Keir Starmer

Mr Kobayashi said:
Is it a valid comparison? The clothing was for the campaign trail and probably to also be worn when meeting high net worth donors and schmoozing them. Not unusual for such people to be so vacuous to care about the fit of a suit.

Doesn't seem just a coincidence that the money came from their chief fundraiser.
Click to expand...

Have you not seen the state of Elon Musk? You can look plenty sharp enough for a few hundred quid.
 
johnny crossan said:
Think giving a senior civil service post to a party donor is a new wheeze but Rayner's luxury holiday gifts like Keir's record rewards are definitely all OK with the faithful on here. What do our pure of heart think about the appointment of banker Ian Corfield as Director of Investment at the Treasury then?
Click to expand...
www.civilserviceworld.com

Labour donor will not take up civil service Treasury role

Ian Corfield will be an unpaid ministerial adviser instead
www.civilserviceworld.com www.civilserviceworld.com
 
Blue and true said:
88k is more than enough. Most of them have other jobs on top of their parliamentary salaries. No politician should be claiming freebies, irrespective of whether they've been declared or not.

Let's look at it this way, does Nigel Farage warrant his MP salary? The supercilious prick has been to his constituency once since assuming the role. I would argue the majority are earning too much.
Click to expand...
Had Starmer stayed as DPP, he'd have earned over a million pounds more than as an MP.
 
metalblue said:
He’s received £925k in gifts, donations, payments and other benefits on top of his MP salary since 2019. Don’t feel too sorry for him, I’m sure he’ll get by.
Click to expand...
True, but I was thinking of the argument that MPs are / are not paid enough.

I mean, according to some people's jealousy of what train drivers earn - could you afford to give it up to be an MP?

Paid MPs was one of the Chartist demands in the 1830s, as otherwise only people with independent means could afford to do it.
 
Vic said:
True, but I was thinking of the argument that MPs are / are not paid enough.

I mean, according to some people's jealousy of what train drivers earn - could you afford to give it up to be an MP?

Paid MPs was one of the Chartist demands in the 1830s, as otherwise only people with independent means could afford to do it.
Click to expand...
But once MPs 'n councillors crow-barred the top off the public coffers everything was up for grabs. Pigs at a trough! In fact, that's probably an insult to pigs!
 
I offer a tentative solution.
1. All candidates publish a budget before the election which covers everything: salary, pension, travel, housing, office costs etc etc.
2. On election, MPs become self employed consultants with one client ie parliament, or two, parliament and HMG for ministers.
3. MPs invoice their client monthly to add up to published budget.
4. NO OTHER INCOME ALLOWED. Shareholdings etc held in blind trust. Donors can give to a party but not an individual. No housing shenanigans. If they wish to write for newspapers etc, they do it for free, after all they are campaigning. Freebies banned eg pay for your own holiday flat in NY, your own tickets at the Arse etc.
5. Taxman treats them just like any other self employed fee earner.
6. Accounts published every 6 months.
Probably more expensive, but it cuts out all the hoo-ha.
Thoughts?
 
Last edited:
KS55 said:
I offer a tentative solution.
1. All candidates publish a budget before the election which covers everything: salary, pension, travel, housing, office costs etc etc.
2. On election, MPs become self employed consultants with one client ie parliament, or two, parliament and HMG for ministers.
3. MPs invoice their client monthly to add up to published budget.
4. NO OTHER INCOME ALLOWED. Shareholdings etc held in blind trust. Donors can give to a party but not an individual. No housing shenanigans. If they wish to write for newspapers etc, they do it for free, after all they are campaigning. Freebies banned eg pay for your own holiday flat in NY, your own tickets at the Arse etc.
5. Taxman treats them just like any other self employed fee earner.
6. Accounts published every 6 months.
Probably more expensive, but it cuts out all the hoo-ha.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Firstly bin donors off entirely. Right now if we wanted to setup a new political party it would be cost prohibitive. That to me denies democracy. So we need to find an agreed approach to funding prospective MPs - perhaps a state funded cap - now you need to limit the number of applications so as we don’t bankrupt the state so prospective MPs needing to have 1000 signatures backing them to appear on the ballot (or whatever number makes sense).

I’d then go further and make everyone campaign on an independent ticket - once elected they can form co-ops with other MPs. As an independent when you’re out campaigning to be elected you’ve got to pitch your local and national ambitions rather than the current franchise vote…oh I’m voting for x as we always vote Labour/tory/etc.

Second jobs are probably going to always be needed as you have practicing doctors etc who need to do some minimum amount of work. You could potentially limit the professions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.