CWF has been scamming since April 2006; they probably attracted complaints within weeks (their leaflets stink of fraud), and we know for sure that the CC were 'investigating' by September 2006.

The 'charity's' web sites, such as childrenswelfarefoundation.org.uk (among others), gives no contact address for the charity (it does for the clothes collections), zero information about the activities, and has privacy and other documents ripped off from US sites, quoting US laws. It's visibly dodgy.

And yet the scam continues.

Financial Services Authority

Northern Rock. 'Nuff said.