Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
THE US Department of Justice revealed in November that a senior employee of Goldman Sachs bank was pleading guilty to “conspiring to launder money and conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” by “paying bribes.”
The Goldman Sachs banker, their former south-east Asia chairman Tim Leissner, said in his plea that “I conspired with other employees and agents of Goldman Sachs very much in line [with the] culture of Goldman Sachs to conceal facts from certain compliance and legal employees of Goldman Sachs.”
It’s a big deal on two levels. First, it’s a big deal financially. Leissner is pleading guilty to bribery and corruption related to Goldman Sachs winning work that made the bank around £474 million in fees. The US prosecutors say Leissner has been personally ordered to hand over £35m “as a result of his crimes.”
The once beating heart of British journalism was undone by technological change, union battles and Murdoch’s 1986 Wapping coup – leaving London the only major capital without a press club, says TIM GOPSILL
SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests


