Off Topic Politics Thread

[San Tejón]

As always, it’s only the demands for a decent wage for the rank and file that gets highlighted in the MSM, usually with comments that they are asking for too much and that they should show some restraint.
Not enough is made of CEO “earnings” that prove that it is, as always, one rule for them and one rule for the rest.
Likewise bankers’ bonuses and share dividends need to be more openly discussed and questioned.

PAY packets for fatcat chief executives of the UK’s 100 biggest companies have swelled by 39%.

The median pay of CEOs in the FTSE 100 index rose to over £3.4million in 2021, up from £2.5m in 2020, High Pay Centre think-tank and Trades Union Congress research found.

It means the average UK CEO now earns 109 times more than the average British worker.

Sebastien De Montessus, boss of metals and mining company Endeavour, tops the list of highest-paid executives on £16.85m.

Gary Smith, general secretary of GMB trade union, called it “sickening”, and added: “The lack of restraint from those at the top is a slap in the face to workers who are being denied a proper pay rise.”

 

[milton archer]

As always, it’s only the demands for a decent wage for the rank and file that gets highlighted in the MSM, usually with comments that they are asking for too much and that they should show some restraint.
Not enough is made of CEO “earnings” that prove that it is, as always, one rule for them and one rule for the rest.
Likewise bankers’ bonuses and share dividends need to be more openly discussed and questioned.

PAY packets for fatcat chief executives of the UK’s 100 biggest companies have swelled by 39%.

The median pay of CEOs in the FTSE 100 index rose to over £3.4million in 2021, up from £2.5m in 2020, High Pay Centre think-tank and Trades Union Congress research found.

It means the average UK CEO now earns 109 times more than the average British worker.

Sebastien De Montessus, boss of metals and mining company Endeavour, tops the list of highest-paid executives on £16.85m.

Gary Smith, general secretary of GMB trade union, called it “sickening”, and added: “The lack of restraint from those at the top is a slap in the face to workers who are being denied a proper pay rise.”

I agree with you badge but feel a tinge of irony in supporting ridiculously paid sports stars, entertainers etc. Ideally there needs to be wholesale readjustment in the gulf between the wealthiest and the poorer.......but it ain't gonna happen.

 

[StJabbo1]

The Tory leadership battle has been a massive own goal for the Conservative Party. I concur with what Sir John Major is saying but I cannot help thinking that the damage has already been done by the time Liz Truss is appointed as the new leader. Irrespective of your politics, I think most sane people would realise that the bitter leadership battle has left her as seriously damaged goods. I have no doubt that the criticims by Sunak will be weaponised against her by the opposition. Her appeal is strictly limited to Tory party members and it is pretty obvious that she is a politician who will not resonate with the electorate. I cannot think of anyone who has been so scrutinized and come up wanting before they have even been appointed PM in the past. There were reservations about Boris which ultimately proved to be correct but he did manage to motivate the electorate with his zeal. With Truss, the situation is different as her appeal is limited entirel to a certain type of Tory member who is least likely to be affected by the cost of living crisis.

It is fun to predict how things will pan out in the future and I would like to add my thoughts. I think that there will be a vote of confidence in her within six months if elected and that there will be no honeymoon period. It would not surprise me in the least if this even happened in 2022. There will be a general election in the spring of next year and I can see a reverse to the extent of not only "Red Wall" constituencies reverting back to Labour but a whole swathe of "safe seats" also being lost. I am not too worried about Liz Truss becoming PM because I think her tenure will be a blip as the economy tanks and you can see increased action by Trade Unions with whom most voters will prove to be sympathetic. I would also add that her government will ensure that the Conservative's reputation as a safe pair of hands with tthe economy will put her party back years. You can see a new Labour government having a sufficient majority to liaise with other parties to reform the electoral system from first past the post and this will also serve to thwart any future Conservative rennaisance.

I had previously projected that Boris would be ousted although i was wrong that the fall-out of a Covid enquiry would do for him. Fingers crossed that I get this one right. Liz Truss is going to make Gordon Brown look like Winston Churchill in comparison.

Whilst broadly agreeing I think Labour have been against electoral reform in the past as have the Tories. The two big parties stand to lose most under a PR system. I can only hope a hung parliament forces Labour to put reform on the agenda. I would like the opposition parties to campaign with PR in their manifestos as an alliance but think it highly unlikely, happy to be proved wrong.

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

As always, it’s only the demands for a decent wage for the rank and file that gets highlighted in the MSM, usually with comments that they are asking for too much and that they should show some restraint.
Not enough is made of CEO “earnings” that prove that it is, as always, one rule for them and one rule for the rest.
Likewise bankers’ bonuses and share dividends need to be more openly discussed and questioned.

PAY packets for fatcat chief executives of the UK’s 100 biggest companies have swelled by 39%.

The median pay of CEOs in the FTSE 100 index rose to over £3.4million in 2021, up from £2.5m in 2020, High Pay Centre think-tank and Trades Union Congress research found.

It means the average UK CEO now earns 109 times more than the average British worker.

Sebastien De Montessus, boss of metals and mining company Endeavour, tops the list of highest-paid executives on £16.85m.

Gary Smith, general secretary of GMB trade union, called it “sickening”, and added: “The lack of restraint from those at the top is a slap in the face to workers who are being denied a proper pay rise.”

Where’s that quote from, Badger?

 

[The Ides of March]

I had previously projected that Boris would be ousted although i was wrong that the fall-out of a Covid enquiry would do for him. Fingers crossed that I get this one right. Liz Truss is going to make Winston Churchill look like Gordon Brown in comparison.

I endorse everything you have said except your last sentence!!!

 

[The Ides of March]

As we enter the final few weeks of Johnson's Premiership, he is a summary of the soon to be former PM

He may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot.

Groucho Marx

 

[San Tejón]

Where’s that quote from, Badger?

It’s from the Mirror, who tend to be quite hot on these things, being the paper of the workers/left.
Usually they link where they lift the information from, but I can only presume that they didn’t have the space for that, seeing as it was just a 1”x2” column tucked away on page 10, instead of being on the front page.
Still, I guess having Cristiano Ronaldo on the front page, in his ongoing dispute with the mum of an autistic Everton supporter, whose phone Ronaldo slapped out of his hand and broke, will get more attention.

Edit
The £3.4 million also now quoted by a Labour MP

 

[San Tejón]

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[Le Tissier's Laces]

It’s from the Mirror, who tend to be quite hot on these things, being the paper of the workers/left.
Usually they link where they lift the information from, but I can only presume that they didn’t have the space for that, seeing as it was just a 1”x2” column tucked away on page 10, instead of being on the front page.
Still, I guess having Cristiano Ronaldo on the front page, in his ongoing dispute with the mum of an autistic Everton supporter, whose phone Ronaldo slapped out of his hand and broke, will get more attention.

Edit
The £3.4 million also now quoted by a Labour MP

Mirror is MSM though.

So, yeah, I just get worried when people throw around "this isn't getting reported in the MSM" - it's an easy out, but it's a really dangerous line to take as it drip-drip degrades trust, which plays beautifully into the Trump style playbook.

 

[San Tejón]

Mirror is MSM though.

So, yeah, I just get worried when people throw around "this isn't getting reported in the MSM" - it's an easy out, but it's a really dangerous line to take as it drip-drip degrades trust, which plays beautifully into the Trump style playbook.

I agree it is MSM, but hiding something as important as this in the lower left corner of page 10, when they have Ronaldo on the front page and a two page spread inside, something that is of little interest and no use to anyone, bothers me.
Especially if the rest of the MSM isn’t even reporting on the CEO pay.
The Mirror has always been the leading newspaper to take on the Conservatives, and I got quite excited when their owners bought out the Express, as I hoped they might start changing the content of the Express from right to a little bit more central, undoing some of the damage they have done in the past with their fervent support of all that is wrong in the country.
If anything the Express has got worse and the Mirror has, IMO, become a little more tolerant of what the Tories/employers have got away with. Difficult to give examples because it is my perception of change, that may not be true.

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

I agree it is MSM, but hiding something as important as this in the lower left corner of page 10, when they have Ronaldo on the front page and a two page spread inside, something that is of little interest and no use to anyone, bothers me.
Especially if the rest of the MSM isn’t even reporting on the CEO pay.
The Mirror has always been the leading newspaper to take on the Conservatives, and I got quite excited when their owners bought out the Express, as I hoped they might start changing the content of the Express from right to a little bit more central, undoing some of the damage they have done in the past with their fervent support of all that is wrong in the country.
If anything the Express has got worse and the Mirror has, IMO, become a little more tolerant of what the Tories/employers have got away with. Difficult to give examples because it is my perception of change, that may not be true.

I hear you and absolutely not having a pop at you, but I REALLY worry about how easy it is to throw around the "MSM" line. It's insidious and become part of the daily discourse, and usually bears no relation to reality. It's just an easy go-to.

With regard to that - here's just a selection of the much derided MSM, reporting on exactly this (I mean, it's even in the Daily Mail!) -

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/22/average-pay-ftse-100-chiefs-jumps

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/uk-better-off-cap-big-boss-pay-1807862

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Robert-Scaringe-Apple-CEO-Tim-Cook-list.html

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/b...-frontline-workers-salary-is-shocking-331518/

https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...ork-rail-boss-salary-strike-pay-b2147576.html

 

[San Tejón]

I hear you and absolutely not having a pop at you, but I REALLY worry about how easy it is to throw around the "MSM" line. It's insidious and become part of the daily discourse, and usually bears no relation to reality. It's just an easy go-to.

With regard to that - here's just a selection of the much derided MSM, reporting on exactly this (I mean, it's even in the Daily Mail!) -

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/22/average-pay-ftse-100-chiefs-jumps

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/uk-better-off-cap-big-boss-pay-1807862

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Robert-Scaringe-Apple-CEO-Tim-Cook-list.html

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/b...-frontline-workers-salary-is-shocking-331518/

https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...ork-rail-boss-salary-strike-pay-b2147576.html

I doff my cap to you.

 

[St. Luigi Scrosoppi]

This is really worth watching.

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[ChilcoSaint]

This is really worth watching.

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[ChilcoSaint]

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[StJabbo1]

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Add to that ravages done to public services, the pillaging of the public purse and blatant lies and corruption of the current government its hard to see how they could win an election. Unfortunately the realism is buried under a torrent of misinformation.

 

[saintrichie123]

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[San Tejón]

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A piece here, too, which reveals the lengths to which Johnson has gone to influence reporting at the BBC.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...jYiB_gvj6n2oxHAUkj-NYVdHPz-yFDlMWkF7xX3FFU9rA

 

[StJabbo1]

A piece here, too, which reveals the lengths to which Johnson has gone to influence reporting at the BBC.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...jYiB_gvj6n2oxHAUkj-NYVdHPz-yFDlMWkF7xX3FFU9rA

Add this, it's good this is being aired, the BBC has been nobbled.

 

[Archers Road]

I see Two Bob Churchill, aided and abetted by the Tory client press, is trying to guilt shame us into swallowing fuel poverty as part of the Freedom for Ukraine narrative. That’s utterly ****ing shameless imo