At that time, Mr. Mandelson maintained very strong connections within U.S. political circles, including senior advisors to the President. Drawing on his previous experience as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and as Business Secretary, Mandelson leveraged his network, which included relationships with prominent business figures. He had also been acquainted with Ghislaine Maxwell, through whom he met the most prolific abuser of young women - Geoffrey Epstein. Additionally, Mr. Mandelson had associations with major New York-based mining financiers, one of whom held significant mining interests in North of Ireland. The local community opposed the intensive gold mine over health and environmental concerns. Mandleson and a Conservative business minister both tried, unsuccessfully, to sway opinion in favour of the mining company, while another proponent – the Lord Lieutenant of Tyrone faced public backlash.
Despite lacking political support and been governed by the parties behind the 2009 the pro-gold mining going for growth strategy, the community has been effective in blocking the project. All government departments were involved in facilitating the emergence of intensive mining in the North. In the sixteen years of the gold mining project the measly sum of 475 thousand pounds of gold has been extracted from the Sperrin Mountains – 29500 pounds per year . The mining companies shares crashed and a mining finance company stepped in and took over the company in 2017.
The financiers seeing the continual delays to the project started lobbying hard to speed up the process – the Planning Inquiry was so large that it stretched the resources of the planning appeals commission in the North, not all environmental information was made available to the inquiry and the United Ireland enthusiast of a minister at Stormont forgot to consult with the administration he wanted to unite with – the inquiry is still in abeyance pending the resolution of issues surrounding detailed environmental information. It was into this mess that the ambassador tried to intervene after intensive lobbying by the American mining financiers. The ambassador was dismissed for concealing his deep connections to Geoffrey Epstein the world’s most aggressive abuser of young women from the British Prime Minister.
At the beginning of the gold mining project, the chief executive of the mining company described the Stormont administration as the most user-friendly government he had ever worked with, based on his previous experiences with Central American governments. However, his opinion appears to have changed after encountering challenges in working with the most dysfunctional government in Western Europe. This government has twice collapsed in eight years, faces ongoing intensive scrutiny from Britain, and suffers from limited resources provided by Whitehall. The government of the North of Ireland lurches from crisis to continual crisis, the two main governing parties hate each other intensely and cannot agree programs for government
It must be particularly galling for the chief executive of the mining company to see his financiers cuddled up to the most corrupted of politicians and a loyal friend of a serial abuser of young women, He expected a favour from a friend of a sexual pervert and has now learned that everything he touches in the most dysfunctional state in Europe does not turn to gold but to pure cow shit.
⏩Mick Collins is a is a trade union organiser with an interest in environmental issues.
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