Thread 7 Starmer : Cats and Conferences

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5145757-thread-6-starmer-were-going-to-need-a-bigger-skip?page=40&reply=138030825

Given that she gets £361 every time she turns up that’s hardly surprising. I’d be there at every opportunity.

Is grifting a genetic trait ?

Her father is Michael Tranter Owen and he has passed away.

You forgot to preface that: "A genealogist believes"

No idea. Obviously I’m a grifter but I don’t believe my parents were.

She paid a lovely tribute to her father in her maiden speech. He passed away two years ago.

Stop fuelling gossip and speculation.

Nice of her to do so, still leaves the question of why is she in the House of Lords

In a way, it makes it worse.

What did he do for a living? How did Charlotte come to go to a private school and be so well politically connected that's she's VP of a company and in the HoL aged 30?

Those are the relevant questions I'd like to know about

Exactly @CassieMaddox I just want to know what she did that was so good she ended up in the HoL with loads of the country's money, influencing the country's laws.

I don't think that's too much to ask.

Tufton Street reacts

https://x.com/BrugesGroup/status/1831658429947015610

Hereditary Peers have a stake in our country going back generations. They do not owe their positions to patronage and are better placed than any appointed peer to scrutinise legislation with the long term interests of our country at heart. This is constitutional vandalism.

According to the Times he was a school teacher but he would have been a pensioner when she want to school as he was 63 when she was born.

As per our earlier conversation - 2/3 of the land is owned by 0.36% of the population.

I'd suggest a fair proportion of that 0.36% are hereditary peers.

Impartial they are not.

What do you think about Ross Kempsell who was also nominated to the HoL by Boris Johnson. Kempsell is young too, only 32. Do you think he is more deserving of his peerage than Charlotte Owen?

Another good example of all that is wrong with the current HoL system

I suppose Kempsell's contribution is a little more transparent given his time at Guido Fawkes and his appointment as political director for Conservative central office.

Does that make him more deserving? No idea - difficult to balance given how little we know about why Owen was put forward.

Agreed. Although there is a little more evidence for why Johnson would give him the honour - he was a bit more than an intern.

Neither exactly tick the box for being an expert in anything much. RK does at least seem to be an expert in the Tory party 😆 and writing for GF gives him a bit more on his CV that would put him in Johnson's good books.

As for Charlotte... 🤔

As I said earlier, in the interest of transparency and trust in the institution, the reason for nominations to the HoL (at the very least, those that pass vetting) should be a matter of public record.

It shouldn't just be a list of people that a PM/out-going PM just fancies giving an honour to.

It's because there isn't transparency that there is a stench of nepotism/cronyism/bribery (delete as appropriate).

It's not to do with being "deserving".
It's a bit more obvious what Ross Kempsell has been up to.

Anyway, meh. The whole thing stinks and it's a bit rich of the likes of Philp to now accuse Labour of cronyism. Bring on a debate about transparency and the HoL, I say. Let's see exactly why Kempsell, Owen, Lebedev etc were given peerages.

And the jumping on to say "nothing to see here" makes it look even more suss imo. There's no evidence either way and Boris is a proven liar and philanderer so it's understandable why members of the public would think the worst.

If there was nothing to see here they could just show us that nothing.

To be fair can't believe I'm saying this it's very difficult to prove a negative

I must say if nothing else Johnson has done wonders to encourage discussions around reform of the HoL and the purpose/misuse of political honours lists.

Why though? No one is questioning Ross Kempsells's parentage. Is it because he isn't blonde and the fact he's male? It's sexist.

Her mother has said it's not true. Charlotte Owen has spoken fondly about her father. That should be enough.