Absolutely. We were discussing in comparison to Corbyn though, who for all his faults, at least you know where he stands on most things. That’s why Starmer is a ‘careerist’ politician and Corbyn, despite spending his whole career as one, is not.
Westminster Politics 2024-2029
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Absolutely. We were discussing in comparison to Corbyn though, who for all his faults, at least you know where he stands on most things. That’s why Starmer is a ‘careerist’ politician and Corbyn, despite spending his whole career as one, is not.
Good.
It would certainly be a better look for Labour to invest its pension scheme in ethical strategies, but this donation feels a bit one step removed for me at least. You know quant funds can have hundreds of holdings, often trading quickly. I find the size of the donation more distasteful and feel there should be a cap on donations. Whether that's realistic or not I don't know but would at least put a lid on outsized donations raising questions of influence.
I'd pay to see them do an interview together again.
Yeah maybe. I’m probably guilty of running on headlines and brief content rather than taking a step back, but I still think there’s a way to be funded in a transparent and ethical manner.
More details will follow I guess.
The businesses aren't typically registered in the Caymans, just their funds. Even in the UK and Europe, funds generally are tax efficient vehicles for investing.
I presumed the British tax havens were more about nobility passing down assets or funding lovechildren historically
Tbf Kemi Badenoch does say she left Nigeria due to worsen economic/political conditions for her (She didn’t live with her parents in the UK but with some family friends instead).
But anyways your talking about poverty and struggling which isn’t the same as class. Class is a social relation to means of prod….very boring Marx stuff.
When she was younger she had some working class jobs to help for funds during her A levels. So her claiming she has had been in different class positions throughout her life isn’t crazy.
Number 10 used to have proper Villa “fans”
Beautiful stuff
Sorry, but a wealthy African family might be treated worse than a wealthy white British family due to racial prejudice but that in itself is a separate thing to the class system (though can be linked as racism has downward economic pressures in a lot of sectors)
But anyways, class in Britain is tied more closely to economics, where you live, and education and other indicators such as 'how you pronounce class'.
Which would all be fine if the public were willing to accept proper amounts of funding being allocated to meet these needs.
The prime minister gets £166,000 a year, a central london home with all bills paid, a country home with all bills paid and zero travel expenses for his entire tenure.
If you don't think he can afford his own clothing, why aren't the streets full of naked people?
Again you keeping bringing it back to how people are treatment badly.
Badenoch when she was younger moved to England live to with friends and during this time
she had working class jobs such as McDonalds.
So her claim of experience different class positions is fine.
Some people online lost it because
1)It’s a Tory saying it
2)Badenoch is into dumb cultural war shtick
3)A lot of people think the British class system is something people are born into and can never leave. So the idea that it’s possible to hold different class positions throughout life isn’t going to go down well.
He still owns his old home doesn't he? I mean he is required to live at no 10. The grace & favour residence doesn't really mean much.
£166k is around £8.5k a month net. Lots of money, but certainly not amongst the super rich.
I'm not sure many people on the street have as many meetings/events with world leaders, business leaders or are called on to represent the UK on the world stage as the Prime Minister. Your opinion may differ, but I tend to think I'd rather give a fair allowance so he's turning up fairly immaculately The other options would be to accept donations, accept that dressing for state functions is part of the role and expensive, or limit the position to the genuinely rich for whom spending a few grand on an outfit is no big deal.
Starmer needs to firstly think about joining planet fitness, cutting out the 4 pack deal of Greggs jam donuts and start buying bottles of Just 4 Men hair dye.
If anything he has been ruined some very expensive suits.
Shouldn't they be holding them financially responsible anyway, regardless of how quickly it's resolved? If I pay you to tag someone the day they're released and you do it 2 weeks later you'd better believe I'm not paying the full fee and I might even not pay any fee.
Did you hold this same position when Boris was being given handouts by his rich chums?
Badenoch was born here, lived in Lagos with (relative to Nigeria vs England) wealthy parents. One is a GP, the other is a Professor.
At no point was she working class. She operated with a financial safety net provided by parents with middle class jobs. One that most working class kids don’t have. Her parents class in Nigeria was further removed from Middle Class Brit’s to Working Class Brit’s. By a distance. Her mother moved between Lagos and America as a lecturer ffs.
Working at McDonalds in her case was not a working class endeavour. It was a social grounding exercise, and she and her parents should/could be praised for it. Though her turning out to be a racist piece of shit probably colours that praise black fairly quickly.
She can spout her accented shite all she likes. She thinks she’s above people and that routinely plays out. She others people at every turn, depending on which way the wind is blowing. It’s not that she’s a Tory, it’s that she’s Fcuking abhorrent.
I won’t let any light into a discussion that sees us try to find nuance in that humans existence. She’s next-Gen Farage.
The temporary inconvenience of menial jobs is not the same thing as being working class, she said she has a middle class background for fecks sake
I'm someone who is has changed class, as I'm now probably middle class having been brought up working class, and still have a working class family and but now has a middle class job and income but to be working class you have to have no safety net.
It's literally Common People by Pulp
If you can call daddy and go back to affluence you're not actually working class
It’s not about financial security or social grounding exercises. It’s about the relationship to the work you take part in. Badenoch at one time worked at McDonald’s as service worker.
Again all she said was that she was working class for a bit when having a food service job. To go back to the original point it’s a rare occurrence where a Tory by pure accident had a better take on class then most of the people laughing at her.
It doesn’t mean she is less full of shit because of it.
Personally I like Javis solo stuff more.It's literally Common People by Pulp
Um, yeah it kinda is by any normal interpretation
Yeah that utter horse shit. By all means have your definition as ‘does work’ but that’s beyond mad.
Her suggestion was Fcuking insulting.
I feel like if Starmer/a member of the Labour cabinet had said the same thing, you'd have just laughed at it along with everybody else.
Might be in slight danger of going all horseshoe theory on us.
Yes, at least in principle. I don't think it should be a partisan issue. I would bring it completely in house in terms of allowances provided for things connected to official functions rather than relying on donors. Once there was a system in place,I would ban private donations (although there might need to be some consideration about funding purely party campaign events).
Yet thousands of people each year risk their lives in small boats to get here, doesn't make sense does it?
So if McDonald’s workers had better financial security they wouldn’t be working class then ?
Badenoch class analysis is still terrible but her competition is mid 90’s Pulp tunes.
Fair enough
It makes complete sense when you consider their countries are worse than ours, usually, in some part, due to decisions made by our past governments/leaders.
As I said, the British Class system is ill defined.
A McDonald's worker who is doing it for extra cash on the side may or may not be working class depending on their parents, background and education and the means by which they got the money.
Like if they are a drug dealer, probably working class, if their dad was a stockbroker and gave them a trust fund, definitely not
Starmer's dad was a tool maker don't ya know.
This discussion always perplexes me, if a McDonalds worker has parents with a well paid manual job like plumber are they not middle class either?
Can no middle class parent ever have a working class kid? What if they become poor but retain a middle class upbringing?
Strongly urge everyone to listen to the Nick Ferrari - Farage chat from 9:30-10:00 today.
The man is so much worse than you can imagine. He’s a nut.
The man is so much worse than you can imagine. He’s a nut.
I would have thought that mid 90's Pulp tune's lyrics would've chimed with you.
The difference between working in McDonalds with a huge Mummy and Daddy safety net and doing so to survive is pretty obvious, is it not? The role in the production process is artificial in one case and not in the other surely? Do Badenoch's intrinsic class tendencies and interests really alter because she fried some stuff for for a little while? Seems like a rather shallow attempt to appear to be a woman of the people in her pitch to lead the Tories to me, rather than a nuanced understanding of class through the Marxist dialectic.
There really should be no discussion at all about the PM accepting gifts, so long as he declares it. Say what you like about the state of British or even global politics, but Starmer has attained one of the top jobs on the planet in terms of importance, I don't see any issue at all that he gets comped things.
Tbh even the middle class is pretty abstract. We’ve all used term and everyone sort of knows the vibe of it but it’s incredible difficult to define.
Class is a complex question which is dependent on some many different factors(Even the Marxist view of class comes with of issues.)
The difference in quality of life is obvious. But in terms of the production process it’s the same as both workers are in the McDonald’s flipping Big Macs, getting exploited and creating profits.
I might be getting my classic Marx wrong here but for someone to be working class all they need to do is sell their labour for a wage and not have access to means of production(Which is range of things like factories, land, small businesses, the labour of others, etc).
But as mentioned before this analysis isn’t perfect and has a ton of issues.
I guess this is where the social element comes in. Badenoch is still a Tory so her time in McDonald’s clearly didn’t have a big impact on her.
Oh agree with you it’s definitely shallow from Badenoch.
Oh their 90’s era is great and clever which means….I sort of instinctively hate it. I prefer my art to be vulgar so I liked when Javis gave up all hope about a decade later and called the ruling class a bunch of cnuts!
Exactly this. She is a fecking nasty piece of work.
Yep the key issue here is making sure everything is declared and within the rules. I mean I think getting clothes was unnecessary and over the top and he should have had more self awareness over that but as long as every gift is declared within the rules, there shouldn’t be an issue.
“Fair dos” Kier for getting over £30,000 in free tickets
I genuinely did not expect him to show how much of a wanker he is this quickly into the job. The mask is well and truly off
Yep. I think Starmer is a massive bellend but I’m still surprised at how quickly it’s all fallen down.
The guardian is predictably having its “doubts” now as well.
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