National News Sir Keir Starmer

Essexyellows said:
Of course, she is now appealing against the guilty verdict and the sentence, something Patterson could not do, so there are similarities.

She will still be hanging around like a bad smell into next year as her appeal is scheduled for March 2022...... in her £80k+ a year.
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Well of course if MPs want to have their breaking of the rules be deemed criminal offences then that would suit.
The "he couldn't appeal" argument would be better if he actually had any valid reason to do so other than the bizarre "whistleblower" argument which is laughably bad.
 
Not sure you will find anyone defending it. 🤷‍♂️

Just face the fact that time and again it is predominantly Tories who engage in grubby behaviour...and some are simply happy to deflect and enable. Listening to Oliver Dowden this morning made me realise (Well it confirmed) how tone deaf they are and how little they actually care about due process

Low standards are acceptable as long as it doesn't directly effect you as an individual....is that how this works?

Wonder if anyone will do a bit of digging into Jacob Rees-Mogg lending himself cheap money form his companies at below market rates :unsure:

Oh...they already are :)
 
Sheik djibouti said:
Not sure you will find anyone defending it. 🤷‍♂️

Just face the fact that time and again it is predominantly Tories who engage in grubby behaviour...and some are simply happy to deflect and enable. Listening to Oliver Dowden this morning made me realise (Well it confirmed) how tone deaf they are and how little they actually care about due process

Low standards are acceptable as long as it doesn't directly effect you as an individual....is that how this works?

Wonder if anyone will do a bit of digging into Jacob Rees-Mogg lending himself cheap money form his companies at below market rates :unsure:

Oh...they already are :)
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I`ve said it before - they are all at it.

So far Tories, Labour & Lib Dems its harder to find those who aren`t.
 
Essexyellows said:
I`ve said it before - they are all at it.

So far Tories, Labour & Lib Dems its harder to find those who aren`t.
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No, not all of them....it just happens that your boys and girls are much, much better at being dodgier than anyone else in British politics. It is a stench they have never quite managed to shake off and now Boris and chums have clearly turbo-charged it.

Grubby Tories make up the lions share (and then some) of dodgy politicians on the take.

Boris big problem is that he has never, throughout his life, accepted that rules apply to him. So rather than comply, he simply seeks to change the rules.

He did it with Parliamentary standards, he did after the findings of the bullying investigation into Patel....and he'll do it with the next thing that he can't agree with - it's what he does and why democracy is not in safe hands with him anywhere near power. HE simply has no fucks to give.

But like I say, if your standards are so low that you're happy with that and you think accountability is an inconvenience, rather than an integral part of democracy. Keep Calm and Carry on Enabling ;)
 
Essexyellows said:
I`ve said it before - they are all at it.
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That’s the line the the Tories will be trying to push. Trying to pretend that sprained ankles and broken legs are equal and the same all over again. I’m not sure that’s going to cut through this time.

You’ll find a handful of MPs from other parties being a bit slippery, and that’s not alright. Anybody found breaking the rules or seriously bending them to an extent that clearly isn’t remotely close to the spirit of the house needs sorting out. But you’ll find far more who happen to wear blue than any other colour at present. To pretend otherwise and that it’s all equal, or suggest that it’s a ‘one size fits all’ issue with the whole of parliament, is gravely disingenuous.

This is the thing that the government has forgotten about the British public. It’ll quite happily let you destroy public services for years at a time, mishandle a pandemic leading to thousands upon thousands of unnecessary deaths, and even cause long-lasting harm to the country’s standing and prospects because someone shouted about Turkey and claimed that everybody else was in charge of the country, but it flips its lid about perceived dodgy dealings of a personal nature. For some insane reason, that’s the line with the Brits. If they think you’re trousering a bit or are “taking the P**s” then that makes them angrier than anything. Probably because we’re quite a selfish bunch of people watchers at our core. We don’t care about tens of billions being smuggled to companies for bogus contracts or offshore investment funds because it’s not something we relate to, but we sure as sh*t care about someone pocketing a few grand or trying to change the rules so someone can’t get a bollocking for it, or somebody going to see their mum while the rest of us are holed up in the living room being told that we can’t. They lost sight of that because they got away with things literally hundreds of times worse.

It’s like Steve Irwin all over again. Spends ages getting away with sticking his thumb up the a**e of the most dangerous animals on the planet (I dunno, probably), and in the end it was a teeny tiny stingray that did for him.

It’s a funny old world.
 
Just for extra reading material, take a look at the latest Private Eye special report into the profiteers awarded procurement contracts since the Covid crisis began. Lot's of Tory donors and party friends in there (and that article only touches on the money being made by various management consultants) - add that to Paterson and Cox & 2nd jobs generally, along with long line of Tory treasurers entering the Lords after donating £3m to the party ('philanthropists' all of them!) and maybe this is not all disappearing with EY's shrug of the shoulders.

For balance, Blair and Brown's governments also played hard and loose with ennoblements and standards but this is something else. I'm sure there's no one who can argue with Jo Johnson and Zac Goldsmith entering the Lords - both fabulous public servants and in no way linked to the PM.
 
Essexyellows said:
Ah yes "donations".............
www.electoralcommission.org.uk

Political party donations and loans published for Q4 2020

www.electoralcommission.org.uk www.electoralcommission.org.uk

No "favours" are bought with these donations, none at all.

And lord only knows how Labour sucked £1.8 million from "public funds".

🤷‍♀️
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re the "Public Funds" - that will be Short Grants and Cranborne Grants - all (subject to rules) opposition parties get it - https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/public-funding-political-parties
 
Yesterday on the Andrew Marr show he asked Angela Raynor about the 100k Keir Starmer earned he asked the question a few times…..result no answer.
On GMB this morning Susanna Reid asked Lisa Nandy the same question….guess what no answer.
All political parties act the same, it doesn’t matter by how much they all act the same.
 
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bazzer9461 said:
Yesterday ok the Andrew Marr show he asked Angela Raynor about the 100k Keir Starmer earned he asked the question a few times…..result no answer.
On GMB this morning Susanna Reid asked Lisa Nandy the same question….guess what no answer.
All political parties act the same, it doesn’t matter by how much they all act the same.
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Agreed, if he wants to call out other people, he needs to be open about the £115,000 he earnt over a 6 year period.

This extra curricular activity crosses the political spectrum but they aren't all 'at it', my local MP has declared less than £1k for a few hours work lecturing (as much to cover costs as anything) and there are lots of the new intake (primarily Tories) just doing their actual jobs.

While they all might 'act the same' there are differing levels of activity and remuneration and the generally older and established Tories are on a different spectrum here. Cox is certainly the biggest earner but the likes of Ian Smith (middle name 'Duncan') are taking £45k a year, primarily for lobbying activities.

Don't just shrug your shoulders and say 'they are all the same' - they are not and this is a prime opportunity to do something about it.
 
Big Ron said:
Agreed, if he wants to call out other people, he needs to be open about the £115,000 he earnt over a 6 year period.

This extra curricular activity crosses the political spectrum but they aren't all 'at it', my local MP has declared less than £1k for a few hours work lecturing (as much to cover costs as anything) and there are lots of the new intake (primarily Tories) just doing their actual jobs.

While they all might 'act the same' there are differing levels of activity and remuneration and the generally older and established Tories are on a different spectrum here. Cox is certainly the biggest earner but the likes of Ian Smith (middle name 'Duncan') are taking £45k a year, primarily for lobbying activities.

Don't just shrug your shoulders and say 'they are all the same' - they are not and this is a prime opportunity to do something about it.
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The problem is that is akin to getting turkeys to vote for Christmas dinner.

Our local MP frequently pops up on the local BBC politics show - £350.00 an hour funded by....erm... the licence payer!
She has also received in excess of £109,000 in donations on top of her £80k salary and expenses.

Nobody is going to vote for the trough to be closed.
 
Essexyellows said:
The problem is that is akin to getting turkeys to vote for Christmas dinner.

Our local MP frequently pops up on the local BBC politics show - £350.00 an hour funded by....erm... the licence payer!
She has also received in excess of £109,000 in donations on top of her £80k salary and expenses.

Nobody is going to vote for the trough to be closed.
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The rules were changed after the last expenses scandal.
 
Big Ron said:
This extra curricular activity crosses the political spectrum but they aren't all 'at it', my local MP has declared less than £1k for a few hours work
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The undeclared stuff is where the real money can be made....
 
Sheik djibouti said:
And presumably the Tory government doesn't qualify due to the amount of public funds they've already syphoned off to their chums under the guise of COVID contracts[emoji848][emoji2958]
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well, they get the infrastructure of government to do the same things. ie research for ministers is done at taxpayer expense by the government department, travel for ministers is by official car, etc.
The syphoning off is just for their own sh*ts and giggles.
 
Big Ron said:
Agreed, if he wants to call out other people, he needs to be open about the £115,000 he earnt over a 6 year period.

This extra curricular activity crosses the political spectrum but they aren't all 'at it', my local MP has declared less than £1k for a few hours work lecturing (as much to cover costs as anything) and there are lots of the new intake (primarily Tories) just doing their actual jobs.

While they all might 'act the same' there are differing levels of activity and remuneration and the generally older and established Tories are on a different spectrum here. Cox is certainly the biggest earner but the likes of Ian Smith (middle name 'Duncan') are taking £45k a year, primarily for lobbying activities.

Don't just shrug your shoulders and say 'they are all the same' - they are not and this is a prime opportunity to do something about it.
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Slightly different, it was mostly earned giving advice on legal matters to law firms on cases they were undertaking, that is fairly normal for a lawyer (as he was at the time - he gave up his legal certificate in 2015 which means he is no longer qualified to give legal advice - hence there are no similar payments for work undertaken recently). He has spoken about this in the past.
 
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