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In the UK, the SFO has been systematically starved of funding: "Its budget has been slashed steadily over the years. In 2008 it stood at £52m, while last year

In the UK, the SFO has been systematically starved of funding: "Its budget has been slashed steadily over the years. In 2008 it stood at £52m, while last year (2016) it was £35.7m" [Paywall] https://www.ft.com/content/8751e754-6e3e-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa https://www.ft.com/content/8751e754-6e3e-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7... More depth on the same report here: https://www.financierworldwide.com/white-collar-crime-enforcement-in-the-uk/ https://www.financierworldwide.com/white-collar-crime-enforc...

B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
Comrade Ulyanov remarked that "The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." However, they seem unwilling to pay for the rope themselves ...
tonyedgecombe 9y ago
Its budget has been slashed steadily over the years. As has just about every government department, I'm not sure you can read much into that.
- goodmachine 9y ago
  I'd like to think that was the case. Unfortunately, there is an (economically self-defeating) incentive to cripple the SFO beyond mere cost-cutting measures. The same incentive is not true for reduced budgets at other organs of government. The scale of damage is jaw-droppingly huge and largely unacknowledged. Whilst the media are weirdly obsessed with street crime, white collar crime in the US (and one suspects, in the UK) is bigger than all other crimes combined: "Contrary to the common perception, the most dangerous criminal is not a youth in a hoody, but a middle aged man in a suit." https://whistlinginthewind.org/2013/06/24/the-other-kind-of-crime/ https://whistlinginthewind.org/2013/06/24/the-other-kind-of-... It's more than a little depressing to see Britain slumping into corruption - or as Pope puts it “Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” - Alexander Pope, Essay on Man (1734)

B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago

Comrade Ulyanov remarked that "The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." However, they seem unwilling to pay for the rope themselves ...

tonyedgecombe 9y ago

Its budget has been slashed steadily over the years. As has just about every government department, I'm not sure you can read much into that.

goodmachine 9y ago
I'd like to think that was the case. Unfortunately, there is an (economically self-defeating) incentive to cripple the SFO beyond mere cost-cutting measures. The same incentive is not true for reduced budgets at other organs of government. The scale of damage is jaw-droppingly huge and largely unacknowledged. Whilst the media are weirdly obsessed with street crime, white collar crime in the US (and one suspects, in the UK) is bigger than all other crimes combined: "Contrary to the common perception, the most dangerous criminal is not a youth in a hoody, but a middle aged man in a suit." https://whistlinginthewind.org/2013/06/24/the-other-kind-of-crime/ https://whistlinginthewind.org/2013/06/24/the-other-kind-of-... It's more than a little depressing to see Britain slumping into corruption - or as Pope puts it “Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” - Alexander Pope, Essay on Man (1734)