UK politics, Truss me, I really am that mental.

[Heartofice]

Just now, Kalbear said:

BREAKING THE LAW EVEN MORE THEN, I SEE

Especially if they are driving cars in the house. Little shits. Bring back hanging.

[kissdbyfire]

- Patritotism! - but not really if it's just ultranatíonalism w/ everything that it entails.

- Freedom! - but not really when it's only for some and the opposite for 'others'.

And of course, "save the children!" - but truly not at all when it's both an excuse and a way of forcing children to be what some expect them to be and not at all about really saving anyone since there are actual millions of children that do need saving - from hunger, from disease, from war - all over the world and we are doing fuck all to save them, and this applies to the "save the children" crowd more than anyone else.

 

[mormont]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

BREAKING THE LAW EVEN MORE THEN, I SEE

 

[Tears of Lys]

Perfect place to insert this:

 

[williamjm]

10 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

kier can be pretty dry sometimes, at PMQ's 

Sir Keir raised the subject of Ms Truss and her book at Prime Minister's Questions, joking that he was the "proud owner" of a "rare unsigned copy".

I saw an article saying that Truss' advance for the book was £1500, which somehow seems both embarrassingly low and also unreasonably high.

[The Anti-Targ]

Forego the advance for a higher % of gross sales, then get your election campaign to buy shitloads of books to distribute to voters as election promotional material thereby legally funnelling campaign donations into your personal bank account. Perhaps attempt to double dip by gifting every donor with two copies of your book, one to keep and one to give to a friend (or enemy).

If you're not offered a 5 or 6 figure advance surely you are better off taking no advance and making it seem like you are so completely confident in your book being a best seller that you will make pots of cash from your cut of the book sales.

[Wall Flower]

7 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Guess you also watched the Crown then. 

I don't think the Crown just made it up as I believe it was mentioned in the Dimbleby book that Charles contributed to in the 90's. Earl Spencer has just written a book about the abuse (physical and sexual) that was going on in his exclusive public school. At lot of stuff was covered up or simply not spoken about to the long-term detriment of the children involved.

[mormont]

So I'll forgo my rant about how shitty our generation is, and how we've no right to criticise younger folks when we are so awful, in favour of highlighting this story, which the headline ('Tory MP suspended over alleged misuse of funds') really does not do justice:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68841840

Quote

A Conservative MP has been suspended by the party following claims he misused campaign funds.

Mark Menzies allegedly asked his former campaign manager for money to pay "bad people" who he said had detained him overnight in a flat, the Times reports.

He has lost the party's whip while an investigation is carried out.

Mr Menzies, who represents the Fylde constituency in Lancashire, told the Times he "strongly disputed" the allegations.

According to the newspaper, Mr Menzies phoned his former campaign manager, now a party volunteer, at 03:15 last December saying he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of "life and death".

The sum was reportedly paid later that morning, by which time it had risen to £6,500, from the personal savings of Mr Menzies' office manager, who was reimbursed from campaign donations, the paper said.

A source close to Mr Menzies told the Times he paid the money because he was scared of what would happen if he refused, but didn't have enough in his own savings.

Mr Menzies offered to repay the funds but claimed local Tories who controlled the account the money came from said he didn't need to, a source told the paper.

I suspect this is one of those times when we won't ever find out the whole story, but clearly, there's a little more to this than 'Tory MP misuses funds'. 

I appreciate that MPs live an expensive life, but this dude gets £90K a year in basic salary and he did not have £5K in the bank even for a matter of life and death? Who were these bad people? How did this situation arise? This is extremely concerning.

There's also another £14,000 of medical bills covered by party money and not repaid. 

[BigFatCoward]

13 minutes ago, mormont said:

So I'll forgo my rant about how shitty our generation is, and how we've no right to criticise younger folks when we are so awful, in favour of highlighting this story, which the headline ('Tory MP suspended over alleged misuse of funds') really does not do justice:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68841840

I suspect this is one of those times when we won't ever find out the whole story, but clearly, there's a little more to this than 'Tory MP misuses funds'. 

I appreciate that MPs live an expensive life, but this dude gets £90K a year in basic salary and he did not have £5K in the bank even for a matter of life and death? Who were these bad people? How did this situation arise? This is extremely concerning.

There's also another £14,000 of medical bills covered by party money and not repaid. 

I agree it is incredibly suspicious, but to the highlighted, i'd be surprised if most people making that have instant access to £5,000.  I don't keep that much in my savings account, i have about 2 grand for emergencies and the rest is tied up in investments.  

About 50% of people have less than a grand, i know the majority of those will be on lower incomes but 90k really isn't that much in the great scheme of things. 

Edited April 18 by BigFatCoward

[BigFatCoward]

£63 a month better off due to the cut in NI, going to go crazy. 

[Heartofice]

The more curious point is, imagining he had been kidnapped or detained by some 'bad people', why do they only want £5k? What kind of shitty criminals think that small? 

[BigFatCoward]

4 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

The more curious point is, imagining he had been kidnapped or detained by some 'bad people', why do they only want £5k? What kind of shitty criminals think that small? 

This sounds more like a big sex party that went wrong, and it was an off the cuff plan when they realised he was vulnerable to blackmail. 

Edited April 18 by BigFatCoward

[Heartofice]

If it's a Tory MP then most likely he couldn't pay for the call girls (or boys) he had hired, or the blow. I'm sure the pimp had come round and demanded payment. 

[mormont]

28 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I agree it is incredibly suspicious, but to the highlighted, i'd be surprised if most people making that have instant access to £5,000.  I don't keep that much in my savings account, i have about 2 grand for emergencies and the rest is tied up in investments.  

About 50% of people have less than a grand, i know the majority of those will be on lower incomes but 90k really isn't that much in the great scheme of things. 

His retired campaign manager had instant access to £5K - £6.5K, in fact. So I'm not buying that as an excuse. 

And in the grand scheme of things, £90K a year really is that much. It puts you in the top 5% of earners. 

[Heartofice]

That only people I know who earn decent money but somehow don't seem to ever have any, tend to have a fairly excessive drug habit. 

Edited April 18 by Heartofice

[BigFatCoward]

I know loads of people that were very comfortable a few years ago, and are now a grand a month worse off on mortgage payments alone, add in shopping, fuel, utilities etc people have a lot less savings than they used to. 

[BigFatCoward]

35 minutes ago, mormont said:

His retired campaign manager had instant access to £5K - £6.5K, in fact. So I'm not buying that as an excuse. 

And in the grand scheme of things, £90K a year really is that much. It puts you in the top 5% of earners. 

Someone else has access to 5 grand so he should?  That makes absolutely no sense, we have no idea of his personal circumstances other than his income.  

 

[Which Tyler]

I've just checked - I earn approximately a 8th of the £90k listed above (with no expenses, and no outside payments for "consulting"); my credit rating is... not great. I'm also living through a cost of living crisis.

I can get an unsecured £10k loan through my bank, online, and it says the money will be in my account in 2 hours.

I'm not taking it just to check a theory, however.

Edited April 18 by Which Tyler

[BigFatCoward]

Not to restart the discussion from last time, puberty blockers paused in Scotland. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-68844119

[SeanF]

52 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

If it's a Tory MP then most likely he couldn't pay for the call girls (or boys) he had hired, or the blow. I'm sure the pimp had come round and demanded payment. 

That seems the most likely explanation.  These people don’t offer credit.