OV9

It's pretty simple, if you don't want to be caught in the "Tory spin machine" don't take part in ethically corrupt actions. Don't shoot yourself in the foot and cry about it, especially when your whole image and IQ reached as far as shouting scum at the opposition for doing similar things previously

Wonder what idiot will replace her.

It’s been on the cards for a while. Like, I said they’ve been looking for an excuse since she lost the unions support. Keeping them onside was the main reason she was there.

ZedLeg wrote: Fri Sep 05, 2025 1:01 pm It’s been on the cards for a while. Like, I said they’ve been looking for an excuse since she lost the unions support. Keeping them onside was the main reason she was there.

Bloody inane or deceitful error from her though.

'Take tax advice!'

<Doesn't take tax advice>

Yeah, I said on bluesky that she’s not really got anyone to blame but herself.

She made the decisions to follow Starmer which lost her union support and made repeated errors in how she managed her property which led to all this press.

And once the press had the sniff of blood in the water, they were never letting it go.

It staggers me that Labour never seem to learn from this, ever.

Reading on Rollonfriday about the firm involved denying they gave tax advice, I realise it is in fact a different issue to the tax thing she was previously in the press for. I had forgotten that was about CGT on sale of a previous house. So while I was being unfair to say that this came up before and she denied it (I was thinking about that CGT situation), I'd go further and say politically she utterly fucked up rather than simply being unlucky. Why would you let your tax affairs make the news for two separate things? Even if the first time she was not found to have underpaid, and even if this time might have simply been an honest mistake. You can't be in power and have these things happen.

Labour's messaging and PR is woeful. I really hope that Farage comes under the same scrutiny over here as he did when he was in the US this week - I cannot comprehend our country allowing him to become PM.

Farage is over in America saying Britain is like North Korea (presumably because Brexit has made it impossible to send failed asylum seekers back to europe?) and we can’t protect our women and girls (presumably from the Reform MP convicted of assaulting his girlfriend?)

Rich B wrote: Fri Sep 05, 2025 5:00 pm Farage is over in America saying Britain is like North Korea (presumably because Brexit has made it impossible to send failed asylum seekers back to europe?) and we can’t protect our women and girls (presumably from the Reform MP convicted of assaulting his girlfriend?)

I think he's on about that comedian who said something about trans people being arrested and needing ID for his grot but I don't follow most of the political bollocks as there's only so much shite one can read

GG. wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 7:46 pm

dinny_g wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 5:44 pm A more important quest is this…

While Jobbo and GG are discussing this, who are they billing???

Who are we not billing that's the question. Best we both get back to work

Contrary to what you may expect I feel very sorry for her. She's badly fucked up and her salary has now dropped down to the standard MP's pay of 95k and she has a 650k mortgage with NatWest which will be c. 4k pcm. Her income has dropped from c 8k to a little over 5k a month so she has a mortgage that is 75% of her take home pay.

In all likelihood that now makes the flat unaffordable and if she is forced into selling it she will lose the whole 70k stamp duty she's (not yet) paid on it plus another stamp duty bill of buying something more affordable. If that isn't almost the best example of why tax in this country is a sickening joke and how much it can penalise people in their time of misfortune almost nothing else is. Would that mean she sees the error of her (Labour / Socialist) ways? I'm not going to hold my breath.

You have much more of a heart than I have. I can't even be bothered to get my tiny violin out.

GG. wrote: Fri Sep 05, 2025 7:10 pm Her income has dropped from c 8k to a little over 5k a month

Assuming she pays the appropriate amount of tax…

I cant work out whether she lied/misled or made a genuine fuck up, so I’ll reserve sympathy for now.

I couldn’t give a crap, she is in an environment where she has people all around her to advise her, knows she will be looked into and has said inflammatory things when others do the same.

Millions manage to pay the right amount of tax so why can’t she.

Dave!

GG. wrote: Fri Sep 05, 2025 7:10 pm Contrary to what you may expect I feel very sorry for her. She's badly fucked up and her salary has now dropped down to the standard MP's pay of 95k and she has a 650k mortgage with NatWest which will be c. 4k pcm. Her income has dropped from c 8k to a little over 5k a month so she has a mortgage that is 75% of her take home pay.

In all likelihood that now makes the flat unaffordable and if she is forced into selling it she will lose the whole 70k stamp duty she's (not yet) paid on it plus another stamp duty bill of buying something more affordable. If that isn't almost the best example of why tax in this country is a sickening joke and how much it can penalise people in their time of misfortune almost nothing else is. Would that mean she sees the error of her (Labour / Socialist) ways? I'm not going to hold my breath.

I get it, I do. I don't think what she did was out of arrogance or an excess of greed, but just utter stupidity. Had she actually sought proper, expensive tax advice (like what my Dad used to do until he finally retired 21 months ago at age 79), and not just from her conveyancer or whatever, then she probably wouldn't have done what she did. And ironically, had she actually sought that proper advice and indicated she would avoid the tax anyway, then the adviser would've had to make a declaration to HMRC about her intentions. It was foolhardy, and it'll cost her more than the £40k or whatever she saved.

tl:dr 'Idiot'.

Rich B wrote: Fri Sep 05, 2025 5:00 pm Farage is over in America saying Britain is like North Korea (presumably because Brexit has made it impossible to send failed asylum seekers back to europe?) and we can’t protect our women and girls (presumably from the Reform MP convicted of assaulting his girlfriend?)

Farage a couple of days ago encouraged the US to apply tariffs to the U.K. Why isn’t that front page news? He says he’s a patriot but is actively trying to harm the economy of this country. He gets far more press coverage than any other party leader, including our Prime Minister, and minimal criticism. Our press is a joke.

Kind of sums up the position of the opposition(s) in modern politics - do whatever it takes to discredit the opposition regardless of whether it helps the country or not. They are NEVER right.

The Conservatives are the opposition, strictly - and this week Kemi Badenoch has been proven to have lied about her university offers. Something irrelevant anyway and not worth lying about. It’s not a surprise that Farage is doing OK in the polls despite cosying up to Putin.

Aye, folk need to be looking at his record as a politician rather than a rabble rouser tbh.

He doesn’t do the job we’re all paying him to do because he’s too busy raising his profile with some of the worst cunts in the world.

I had a long meeting yesterday with an 87 yr old client and we started talking about former PMs after he said something by about Heath. Frankly since the 1960s we’ve really had only two PMs who were proper leaders - I think regardless of politics most would agree only Maggie and Blair really had the necessary strength of vision and character.

Starmer obviously doesn’t and Badenoch doesn’t - nor anyone else in the Tories who wants the job - but Farage probably does. Which means he may well be electable, something I hadn’t really countenanced because of the lack of depth in his party. I know it’s nearly 4 years away but the next election is going to be a horror show. Trump’s giving him ideas too, so it could even be worse than we have previously imagined.

I think between now and then we'll have the benefit of seeing the full destruction of America with Trumps policies, and the next US election, before ours. Hopefully that should shine a light of what might be in store with Farage. Also hopefully things will have improved here a bit by then.

As for Thatcher and Blair, I agree. I'd also add early Cameron to that list. Like him or loathe him he had an air of statesman around him and he did manage to win the Scottish referendum. Only on the tail of that victory did he think he could go on to put the EU referendum to bed, and failed.