All this stuff about Labour politicians getting Taylor Swift tickets from the Premier League is insane. How stupid do you have to be as a politician not to think that that's going to look corrupt?
Maybe they're just all entitled as fuck and have no idea how it looks.
I am slightly amazed that in the age of the Bribery Act, where in the private sector it seems almost impossible to accept a cup of coffee, that MPs are allowed to simply accept so many obvious bribes on condition that they write them down on a list. Really doesn't help with the feeling that literally everyone in life, and particularly public life, is/are on the take.
We had some training recently and we're unable to accept anything of greater value than a notepad. But it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the rules don't apply to the people that make them.
In our line of work, the only realistic opportunities for bribery would come from claimants / tenants who are already skint.
Yes and no. I have been offered sexual favours in the past (declined) and colleagues have been offered hush money from those involved in crime. Without wanting to throw shade at my colleagues, I suspect there are some that have not declined. But yeah, when it comes to everyday bribery. Opportunities are few and far between. I'm not even allowed to accept a glass of water (albeit, not on bribery grounds).
I used to get loads of shit from customers, though when some started to try make you feel obliged the next time round I stopped.
That's the real problem with politicians accepting this stuff, there is never something for nothing.
Hence the Premier League (and Liverpool, lol) giving Swift tickets to random MPs being ludicrously transparent (they are desperately lobbying against the introduction of a football regulator). As an MP, why would you be stupid enough to accept and put yourself in that position?
Like, what are they doing?Independent
Byrne, Ian (Liverpool West Derby), William Hogan CEO Liverpool Football Club Foundation, two tickets, £900
Liberal Democrat
Davey, Ed (Kingston and Surbiton), The Football Association, two tickets, £584
Labour
Carden, Dan (Liverpool Walton), Liverpool Football Club, two tickets, £900
Johnson, Kim (Liverpool Riverside), Liverpool Football Club, two tickets, £900
Jones, Darren (Bristol North West), The Football Association Premier League Limited, four tickets, £3,400
McKinnell, Catherine (Newcastle upon Tyne North), The Football Association Premier League Limited, two tickets, £2,000
Morris, Joe (Hexham), Premier League, two tickets, £1,660.
Networking, surely.
Do you think they just go and enjoy? This is where deals are won and lost.
It's this.Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
This is pretty much bang on.
Same in financial services. Anything above 50 is a red flag. Should have been a politician
These stupid fucks aren't even good at taking bribes either. They're being bought off so cheaply.
What's worse than genuine absolute corruption on a massive scale?
Small time pretend corruption by noobs.
I think the only way you could bring in appropriate pay for politicians in Bucket of Crabs Britain is if you had some Trump-like figure who didn't claim a salary whilst doing so. Anyone voting to pay the Prime Minister a million quid a year that rightly belongs to Our NHS would have their house torched.
Isn't it a bit early for Sir Kier to be now promising "light at the end of the tunnel" as is being trailed? Seems it must have been an awfully short tunnel, unless this is some extended metaphor tracing back through period of Conservative government, as it's not like they've actually taken/implemented any of the TOUGH DECISIONS yet.
Their messaging ever since being elected is absolutely baffling.
Brings to mind a HMHB lyric, 'the light at the end of the tunnel is the light of an oncoming train'.
Indeed. I'm sure Reeves is eminently capable at the numbers side of things, but proclaiming doom and gloom at least 2 months before she needed to (whilst seemingly not realising that doing so would have an impact on the actual numbers) is proper amateur hour stuff.
It isn't though, is it? It's to placate all sides, tentative, nervous and wishy washy. It's a carefully considered legal approach. Which is exactly what the country doesn't need, but was always going to get with SIR KEIR.
'The return of the sausages' is amazingly funny to me. Proper leaning in to it like what he says matters, and then he says fucking sausages.
I like to think some sort of Corbynista/Tory deep plant in his team edited that into his autocue to fuck him over. How else do you end up saying 'sausages' in that situation?
My personal, preferred take is that the breakfast spread at the conference was lacking this morning and he actually really did want the return of the sausages.
The UK demands more sausages and they demand them now.
Bangers. Mash. Equality.
Everything's shit and nothing's getting better and soon you won't even be able to drown your sorrows.
In fairness drinking is shit and a boomer millennial past time. Close them all, I say.
Problem drinking is done in living rooms far more often than in pubs and that will remain the case. Firstly, because you can buy 2 litres of cider for £2 and secondly, because you don't solve addiction by making it more difficult. And let's face it, it is an addiction for a scarily large number of people. Many of who would never admit it.
"Study finds people drink less when served less drink."
This is so blindingly obvious that it must have eluded them. Living rooms don't employ people either or give potentially lonely people vital social opportunities. If I were PM I'd introduce a huge pub subsidy and fund it with a massive dog tax and also a specific sales tax surcharge on everything that Jeremy Vine likes.
The Public Health cranks will be all over this. There will be smoking-style warning labels on frozen pizzas by the end of the parliament.
I just don't understand the thinking. Do they think people drink / eat shit food because they are unaware that it's bad for them? Because they don't. Half the time they do so because their lives are shit, so, you know... maybe stop making our lives worse.
If they did want to make somewhat of a change on this front, they should stop companies targeting children and parents. Like Coco-Pops putting cutesy monkeys on the box along with a load of bullshit health claims. Sprinkling iron on top of processed shite does not make it healthy and they shouldn't be able to pretend otherwise.
Even then, it's people that have a healthy relationship with alcohol. The alcoholics would just buy more."Study finds people drink less when served less drink."
The best one is when you end up in a wanky pub serving schooners instead of pints but they cost the same.
Stopping Brits having a piss up down the boozer is a one way ticket out of Government.
Aye, or they'll be in a situation where someone will buy it for them.
This is the thing isn't it?
Whatever serving sizes you want are fine, as long as they are priced commensurately. That won't happen and anyway, fuck it, if they want less let them drink halves. [/MarieAntoinette]
It really does feel like this is just another Tory leader and reshuffle. It's only marginally less shambolic than the Truss effort.
We have some serious issues in this country. A country of stagnation and decline, and all they've managed so far is to release a load of prisoners, lock up a fresh load of thick cunts, kill Boydy's nan, get embroiled in a donations scandle and threaten to make life even harder for pubs that are already going bust up and down the country.
Still no mention of taxing the wealthy, council tax reform or landlord and dividend taxes. Get Two Tier, Free Gear, No Beer Starmer in the fucking sea. Jesus.
I'd stick with him in the sense that no other cunt would do anything different.
Any update on the sausages?
Still long dead and never coming back.
The irony being tory voters hate him. I did say in the run up Starmer's as much of a Tory PM as Cameron or Major.
If you're going to do unpopular things do it at the start. I think sir Beer will be fine.
They tried half litres here back in the late 90's and it lasted about 3 months.
It's one of the things I find laughable about France. 'I'd like a beer please'. 'Certainly, sir, will that be twenty-five centilitres, or fifty centilitres?' 'Oh, fifty for me, I have a real thirst on!'
The word 'pint' is a success story in itself. You try and rip that out of the language, it's a thousand years of cultural and linguistic evolution up the swanny. One syllable, meaning clear.
I hate this sort of Ill thought out and borderline pointless meddling with things we enjoy in the name of public health. Why should my infrequent trips to the pub be curtailed because someone else has an alcohol problem and theyll just drink at home anyway?
The benefit angle will be tricky. He wants to tackle fraud but also says, "People need to look for work." One of these is a lot easier to sort than the other so I guess they should keep filling in their job search diaries.
Is there some kind of benefit fraud whistleblower line? Throw some Amazon gift vouchers out for information.
Can you not just go pression grand or whatever? Although I do like the, in my mind, incivility of just saying fifty. Kind of fits the French.
In other thousand years of history down the toilet news clickbait local media is railing against single file queues in pubs today. Yeah, that can do one.
You can report it online. I have to do it frequently and I have never - as in not once - had them come back to me for more information. Nor have they ever suspended the claim off the back of my report. It does need addressing. The amount of benefit fraud going on will be unreal.
I think most people hear 'benefit fraud' and think people working whilst claiming or something relatively well-organised, when in fact everybody knows [of] somebody who will be claiming as a single mother and living with somebody etc.
Elsewhere, 'they never cost the taxpayer a penny' is a good defence for taking freebies to be fair. Well, would you rather we just embezzled it? Would you?
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