It does feel a lot like right wingers and aggy Corbynite types just throwing any old **** at the wall to build this ‘they’re all the same’ narrative which is clearly not true. So what if his kid studied at a donor’s flat? I didn’t pay for any of that. I did pay for a small part of Hancock’s dog’s uncle founding a PPE company and being given a huge contract the next day.
I'm uncomfortable with Starmer taking gifts of clothes and glasses, but he's said that won't happen any more, so better late than never in that regard. Taking up an offer to use the Directors' box at Arsenal seems perfectly fine to me and his son using someone's flat for study seems like a non-story. The whole thing has been whipped up by the right wing press, and, sadly, the broadcast media have taken up the story to the point that no government representative can give an interview without being asked about it. I think Starmer has been rather naive and foolish in not realising that he and his party would be held to standards way higher than those applied to the Tories (I expect them to be better, too), but I don't believe for a moment that there's anything corrupt here - in stark contrast to the real government corruption that has happened in recent years. Boris Johnson will be laughing up his sleeve.
When I was training to be a Chartered Accountant - with auditing being the ‘bread and butter’ of the Profession (particularly in those days) - it was drummed into us that an Auditor not only has to be independent but also must be seen to be independent. In other words/in some respects, perception. I think that’s the issue here, after all the pontificating that Labour did about sleaze, and the claims that a future Labour Government would be all about serving the Country, these revelations are bound to raise eyebrows. Hopefully, lessons have been learned and we can move on.
The story that I posted was from the Guardian mate, hardly a right wing bastion of false reporting My issue is that he's just another 'deaf' politician. I have no truck with Labour or the Tories when they act holier than thou
"Lessons have been learned" is the most fatuous phrase in widespread use because lessons are never learned, it's rolled out relentlessly whenever there's a disaster / murder / atrocity / political cock-up by those who haven't done their jobs properly in the hope they can avoid the consequences that are rarely enacted. If Starmer had any credibility as more and more revelations are revealed he'd pay back the cost of all the 'largesse' he's received and draw a line under the whole saga rather than repeatedly say "It's in the rules". His lack of judgement is truly awful...
He did nothing wrong. If he paid back the cost of these gifts/donations then what? Would it stop the gurning Reform voters/Tories from crying about Labour winning every day? Nope. He's done what needed to be done, him being in power is the will of the people.
Yes, he's shown poor judgment, and I would have expected better of him, but I don't recall those crawling all over this story demanding that Boris Johnson repay the gifts he received, the value of which would dwarf anything Starmer has had.
It's about his lack of judgement, he was endlessly sanctimonious during the election campaign and promising a "government of service" yet it seems so hollow when his first decision is to hammer pensioners whilst freeloading himself. He may have done nothing wrong, although some is questionable, but it's one of a number of poorly judged decisions that is damaging his credibility. The Tories were a disaster and should have been so easy to follow but they're making a pig's ear of this...
Cameron’s and Osborne’s Austerity measures in large part failed to achieve what they hoped to achieve. As for Boris, I personally wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. That said, I suspect that the GE outcome would have been much closer had he still been PM. As for the Economy, there have been 2 crashes since 2007. Truss was not PM for either:
Agree 100% that Lessons have been learned is a pretty fatuous phrase. I guess that I used it more in hope than in expectation
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...th-16000-declared-as-money-for-private-office He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer is he?
I’ll say this for Kier Starmer. He’s brilliant at not looking like someone who has spent £32k on clothes in the last 12 months. I guess he needs a donated flat to store it all in. I bet the designers of his stuff are begging him not to reveal they made his whistles. But he hasn’t broken any rules, so that’s fine. Trust.
the people of Lebanon deserve peace. Hopefully that’s the beginning of the end for Hezbollah. They will either go out with a big bang now or fade away to nothing
