National News Greensill

Essexyellows said:
Neither do you.
Colour of rosette is immaterial.
They. All. Do. It.
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I think that some from both sides do it, yes. Are you OK with that? Tories are likely to do it more because people involved in finance and big company contracts tend to be Tories.
 
Essexyellows said:
Neither do you.
Colour of rosette is immaterial.
They. All. Do. It.
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Ok, I'll play your game. MP at random, Jess Phillips, how is she trying to milk the system for her own gain?
 
QR said:
Ok, I'll play your game. MP at random, Jess Phillips, how is she trying to milk the system for her own gain?
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She's known for her friendships with fat, slimy men in hedge funds, she met them at Oxbridge apparently.
 
QR said:
MP at random, Jess Phillips, how is she trying to milk the system for her own gain?
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She used taxpayer money to hire her husband to set up her office for her when she became an MP. She said that she needed somebody she knew was tech-savvy to set the office up for her (plug in a few computers, turn on a router and switch on the printer) and that she knew he was qualified and had the skills to do it. He was a lift engineer. I can’t remember how much he was paid for doing this, but I remember being so surprised at the time that my trousers fell down.

Illegal? No. First person to do such a thing? No. Milking the system for her own gain? Sounds like she at least gave an udder a pinch.
 
QR said:
Ok, I'll play your game. MP at random, Jess Phillips, how is she trying to milk the system for her own gain?
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Jess Phillips? Didn't she employ her own husband on taxpayer money as an office manager or something?? Didn't she have a shady job on a newspaper once which paid her a few thousand per year for doing nothing?

You probably should have picked a more credible MP for that one haha

Edit - rb got there first
 
bashamwonderland said:
Jess Phillips? Didn't she employ her own husband on taxpayer money as an office manager or something?? Didn't she have a shady job on a newspaper once which paid her a few thousand per year for doing nothing?

You probably should have picked a more credible MP for that one haha

Edit - rb got there first
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OK, I think that's a good example for each side of the debate - it shows that 'they're all at it', but no one is really interested in this sort of stuff. What's interesting is large-scale profiteering and improper lobbying influence - which I will say confidently, though without any evidence or research, is much more of a Tory thing.
 
werthersoriginal said:
OK, I think that's a good example for each side of the debate - it shows that 'they're all at it', but no one is really interested in this sort of stuff. What's interesting is large-scale profiteering and improper lobbying influence - which I will say confidently, though without any evidence or research, is much more of a Tory thing.
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Well surely it has to be a "Tory thing" right now (I don't disagree with you on that) because the Tories actually hold the sort of influence and decision making power that lobbying is designed to target. So in many ways its a natural thing. There were lobbying scandals during the Brown years too and surely will be again if Labour ever get back to power.

We're all swinging at the same target here I suppose. I guess it comes down to whether you hold either one side or the other in higher esteem. For what it's worth, I don't think I trust any of them.
 
RyanioBirdio said:
She used taxpayer money to hire her husband to set up her office for her when she became an MP. She said that she needed somebody she knew was tech-savvy to set the office up for her (plug in a few computers, turn on a router and switch on the printer) and that she knew he was qualified and had the skills to do it. He was a lift engineer. I can’t remember how much he was paid for doing this, but I remember being so surprised at the time that my trousers fell down.

Illegal? No. First person to do such a thing? No. Milking the system for her own gain? Sounds like she at least gave an udder a pinch.
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How can you call it milking if you don't know how much it is? If it's the going rate it isn't milking. Fair day's work etc.
 
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RyanioBirdio said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Matt Hancock owns shares in NHS-approved firm

The health secretary is accused of "cronyism" but the government says he acted "entirely properly".
www.bbc.co.uk

Hancock’s turn.
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This is happening so often I don't think the majority of people even register it anymore. 20-30 years ago there'd be calls for the Minister to resign (including internally within whatever Party) but now absolutely nothing.
 
Maybe we could have a sleaze league table (Private Eye could get on to some such thing) and a points system for how shady and sleazy an individuals actions are. :unsure:
 
QR said:
How can you call it milking if you don't know how much it is? If it's the going rate it isn't milking. Fair day's work etc.
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At the time it was reported to be in the thousands of pounds, but in all honesty she could have paid him £100 and a bag of crisps, it wouldn’t change the fact that he wasn’t especially qualified to be doing the job, let alone at taxpayer expense. I think we need to be careful about applying flexible caveats such as the amount of money that is acceptable to scrape off the top, or what is merely cheeky and what is gravely unsporting and very much against the spirit of fair play. You asked for an example, I provided one. And I’m as anti-Tory as anybody.
 
Marked Ox said:
This is happening so often I don't think the majority of people even register it anymore. 20-30 years ago there'd be calls for the Minister to resign (including internally within whatever Party) but now absolutely nothing.
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They finally realised that if they don’t resign then nothing happens. People in this country just tut and shake their heads, and then forget about it a week or two later. If they even tut to begin with.
 
RyanioBirdio said:
At the time it was reported to be in the thousands of pounds, but in all honesty she could have paid him £100 and a bag of crisps, it wouldn’t change the fact that he wasn’t especially qualified to be doing the job, let alone at taxpayer expense. I think we need to be careful about applying flexible caveats such as the amount of money that is acceptable to scrape off the top, or what is merely cheeky and what is gravely unsporting and very much against the spirit of fair play. You asked for an example, I provided one. And I’m as anti-Tory as anybody.
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How do you know he wasn't appropriately qualified? Do you know the extent of the role of a constituency support manager or are you just jumping on a gutter press bandwagon?

Also remember the government's 'you next job could be' ads? ;)
 
QR said:
How do you know he wasn't appropriately qualified? Do you know the extent of the role of a constituency support manager or are you just jumping on a gutter press bandwagon?
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She didn’t say herself what made him qualified when challenged - she simply said that he was. She had a chance to put that forward and came up with nothing. Let’s be sensible here. Don’t be like the people you’re always having a go at who turn a blind eye when something affects ‘their’ people on ‘their’ team. It lessens your credibility. By all means point out that it’s far from the worst thing anyone has ever done, or that it isn’t as serious as some others, but it was still an example of ‘milking the system’ regardless of whether it was a glass or a lorry load.

Her local Birmingham newspaper reported it. Nothing to do with the gutter press.
 
QR said:
How do you know he wasn't appropriately qualified? Do you know the extent of the role of a constituency support manager or are you just jumping on a gutter press bandwagon?

Also remember the government's 'you next job could be' ads? ;)
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I'm sure you'd be deploying a similar argument if the MP in question was a Tory instead of Jess Phillips 🙄
 
bashamwonderland said:
I'm sure you'd be deploying a similar argument if the MP in question was a Tory instead of Jess Phillips 🙄
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Over the years many hundreds probably thousands of MPs have employed family members to run their office so I'd imagine there are a fair few Tories in that number but I haven't any evidence that they haven't paid their respective family members anything other than the going rate just like you have no evidence that Jess Phillips didn't.
 
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