Thread 8 Starmer : Cat fur on new clothes

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5157500-thread-7-starmer-cats-and-conferences?page=40&reply=138415767

They earn enough to pay for their own clothes, glasses, tickets and holidays. The working class people they claim to represent have to. Just because you claim to be whiter than white doesn't mean it’s true. Grifters, all
of them.

Very late to the conference new thread. Thanks and Cat Tax nevertheless. (Current mood...)

Being serious - I got really irritated with work colleagues before the election who used the 'politicians' are all the same' narrative.
I'm now getting the piss taken at work and I'm afraid Keir Starmer has msssively gone down in my opinion both for acceptance of 'gifts' and for failing to realise how the press would react to it. For a very clever man, not realising how this looks was utterly stupid.

He thought it was ok to accept them because it is - it’s within the rules.
I agree the rules should be changed.

I don’t think it’s stupid to not assume a few gifts within the rules would caus3 this amount of shit. It’s bonkers.
The rules need to change though.

I just don't understand why he thought it was ok to accept them in the first place

Yeah, I agree. I find it really hard to reconcile this version of Starmer with, for example, the Starmer who helped the McDonald's two libel case.

I agree.

It would be interesting to see how the vote on banning gifts would go

@Piggywaspushed really hope you are feeling much better today & yay for being reunited with your cardi, I found myself think about 1984 a few days ago I read it school & remembering feeling so scared that it could happen really quite easily the manipulation & insidious sense of fear & helplessness I dunno everything feels so skewed & Labour have been incredibly stupid but otoh absolutely the rules need & should be changed it’s not acceptable receiving clothing glasses etc I’m still bloody pissed off about it.
Kussenburg is a total abomination, I’m rambling had a very boozy lunch out today I’m not a drinker has very much gone to my head.

Head above the parapet here - I cannot get particularly exercised about some clothes for our PM and for want of a better expression, the first lady.
They represent us on the world stage and the tax payers did not pay for them.
Unlike how we paid for the billions wasted by the previous Government.
If we expect Mrs V to put on an evening gown to go to some possibly tedious event why shouldn't that be paid for if it is not something she would normally have too many of lying about?
Thanks LK and cohort for getting behind the new Government and this country.
Remind me again of how much these BBC staff get paid?
I am feeling very sad this evening. And actually weary of it all.
As you were.

@cardibach
I take your point that this was within the rules for politicians. The problem I have is that while mere mortals like myself are trained to avoid any risk of a perception of conflict of interest (both in the private and public sectors), these rules seem not to apply to MPs.

Personally I believe that MPs should be held to higher standards in public life than the rest of us. I wrongly believed that KS might have also recognised the importance of that and have done so voluntarily. I suspect that Corbyn would not have made the same mistake.

If we expect Mrs V to put on an evening gown to go to some possibly tedious event why shouldn't that be paid for if it is not something she would normally have too many of lying about?

Fair point. But hire a frock and charge it to expenses. Or promote an up and coming British designer who would probably be more than happy to lend her an outfit for an evening, free of charge.

The red dress she wore on July 5th cost under £300. The Starmers surely didn't need a donation to meet that expense?

@dontcallmelen yes, you are right. This is a really good chance for Starmer to show us what he is made of. If he set out to change the rules from now on to stop all this nonsense, he would gain a lot of goodwill.

@PandoraSox So is it just the one red dress she needs for £300 and can she wear it to every black tie event?
Or , should she put her hand in her pocket every time she needs something else to wear to represent us again ? Out of her OT salary? Or should hubby pay for it?
Who gets to decide which designer she should borrow a frock from ?
I like the idea very much but the press hounds would be on that too.
It is just not comparable to a donor paying for Johnson's wedding etc etc etc.
I am so fed up that this is the priority for the press in the UK.

I don't want the comms to get better so that politicians can pretend to be honest and honorable, I want them to be honest and honorable.

That’s exactly what good comms is about. “Would you want to read this on the front page of a newspaper?” If not, don’t do it. When I started out as a comms professional we always said the comms team should be the conscience of the organisation and it was in those days. Good comms isn’t about doing a good cover up job.

Exactly that. There are many walks of life where women are expected to put on a posh frock for an event and they have to pay for their own despite being nowhere near as wealthy as the Starmers. I have zero sympathy.

I am so fed up that this is the priority for the press in the UK

So am I, but this could so easily have been avoided.

No, I don't think VS should have to pay for her outfits for official functions. I don't think she should have to wear the same dress for everything, either.

She could choose who to hire/borrow clothes from, I don't see a problem with that.

I really, really want Labour to succeed. I want them to win the next GE. But Starmer needs to be more savvy going forward and realise much of the media will hold him and his government to far higher standards than the Tories. It is unfair, but it is reality.

I want the comms to be better. Last week the government outlined their programme to tackle VAWG. That announcement detailed measures against what is a UK epidemic male violence against women and children.

Instead of that message being heard, we got a load of shite about frocks and glasses.🙄

@PandoraSox I applaud your idea for Mrs V to borrow from UK designers but exactly because , as you said, Labour are ALWAYS held to much higher standards than the tories I doubt if the right wing press would leave that alone either. How long before cries of cronyism if that designer's sales should happen to soar as a result of it?
I am off to see what other things might be brewing because the amount of attention this story has garnered is making me nervous . Look at that squirrel.
Final thing for me on this,
He did not break the rules .

Some positive news from Germany

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/22/social-democrats-afd-alternative-germany-state-election-brandenburg

Wasn’t there a media rumble about Cherie Blair accepting freebies and being ‘grabby’ or did I imagine that?

@Saucery it was indeed https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/greedy-cherie-has-a-lack-of-judgment-537763

Thanks @Evenstar ! I remember her being called greedy/grabby, rather than thinking she was iyswim. She was invited to take free items, took free items and was slated for it, despite being more than capable of paying for the things herself. The press tone towards the clothes and dresses recently sounds very familiar. Probably best not to take free things you can afford yourself as PM or PM’s family, because a) someone might want a favour in return or b) it will be used as a stick to beat you with.

Good news. I'm really hopeful that our election, France, then finger crossed Germany and the US will vote more centre/left and put paid to this nonsense about the far right support increasing due to "reasonable concerns"

Gallbladder, or lack thereof, keeping me awake.

I think Labour can't win here. Got to look really smart and not too socialist. Then you'll be up yourself, grabby and not really in touch.

Be more Corbyn or Foot and you are scruffy and disrespectful.

I was thinking, everyone knows Corbyn wouldn't have a designer wardrobe!