The Labour Government

[inbetween]

You can see why the Tories just didn’t declare most of their donations. Their thread on here would have been 100,000 pages long with all the hand wringing in this thread!

I can't believe that anybody is surprised about any of this in either party.

I was in London yesterday and had a few hours spare so went for a walk and ended up walking around Mayfair. The wealth on show is just unbelievable. I walked past the Cipriani and there were lines and lines of chauffered cars waiting in the street. I can imagine that at least one MP could of been in there talking to who knows who!

It's a completely different world and just walking around there you realise that nothing in the UK is built around anything except this world of finance, lawyers etc, it all just stinks.

I think the politicians see the worse part of their job as having to occasionally appease the peasant scum that vote for them.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

I can't believe that anybody is surprised about any of this in either party.

I was in London yesterday and had a few hours spare so went for a walk and ended up walking around Mayfair. The wealth on show is just unbelievable. I walked past the Cipriani and there were lines and lines of chauffered cars waiting in the street. I can imagine that at least one MP could of been in there talking to who knows who!

It's a completely different world and just walking around there you realise that nothing in the UK is built around anything except this world of finance, lawyers etc, it all just stinks.

I think the politicians see the worse part of their job as having to occasionally appease the peasant scum that vote for them.

I’m not sure it’s totally as cynical as that, but there’s no doubt they see it as a perk of the job.

 

[Vic]

for me it's nothing to do with the gifts, I frankly don't care if someone wants to pay for Starmers new specs, or Boris' wallpaper for that matter. What I object to is the hypocrisy of both parties who are more focused on point scoring (in this case both have criticised the other for accepting gifts, but it's far from the only issue) than on actually running the country and sorting out the myriad of problems we have.

Meanwhile, the media ask about the "optics" of donations rather than (e.g.) about the optics of getting to work without strikes.

 

[metalblue]

But that kid is not being bullied by the media is (s)he? That was my point. I appreciate that they could be bullied in school but it is the media that is condoning and making it worse for Starmer's children and that is what I was getting at.

Ah ok, I didn’t make that point from your original post, so appreciate the clarity. If the media do bully him (which I truly hope doesn’t happen - I think there is at least a bit of decency left in the profession) then Starmer has to accept he was the one who made his kid the story. Equally I’ll be here slagging off anyone who does dig his kid out. Big no no from me.

 

[metalblue]

Meanwhile, the media ask about the "optics" of donations rather than (e.g.) about the optics of getting to work without strikes.

The irony is people expect to get to work without strikes so he won’t get any thanks for it. It is a tough gig being PM.

 

[Vic]

I can't believe that anybody is surprised about any of this in either party.

I was in London yesterday and had a few hours spare so went for a walk and ended up walking around Mayfair. The wealth on show is just unbelievable. I walked past the Cipriani and there were lines and lines of chauffered cars waiting in the street. I can imagine that at least one MP could of been in there talking to who knows who!

It's a completely different world and just walking around there you realise that nothing in the UK is built around anything except this world of finance, lawyers etc, it all just stinks.

I think the politicians see the worse part of their job as having to occasionally appease the peasant scum that vote for them.

I have never heard any politician talk about appeasing the peasant scum. Now, "appealing to the electorate", that's another matter.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Tell that to the individual kid getting bullied for being a bit posh at crackhead academy.

Isn't that character building?

 

[inbetween]

I’m not sure it’s totally as cynical as that, but there’s no doubt they see it as a perk of the job.

When you go to places like that in London you realise just how much power and influence there is and that kind of power and influence doesn't come to exist and grow by accident. There's a reason why Parliament is mostly populated by the same people who went to the same schools, same universities and worked in the same jobs.

When politicians leave Parliament where do they go? Do they go back to working on the bins? No. They almost always go to non-executive directorships where companies pay them thousands per day. Why do they pay so much? It's to buy their contacts and influence. You'll see half of the Tory lot now grifting around different work and Farage does it openly in the US and with Trump.

Honestly, you'd have to be extremely naive to not believe that the entire thing is at least morally bankrupt or even by most people's standards probably corrupt.

 

[inbetween]

I have never heard any politician talk about appeasing the peasant scum. Now, "appealing to the electorate", that's another matter.

That's only because it's not good form to say it out loud.

If you look at the last 15 years or even the last week then you really can't come to any other conclusion.

 

[Casey69]

Sadly politicians of any flavour are a necessary evil, but wouldn’t it be nice if they had to pay their own bills out of their salaries like the rest of us do, and not from their “expenses” claims ! They might learn what it’s like in the real world for the rest of us !!!