Robert Jenrick, who is the favourite to be the next Conservative party leader, received £75,000 from a firm which has no employees, has never made a profit and has £332,000 in debts after taking a loan from an untraceable British Virgin Islands company https://t.co/9xVksRJEC8
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https://bsky.app/profile/jdportes.bsky.social/post/3l4ld2zmnvc2e
And first too.
Like Trump, in that way at least.
Get building those SMRs.
But you are correct. Whipping up racism may be a viable electoral strategy.
https://x.com/BBCPolitics/status/1513915874008252423
And we now have racist knobheads like Jenrick using the British-born statistic as a way of suggesting that half of London social housing is occupied by foreigners who have arrived much more recently.
Perhaps I should be thankful that we're still at the truthiness stage where people making racist and dishonest arguments at least think that there has to be some connection to reality in the alternative facts they are using, however tenuous, and not simply completely fabricating things.
Turnout in Virginia reported as brisk (around double from 2020, but ... pandemic back then).
But for the neo-puritans, this donation is probably OK because it's for a serious thing labelled campaigning expenses, rather than an apparently frivolous thing like expensive clothes.
Plus, it's a Tory doing it.
F1: just a flying visit for an early pre-qualifying mini-ramble.
And, with that, I'm off. Have a nice day, everyone. May your wardrobes be snazzy and ethically sourced
With Lammy, it tends to be the other way round.
If I were SKS, I think I would least like the Tories to choose Cleverly. Then maybe Tugendhat.
Jenrick would be my best bet, but Badenoch would do.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/21/gary-lineker-emma-thompson-eco-campaign-hypocrite-jet-set/
The first paragraph is an awesome opening, but for the record it was Anna Coke who married Charles Paget Tennant.
Or (perish the thought) Farage ?
There may be Conservatives thinking that way, but I don't see or hear much evidence that they are numerous.
Political donations are perfectly legitimate as long as they are declared, above board and used for campaigning/running the office and suchlike.
Where it starts to stink is the sheer amount of freebies MPs seem to attract, no matter what party they represent.
If the PM needs a clothing allowance for them and a partner, then fair enough, make it part of the package and showcase the best of British, but can a cabinet minister really not afford to buy their own clothes?
Now the other freebies are bit more stinky and complicated.
No such thing as a free lunch and all that.
Footie tickets and Swifty tickets? Get to fuck, they should be buying their own.
Things like Charity Ball tickets are maybe more acceptable, but it's complicated.
Ed Davey taking cash to care for his kid? A tough one, but on balance, I don't like it.
Farage off to the States to support an injured mate? Unacceptable.
It's gone on for years, but it needs to be stricter and all the freebies stopped.
Free Gear Keir and Vicky Sponge have done us all a favour by really highlighting it.
Take Badenoch for example. Born in Wimbledon a year before Mrs Thatchers nationality act that required British ancestry, so a British born citizen, though only returning to Britain from Nigeria at 16 for 2 years schooling and to establish residence for domestic university fees rather than overseas fees.
All entirely within the rules of course, and Kemi is honest enough to describe herself as "to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant".
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/21/keir-starmer-popularity-ratings-will-bounce-back-angela-rayner-insists
I have only so much imagination, Nigel.
But I too like that opening paragraph.
Farage on the other hand probably least wants Jenrick or Badenoch and would prefer Cleverly or Tugendhat
And to be fair the donkey show was a subsequent visit, not the honeymoon
And if the Starmer Hangover Cure works, if people feel better off and our surroundings and services are better than they are now, I suspect Starmer will be... if not loved, respected enough. And the early troubles will be seen as the teeth coming through.
Of course, plenty of people think that it won't work because it can't work. But the Deputy PM isn't going to say that, is she?
Foundations - Why Britain has stagnated
https://ukfoundations.co/
Point being that the next election might just be crazier than this one.
Two party politics could reassert itself - or it might, if Labour mess up in government, continue to fall apart.
But since you ask, I suppose it's possible that the Conservatives are playing a massive bluff, making a load of noise about choosing Jenrick to indulge their id, rather than someone who will cause the government problems.
But it's not likely, is it?
"Labour’s tax red lines have left Reeves with ‘one hand tied’ for budget, says IFS
Ruling out of rises to four main taxes could lead chancellor to make ‘economically damaging’ decisions, says thinktank"
The red lines and the absurd date make this budget the most difficult bit of politics in living memory.
Yes, you read that right but it's not what it seems...
Didn't he? After all, if he didn't, those NI cuts were irresponsible pre-election bribes.
On the one hand, I feel this should be required reading for every MP. On the other, looks instantly like communication from a crank were I to print it off and post it to mine.
A bit of a quandary.
Were famous!!!
http://sndup.net/54g66
AS it is I think the Tories will also need to come out with what theyre about, but theyre in no rush to do so and need to have a leader first. So they have the advantage of letting their enemy making mistakes.
Roll on 30 October.
Even if you think the thesis overdetermined, it's still quite persuasive.
And the interesting thing about it is that the policy implications shouldn't be a problem for any political party (with the exception of the anti-growth tendency).
You seem to have adopted the four legs good two legs bad approach to life.
Quite an interesting perspective, what podcast is it snipped from?
And they've missed about the honeymoon stuff.
There will be nobody left! And to think it all started with “Labour donor gives Labour First Lady clothing allowance”.
Funny old world!
One thing they didn’t mention - it so happened that, for offshore wind, the system for getting permission to build was streamlined.
Not some childish, throw all the regulations in the bin stupidity. But the process to the goal of demonstrating that the planned development was ok was made simpler and clearer.
Lay the favourite?
The state is still borrowing huge amounts, and the first call on the tax rises has to be to bring that down to manageable levels. Once that's happened, then we can talk about which taxes to reduce the pressure off.
There's a lot to be said for treating all income from all people in the same way, and cutting NI rates while reducing ICT rates is one thing. But that's not what Hunt did.
https://ig.ft.com/us-elections/2024/polls/