Survival of the Fattest

Alistair Darling is having a great time one upping the former chancellor by telling anyone that will listen(usually Jonathan Sopel on the dreariest politics show on uk tv)that he was right to predict that we wouldn't come out of recession until the turn of the year. Amidst all this new found glee in punditry prowess the fact remains that we are behind both Germany and France in coming out of the recession. On the one hand surely that was to be expected as we have a bigger financial sector. On the other hand-Wait a second- the financial sector includes the institutions which have been deemed 'too big to fail' and aren't they the ones that are once again turning in record profits? So this must leave us asking the question 'how badly is the rest of our economy performing?'. Has bailing out the worst performing sector of the economy left behind a flawed incentive structure with
a permanent effect on the rest of the economy. Time will tell. But it does seem in the light of the new round of bank bonuses that it is not the leanest but rather the 'biggest' businesses which have best survived the recession. It is almost as if evolutionary capitalism has reached such an apex of greed that it has turned to feeding on itself. Once the reward/punishment system breaks down so does capitalism.
Brown's failure to jail key protagonists in the political and financial arena will cost him the election. It is only sad that he is handing over to a political class
which has for years championed the rights of those who would live off the fat of the land. A political class that at each stage of this recession have suggested policies that would have led to a deeper and more prolonged recession.
At the fast food check out of the modern ballot box our choice is limited and it would seem that our politics like our industry is infected with the same malaise: where the biggest parties rather than the emergent best policies gain the vote.
Could there possibly be a better example of 'demeritocracy' than the suggestion that Tony Blair should take over as the president of Europe simply because he is 'a big name.'