O/T:- ⚠️Impressed with the leadership [The UK Party Politics Thread]

[Elite_Pie]

In the interests of balance, I have to say I'm NOT impressed with the leadership. Starmer & Co grabbing freebies with both hands is something I hoped wouldn't happen, so maybe those who said "they're all the same" are right after all. Why does Starmer need free tickets, free clothes and free glasses? I'm sure he could afford to pay himself. What's worse is that he initially tried to justify it before quite rightly being forced to backtrack. I still think he offers a better future than the Tories, but the gap between them isn't as wide as I hoped it would be.

[marky]

In the interests of balance, I have to say I'm NOT impressed with the leadership. Starmer & Co grabbing freebies with both hands is something I hoped wouldn't happen, so maybe those who said "they're all the same" are right after all. Why does Starmer need free tickets, free clothes and free glasses? I'm sure he could afford to pay himself. What's worse is that he initially tried to justify it before quite rightly being forced to backtrack. I still think he offers a better future than the Tories, but the gap between them isn't as wide as I hoped it would be.

Not made a great start has he.

[Lullapie]

In the interests of balance, I have to say I'm NOT impressed with the leadership. Starmer & Co grabbing freebies with both hands is something I hoped wouldn't happen, so maybe those who said "they're all the same" are right after all. Why does Starmer need free tickets, free clothes and free glasses? I'm sure he could afford to pay himself. What's worse is that he initially tried to justify it before quite rightly being forced to backtrack. I still think he offers a better future than the Tories, but the gap between them isn't as wide as I hoped it would be.

Good post EP. It's difficult for anyone who is used to having money, lots of it, and not fearing where his next pay cheque is coming from to be on the same level as Joe Public - I am referring to Sir Keir Starmer, not you EP .

Countries around the world need strong leaders - even more now than before - because of the wastefulness of the Covid era. Difficult decisions need to be made. Many developed countries are moving away from the left leaning doctrine that they had during Covid. Even many countries that had right-wing governments had left leaning policies. Even so. the era saw a huge redistribution of wealth, making the rich richer and everybody else, very much poorer.

One of the final bastions of that era, Justin Trudeau is currently under huge pressure in Canada. I was one of those that said that in time, all politicians become the same. They also all look out for each other, irrespective of their political allegiances (although Biden has bucked the trend on this one).

Tony Blair aligned Labour to the Tories politically with his New Labour. He got into bed with George W Bush. He and his fellow advisers realised that Labour was unelectable before Blair. In case we ever forget that is the case, Jeremy Corbyn came along to remind us that fighting over the middle ground is where victory lies and being an extremist is political suicide.

In the end, there's no real difference, except that once a party has been in power for too long, the general public will elect the 'other' party to implement similar policies, under a different banner.

Some of us 'Won't Get Fooled Again'. Released in 1971 - so the belief has been out there for sometime.

[BigFatPie]

In the interests of balance, I have to say I'm NOT impressed with the leadership. Starmer & Co grabbing freebies with both hands is something I hoped wouldn't happen, so maybe those who said "they're all the same" are right after all. Why does Starmer need free tickets, free clothes and free glasses? I'm sure he could afford to pay himself. What's worse is that he initially tried to justify it before quite rightly being forced to backtrack. I still think he offers a better future than the Tories, but the gap between them isn't as wide as I hoped it would be.

As far I’m aware the vast majority of or even all gifts and donations were formally declared through the correct channels. Which doesn’t necessarily make them right, but puts them on a very different scale to anything the Tories got up to, and still do I assume.

Deciding that ‘they’re all the same’ is exactly the sort of impression that the right wing press and particularly the Tory infested BBC want people to take away. ‘They’re all the same’ is also a sentiment popular on here and elsewhere amongst people who I’m very confident were desperate to vote Tory or more likely Reform at the election. Labour will never do anything right in their eyes because they aren’t racist/xenophobic enough. They hold the party they don’t vote for to much higher standards than the parties that they do.

Keir Starmer has had a season ticket at Arsenal for years, he can’t now use it. Boris Johnson’s donor gave him more money for wallpaper in one transaction than Starmer has received in total AND Johnson then tried to keep it secret. I’m be happy to get rid of all personal political gifts and donations. I’m pretty sure Farage and Tory politicians will lose out far more than Labour’s.

That all being said, Labour have to get far smarter at what they accept and from whom, especially when they bring in policies like getting rid of the WFA and keeping the 2 child benefit limit. Getting rid of the Tory Simon Case might also be a good idea. Unfortunately they’ve got to accept that double standards are very much de rigeur in British politics.

Nicked from twitter


‘The Tories and their defenders in the press want to drag everything down to their miserable ****ing level. They want you to think this government is as bad as theirs, as incompetent as theirs, as rife with cronyism as theirs .... seriously don't ****ing fall for it.’

[Elite_Pie]

As far I’m aware the vast majority of or even all gifts and donations were formally declared through the correct channels. Which doesn’t necessarily make them right, but puts them on a very different scale to anything the Tories got up to, and still do I assume.

I agree it's nowhere near as bad as the Tories, and the wallpaper being part of a £200,000+ redecoration bill for Number 10 is a good example of extreme Tory greed, but I'm still disappointed Labour seem to be going down the same path, properly declared or not. Why does Starmer need free clothes and specs? Can't he afford to pay himself? Labour promised change, and whether they deliver policy wise remains to be seen, but regarding sleaze and freebies it seems they are happy to perpetuate what went before even if it is on a smaller scale. Hopefully this will give them a kick up the arse, because these revelations aren't what won them a landslide. The Tories abused their big win on a grand scale, I hope Labour will afford a bit more respect to the people who put them in power.

[Lullapie]

I agree it's nowhere near as bad as the Tories, and the wallpaper being part of a £200,000+ redecoration bill for Number 10 is a good example of extreme Tory greed, but I'm still disappointed Labour seem to be going down the same path, properly declared or not. Why does Starmer need free clothes and specs? Can't he afford to pay himself? Labour promised change, and whether they deliver policy wise remains to be seen, but regarding sleaze and freebies it seems they are happy to perpetuate what went before even if it is on a smaller scale. Hopefully this will give them a kick up the arse, because these revelations aren't what won them a landslide. The Tories abused their big win on a grand scale, I hope Labour will afford a bit more respect to the people who put them in power.

The Tories had been in power a lot longer than the current Labour government. Give 'em a bit more time please to come up with some ingenious ways of siphoning funds from the taxpayer trough.

The British Parliamentary system is a colossus. There's no way that all the rorts can be tracked or traced. MPs who are fresh to Parliament will probably be the cleanest, but they'll soon get into the run of things when 'educated' by longer serving MPs - after all, it's a career.

If you're worried about wasting Public Money on wanton spending, little old New Zealand have just ditched their former corrupt government who bled the coffers dry with their ideological spending. You need to hit rock bottom before tangible changes are made.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2020/06/16/p...l-over-budget/

The public record said that the cost of a slide outside Parliament in Wellington was NZ$243,000.00, but eventually, after months of trying to get the actual cost of it by filing Official Information Act requests, the NZ National Party found out and reported that the Labour government had actually spent NZ$572,000.00 on the slide. It was seen as a symbol of the wasteful spending that the government was recognised for and was set alight by protestors during the anti-mandate protests.

Only when you hit rock bottom.