McCann: The Lesson Of Captain John

I am thinking of suing Captain John. He’s the Irish Times’ top racing tipster, supposedly a dependable source of advice and information on the running of nags. He certainly had me taken in the Monday before last, October 20th, when he proclaimed that Now What was a shoo-in in the 5.20 at Windsor the following day. Out I rushed to McClean’s bookies and slapped my fiver down.

Red Four stormed to a nine-lengths victory, with Kudu Country and Nam Hai taking the minor places. For all I know, Now What is still running.
Readers will know that I am not a vindictive or litigious person. But it is clear I was misled by a man presented to me as reliable and trustworthy. It’s his fault that I lost my fiver. He should give it back before I am compelled to ask m’learned friends to haul him into the High Court.
Many fair-minded people will likewise agree that Gaby Smith & Company accountants should be made to reimburse Larry Mullen for the €11 million he and his partner had invested in Orion Property, Crystal Property and a number of Romanian hotels – all, it is alleged, on the advice of Gaby Smith. The money was last seen disappearing down the drain.
Whether the accountants (or in my case turf accountants) will be held legally responsible for the losses, we must wait and see. Law and justice do not always run on the same track. I may hang on for Larry’s case to conclude before making my next move. It could provide me with a useful precedent.
Back in 2009, it might be recalled, Larry was driven to distress at witnessing billionaires being dissed as they arrived at Dublin airport. “We have experienced [a situation] where coming in and out of the country at certain times is made more difficult… not only for us, but for a lot of wealthy people … The better-off (are) being sort of humiliated.”
So it wasn’t the people writhing on trolleys in hospital corridors because wards had been closed on account of the economy or children learning arithmetic from the relative speed of rats scuttling across the classroom as a result of the education budget being slashed to bail out the bankers who are being humiliated in Ireland but… the better-off.
“All those rich guys… all those women that you see organising this and organising that, without them we’d be in a very, very different state.”
Bono endorsed Larry’s analysis in the Observer on October 12th. The wheezes whereby the super-rich salt their wealth away in dodgy havens, depriving the State of billions, have “brought our country the only prosperity we have known…”
The Republic boasts “more hospitals, firemen and teachers because of (our tax) policies.” Did nobody tell him of the devastation which has hit health, education and the public service generally in order to stiff the people for the money needed to bail out the banks?
The European Union has targeted Apple’s Irish operation in particular for grabbing public resources to boost their profitability. Apple. That would be the crowd U2 teamed up with to scatter the new album across the world.
Meanwhile in Malibu, the Edge seems a step closer to winning planning permission for the property development - five fabulous mansions - which he wants to plonk down on the summit of the majestic Malibu Range, overlooking the Pacific. When the California Costal Commission nixed the plan, the Edge hit them with a lawsuit which the Los Angeles Times says he might well win with the aid of a hired-in team of lobbyists, lawyers and consultants. Columnist Steve Lopez writes (October 7th): “Evans strikes me as the kind of guy who probably believed all along that money and persistence – if not arrogance and connections – would eventually win the day.”
Local conservationists, lacking the resources to take The Edge on in the courts, have appealed to him directly to put the environment ahead of despoliation. But, says Lopez, it would be “silly to think…that the Edge might one day gaze up at that unspoiled mountain, and in a moment of humility see it as something other than the foundation of his future castle.”
Adam Clayton’s day in court in 2012 was admittedly different. He had been embezzled of €2.2 million by his personal assistant, Carol Hawkins, and was legally entitled to its return. But it turned out Ms. Hawkins had splashed all the cash on luxury living. She has seven years to ponder her foolishness.
Once upon a time, rock and roll was the music of rowdy rebels. Sure, some who advertised their radicalism were simply striking a pose. The significant thing was that they felt it necessary to adopt this stance so as to sustain a semblance of authenticity. U2 are the first major band openly, explicitly, to take sides with the global elite who run and have ruined the world, making propaganda on the behalf of the man, putting a sheen of glamour on the ugliness of exploitation.
I don’t think Bono or the others are bull-shitting. They have genuinely bought into this stuff. Their role is as ideological as any Marxist pamphlet. They have become the bards of the bourgeois, the musical wing of neo-liberalism.
This says as much about the times we live in as about Bono, The Edge, Adam and Larry. How sad that is for music.