The Irony.. PM's donation was for ‘son to study for GCSEs’

[JustSpeechless]

PM suggests £20,000 donation was for ‘son to study for GCSEs’ | The Independent

Sorry if there are other threads, but I did search and nothing came up.

“My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life – I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.

So its OK for the PM to be worried about his child's "one chance" GCSE year being disturbed ...but he's not so worried about other people's children feeling stressed during their GCSEs by introducing the private school VAT during an academic school year.

I don't have a child in private school doing their GCSEs. And I know that there are lots of people who support the VAT and those who don't.

But I think there is a midline where lots of people on both sides of the fence agree making this change during an academic year is not fair on the kids in key exam years...and I am one of them because not all parents have a Lord Alli to step in to ensure their child's "one chance" GCSE year is not being disturbed.

For Voting:

Unreasonable - I am with Keir and I am not really bothered with other people's children's "one chance" school year being interrupted.

Not Unreasonable - I agree Labour should not interrupt the academic school year and introduce the VAT in September 2025.

Your replies are about as clear as Keir's lies

I get why but it's not really helping him

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx77ljll077o

As I'm in a rush. I had this to hand as one example of protests. But a quick Google will find plenty for you

So disappointing to see Kier is just like all the others. I naively thought he’d be different. He’s lied about this.

Last week, Sir Keir told the BBC he had accepted the donation for clothing in opposition, during a "busy election campaign".

Does he have an excuse for accepting the newly revealed donations for clothing in October and February?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdd4z9vzdnno

If I work it out, it corresponds with the electoral and early post-electoral period. On just the dates I'd have assumed it was campaign HQ or similar.

That isn't journos camping outside his house

It was a trio who were then arrested as a once off.

Yeah he’s pretty disgusting 🤮

I honestly have no idea, please expound.

There was no need to use before the general election was announced on 22nd May, or before parliament was dissolved on 30th May. It seems that when the pressure became too much, they found a solution to it. And stayed hidden away after that as it was working for them.

He didn't hide it. It's been declared. He didn't need to give a reason, but he chose to.

Ok, but as others have posted he could have sorted a solution on his own? And why did they stay in the flat beyond GCSEs if that was the real rationale?

regardless of whether he was in power at the time or not, accepting favours of any stripe raise conflict of interest concerns.

Trying to see what son's results were - can find only one report which is saying he did badly and failed most things - a lot of 1 s and will retake. Both his parents are very intelligent so disappointing after all the fuss.

That sounds like bollocks.

But isn’t that the point? Labour made a terrible fuss about Tories receiving gifts and helping out their mates and yet they are now doing the same. It’s the hypocrisy that stinks more than the acceptance of gifts.

This in spades. You can’t go round lambasting people for something that you are then going to happily do yourselves. It’s just utter hypocrisy.

So when in opposition you carp on about donations that the governing body have taken, now you are the governing body presumably you abstain from accepting the type of donations that you previously objected to.

But no. You take them. And you try and defend them. It’s just contemptible and ruins any credibility you might think you have. Especially at a time of telling the nation that the balance sheet is bad and that there’s pain to come.

But beyond all of that, it just shows such a lack of judgement.

He didn’t declare it when he used it in 2021 for a Covid recording, or when he used it to publish a message after the Queen died in 2022. It’s the same desk/shelves (even with photos of his kids, so either he wants us to think it’s his house or he was using it pretty long term).

They stayed a month after the last exam…. There was a different use.

Starmer and Sunak kicked off their election campaigns 23rd May and parliament was prorogued 24th May. The 'shoe protest' outside his house in your link was 9th April.

Nobody complained (the media) when (Lord) Cameron is swanning about in private jets at our expense, or we're paying for Sunak's helicopters.
This all has a whiff of, it's all right for the Tories, they're our betters, but these Labour Party chaps need to know their place.

Completely untrue. The public and tabloids have zoned on this reguarly ever since the MP expenses scandal. There has been tons of resentment and criticism.

I agree the broadsheets and news stations have jumped on it more with Starmer etc, thats perhaps more to do with who owns/funds/pulls the strings with the media, which is all incredibly corrupt and there are no mainstream newspapers/news channels that are genuinely independant.

Starmer and the labour party are getting more flack because of their odious, galling hypocrisy. They (rightly) went on and on and on about the Tories being grabby and taking advantage etc so to then go and immediately do the exact same is why people are aghast. It's appalling.

I'm fairly certain nobody thinks the Tories are our betters, or indeed any MPs at all.

I don't know. I think that there's still a fair amount of forelock tugging that goes on in Britain. A posh voice and a penis will get you anywhere. The otherwise inexplicable rise of Rees-Mogg and Johnson attest to that.

I get that people would be pissed off at proper 'gifts' like super expensive glasses or designer clothes. But I cannot find a single shit to give that they stayed at someone else's house in the UK when one of them had exams and another one had an election campaign to run, so hardly an exotic jolly, and this googling of exam dates is just sad.

There is a lot more to come around regarding Keir's private life and family set up. It is an open secret in Westminster apparently and journos all know about it and choose not to report. This story is the top of the iceberg and lots more to come (or not, depending on if the press continues not to report it) apparently.

I get the lie about ‘his boy’ isn’t great for Keir so people will want that to go away

On what people go for my father was a toolmaker seemed to be bought by many

Trouble is not everyone is mn Labour and Liar has now overtaken all else. Which didn’t take long

I find it unbelievable that they are wanting to make these changes which whatever anyone says are just to stick it to what they feel is elitism but he is in one of the most elite positions of anyone and doesnt have to worry about his child's education, private education to the tune of 20K that he didnt have to find down the back of sofa or save for. He has explained his view of why it was important and why he accepted but doesn't seem to be caring about various reasons that some may have for using independent schools. I know people that have their only child there and they spend their money on before any other luxuries like holidays, alcohol, nice cars, tobacco and this VAT change will make a significant difference to their ability to do what they think is the best thing for their child like Keir did. Wonderful example of one rule for him and all MP's and the rest of the country. I don't care which party we are talking about, they all enjoy perks, benefits, 'donations' and entitlement that the rest of us can dream of and continue to have flutter on the lottery from time to time as everyone's chance to get thrown a load of money. If people want to selflessly lead the country for the greater good they should do as a charity / not for profit. Yes they may limit the people, options we have for leaders, but the limited options may mean we actually have some decent choice of people that genuinely care about making change at their sacrifice. Yes it is an important role but don't people 'an important role like this needs compensation' it could also be like amazingly important roles that volunteers play in the world, selflessly doing the right thing rather than doing it becuase its worth their while. We need people doing and it isn't worth their while, then maybe we will find a different type of leader, maybe even a better type of leader. They can run side by side but in two clear streams, one that want to be compensated and ones that only want to break even, cost to their self

I'm also finding it incredibly funny that people who voted Tory are all of a sudden concerned about cronyism and lying. Like, it clearly didn't bother you when you put your cross in that box.

I'm not keen on what Starmer is doing but I think his son's exam results are none of our business.