Current Affairs The Conservative Party

[NilSatisOptimum]

Let it never be said again the Tories are out of touch with the common man...

George Freeman quit as minister as he 'couldn't afford' mortgage

George Freeman says he could not afford the repayments, despite a salary of £118,300.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Thomasc]

I’ve no idea

You should have just stopped right there

 

[Xizor]

Let it never be said again the Tories are out of touch with the common man...

George Freeman quit as minister as he 'couldn't afford' mortgage

George Freeman says he could not afford the repayments, despite a salary of £118,300.

www.bbc.co.uk

He might as well be standing outside Westminster, flashing a bit of leg with a sign saying "MP for sale".

Essentially he's taken a pay cut of about £35k in resigning as a minister and expects to not only make up the shortfall but also exceed those earnings from the backbenches by taking on 2nd jobs (those 4 hour/month directorships at companies who want something out of the government).

Probably had to go public with his corrupt panhandling attempts because nobody's come knocking on his door with the Tories so close to the boot. Why would you take a Tory on the payroll now as an MP lobbyist?

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Even if ministers weren't signing off contracts, they certainly look to have held considerable sway on who got awarded these contracts. Even the act of putting mates forward is awful:

Covid-19: Ten Conservative MPs and peers referred companies to “VIP lane” that won £1.6bn of PPE contracts

Ten Conservative MPs and peers referred companies through the government’s “VIP lane” for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts, a leaked document has revealed.1 The document, first seen by the Politico website,2 details 47 companies referred to the government’s high priority list for...

www.bmj.com

But yes, let's blame the civil servants. Last time I checked this bunch of rotters were responsible for not doing what ministers wanted so everything was their fault. Now when they've done so, it's all their fault too. Grrr. Almost like they're a scapegoat.

Nope, the greedy piglets and networked scumbags taking advantage and abusing the system need holding up to the light here.

Myself would store them for the next pandemic call me labour supporter but its better to be prepared.

And the sums of money are staggering. For example, the Covid and PPE contracts scandal is one of the biggest daylight robberies in living history. Billions squandered away to chums and very little accountability. It's no surprise Sunak the PM squashed the investigation into this spending when as chancellor...

 

[Martin Alvito]

He might as well be standing outside Westminster, flashing a bit of leg with a sign saying "MP for sale".

Essentially he's taken a pay cut of about £35k in resigning as a minister and expects to not only make up the shortfall but also exceed those earnings from the backbenches by taking on 2nd jobs (those 4 hour/month directorships at companies who want something out of the government).

Probably had to go public with his corrupt panhandling attempts because nobody's come knocking on his door with the Tories so close to the boot. Why would you take a Tory on the payroll now as an MP lobbyist?

Long-run strategy.

The candor is refreshing. He's in essence saying, "Look, I'm being corrupt because the system is broken, my finances demand it and ministerial jobs have become terrible. I would like to do what I believe to be a good job, but it's just not worth, and that will be true for anyone regardless of electoral outcomes. The only people who will want ministerial jobs will be the ambitious without principles and the real zeroes." Which more or less describes recent Tory ministers, from the top on down.

I doubt he much wants a proper solution, which is to pay MPs enough to keep them from worrying about mortgages, limit the housing costs they can take on, ban the backbenchers from taking the lucrative directorships and fund all that through taxing those who do not worry about mortgages. If they did that, it would force the Tories to do much the same for non-MPs facing a cost-of-living crisis.

He has, however, perhaps inadvertently provided a public service by peeling back the veil on reality. It serves the present Tory electoral narrative by saying Labour as constituted will be little better, but that's more or less what many have been saying around here. It provides ammunition for the more reform-minded elements of Labour. Whether they use it to produce internal strife (as I bet he wants) or enact real change is up to the party.

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

I was happy to see this. Hopefully they get rinsed.



And even happier to see this. You can always count on someone to confirm their status as a total bell end when under pressure and they resort to saying things like this.

'Lady' Michelle lol lol

Absolute tramp.

Michelle Mone’s big Grand National hope may be prevented from running

BHA investigating status of horse Monbeg Genius after £75m of assets owned by peer and husband ‘frozen or restrained’

www.google.com

 

[Rita_Poon]

Myself would store them for the next pandemic call me labour supporter but its better to be prepared.

And the sums of money are staggering. For example, the Covid and PPE contracts scandal is one of the biggest daylight robberies in living history. Billions squandered away to chums and very little accountability. It's no surprise Sunak the PM squashed the investigation into this spending when as chancellor...

View attachment 244048

That pic screams the mail, not least because the second smallest number is almost slap bang center, but because of the down playing and non totaling of all of the figures. If mone didn't own the test & trace fiasco, who did, could fujitsu be involved?

 

[ArtetaMoney]

Myself would store them for the next pandemic call me labour supporter but its better to be prepared.

And the sums of money are staggering. For example, the Covid and PPE contracts scandal is one of the biggest daylight robberies in living history. Billions squandered away to chums and very little accountability. It's no surprise Sunak the PM squashed the investigation into this spending when as chancellor...

View attachment 244048

These figures have all been added into their “investment” in the NHS as well, I believe.

 

[Walken]

Kenneth Clarke speaking out on the anti-democracy nature of the Rwanda bill, we tend to go on about boomers dragging the tories further and further right but the only tory party members speaking out about the parties vile policies seem to be the elderly ones such as Clarke, Heseltine, Major etc.

I realise they no longer have careers to proptect but I do see sincerity in their words.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Kenneth Clarke speaking out on the anti-democracy nature of the Rwanda bill, we tend to go on about boomers dragging the tories further and further right but the only tory party members speaking out about the parties vile policies seem to be the elderly ones such as Clarke, Heseltine, Major etc.

I realise they no longer have careers to proptect but I do see sincerity in their words.

Let the Tories rip themselves apart, what is the point of any opposition galvanizing Tories in parliament when this bill wont get past the Lords. Only a Tory would want opposition to intervene which would cause the distraction in media Sunak desperately yearns for on the Rwanda bill.

 

[peteblue]

No Pete, this was a large part of the scandal. That usual procurement rules were bypassed by Ministers and the likes of Cummings.

I've a dim memory of you arguing this was a good thing due to slow inflexible rules meaning we couldn't react well in an emergency.

Frankly, Mone and others have behaved disgracefully here. Absolute chances.

In times of national emergency I’m all in favour of swift decisions, the country did it during the Falklands war where the usual bureaucratic processes were bypassed in order to get things done. Similarly for Covid, a national emergency, and people were allowed to move heaven and earth to get things done. I don’t really have a problem with those that had to make these quick and difficult decisions as they would have been crucified had they not. But if people wish to blame someone, blame all of them not just the ones wearing blue, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who did what they honestly believed was in the best interests of the country. Blame the chancers and swindlers who took the country for a ride. I’d rather see HMRC and the treasury chasing them for the return of money and our courts putting a few of them away….

 

[mightymoyes]

In times of national emergency I’m all in favour of swift decisions, the country did it during the Falklands war where the usual bureaucratic processes were bypassed in order to get things done. Similarly for Covid, a national emergency, and people were allowed to move heaven and earth to get things done. I don’t really have a problem with those that had to make these quick and difficult decisions as they would have been crucified had they not. But if people wish to blame someone, blame all of them not just the ones wearing blue, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who did what they honestly believed was in the best interests of the country. Blame the chancers and swindlers who took the country for a ride. I’d rather see HMRC and the treasury chasing them for the return of money and our courts putting a few of them away….

no chance of that, the tories have destroyed HMRCs ability to investigate high level fraud. wonder why

 

[peteblue]

You should have just stopped right there

Haven’t you got a new stadium to be moaning about….

 

[peteblue]

no chance of that, the tories have destroyed HMRCs ability to investigate high level fraud. wonder why

It was Labour that merged the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise into a single entity producing no discernible benefit. I agree that merely cutting costs by reducing headcount without taking into account the tax collection benefit of retaining the staff is somewhat stupid…..

 

[tsubaki]

In times of national emergency I’m all in favour of swift decisions, the country did it during the Falklands war where the usual bureaucratic processes were bypassed in order to get things done. Similarly for Covid, a national emergency, and people were allowed to move heaven and earth to get things done. I don’t really have a problem with those that had to make these quick and difficult decisions as they would have been crucified had they not. But if people wish to blame someone, blame all of them not just the ones wearing blue, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who did what they honestly believed was in the best interests of the country. Blame the chancers and swindlers who took the country for a ride. I’d rather see HMRC and the treasury chasing them for the return of money and our courts putting a few of them away….

People didn’t make fortunes out of the Falklands War Pete, and we had a successful conclusion to that rather than six figure deaths and government ministers openly taking the public for fools.