Unable to get worked up over issues like Rayner stamp duty and Tory pandemic parties

[Willgetflamedforthis1]

NC for this for obvious reasons…but I find myself unable to see what all the fuss is about for these storm-in-a-political-teacup issues that seem to frequently dominate the headlines in the UK media.

At the moment it’s Rayner’s stamp duty balls-up. Before that, it was the Tory’s Pandemic Parties. They just feel like unneeded distractions from actual corruption and the real problems people are living with.

Why are we in such a frenzy over a politician making an honest mistake with the UK’s mind-numbing stamp duty and trust laws, when hundreds of thousands of leaseholders are being fleeced by offshore freeholders every year or are STILL trapped in unsaleable flats because of the cladding scandal?

Frankly, I don’t care if a politician misjudged a property tax matter. She’s not a tax accountant. What matters is integrity in office, not whether she misunderstood a rule so complicated most solicitors have to double-check it.

And on the Tory side? I find it so hard to get worked up about people already in the same office all day standing around in the same office but this time with wine and a Christmas jumper on. Yes it was ill judged and bad optics. But compared to PPE contracts and billions wasted in cronyism, it’s laughable that Party Gate was given airtime at all let alone given a dramatised documentary on Channel 4.

We are not living through a slow news day. We are in the thick of environmental collapse, a housing crisis and spiralling costs of living. Yet the media somehow thinks these non-issues deserve top billing and people lap it up.

It’s an absurd waste of the energy we should be focusing on solving our actual problems. Does anyone agree?

Same tbh, who the fuck actually cares

Yes, I think politicians have themselves to blame to a large extent. Angela Rayner messed up, but to listen to Kemi Badenoch, it was the crime of the century - frankly it was nauaeating - and Rayner was the same when she was in opposition.

But if you’re going to be sanctimonious and demand resignations for every error made on the other, then, as a politician, you need to accept the consequences when the boot is on the other foot.

I think most people find the whole partisan party politics of this hypocritical and a massive turn-off.

Yes, that’s the issue here - as Deputy PM she should have done - but her “crimes” are being massively exaggerated…. If her conveyancing solicitor ( someone who literally manages the legal of housing transactions all the time) thought she only had to pay single-owner stamp duty, then most people would be happy to trust his opinion rather than pay a £1000+ to get some specialist tax advice.

I wonder who squeaky clean those who get outraged are… I bet you most are not at all, but they just like to give politicians the boot.

Those in power primarily have the job of delivering for the country, and making us prosperous and keeping us safe… not to be saintly moral examples. If you want that, go find a guru or an actual saint to follow.

Your level of outrage probably depends a bit on how much tax you pay.

Is it an inverse relationship because our tax bill is astronomical.

@Pigeonpoodle , but her “crimes” are being massively exaggerated…. If her conveyancing solicitor ( someone who literally manages the legal of housing transactions all the time) thought she only had to pay single-owner stamp duty, then most people would be happy to trust his opinion rather than pay a £1000+ to get some specialist tax advice.

The Conveyancer from Deal Kent, did not pretend to know about the law of Trusts, may not have known about the existence of a Trust in Manchester.
Trusts are a separate speciality of Accountancy and Law.

I don't think it will blight her entire political career. A setback yes but a cosy job with a Union? The phone will start ringing soon.

If you are paying higher rate income tax on your earnings then your lack of annoyance is slightly unusual but it is nice that you can be so cool about it.

We should all care. A lot.

which is different to "getting worked up", it should be how we vote, rather than just frothing on MN or walking round pissed off by them. Tangible action where it counts.

it's unacceptable for ministers to breach Parliamentary codes of conduct. It's unacceptable for ministers to so blatantly act in one way and tell the country to act in a different way. Or to set policies that have a punitive effect on people of the country, that they feel don't need to apply to them.

if we all just think meh, then political parties are let off the hook and allowed to do what they like without public opinion calling them to account.

But if you’re going to be sanctimonious and demand resignations for every error made on the other, then, as a politician, you need to accept the consequences when the boot is on the other foot.

This. Angela Rayner was the first to jump on Tories’ misdeeds and describe them as ‘scum’ etc. So the same should apply to her.

They wanted to frighten the pants of the public during Covid yet they weren’t in the least bit worried about the scary virus they shut the economy down for. It was the biggest transfer of wealth in history. The major corporations won and the SME’s lost. In the meantime the average worker picked up the tab.

The head of rhe UN and the World Economic Forum announced that due to the success of Covid that they were ramping up Agenda 2030 which you can see on gov Uk. Ideally you are not allowed travel and you are allowed by one item of clothing per year. They will also tax you at source from your digital id. The head of the World Bank and Christine Legarde said we can control what people buy and turn off their spending very much like China. All of the above is documented.

It’s the boiling frog and people like you are the problem.

Yep it came round to bite.

It’s unacceptable for ministers to breach Parliamentary codes of conduct. It's unacceptable for ministers to blatantly act in one way and tell the country to act in a different way. Or to set policies that have a punitive effect on people of the country, that they feel don't need to apply to them. How can we take politics seriously if the rules and laws that they make aren’t upheld by them?

YANBU. I'm in the same mindset as you OP.

I'm not pleased that they had the parties while denying people seeing their dying loved ones, but I am pleased that they were found out (and for all we know, what we did find out about was probably the tip of the iceberg, and even the saintly Angela Rayner might have been at it).

Sometimes I think that if it wasn't for Partygate, there would be far more relics of the lockdown mania still remaining, such as seasonal restrictions, mask mandates in more places, and so on. The anger might have caused most of the public to want a "clean break" from lockdown. (I've even wondered if Partygate was a conspiracy to try and break the public fear, as the frightening the pants off the public worked too well, and people had got used to being paid to do nothing and didn't want to go back to work, so Johnson was paid a few million to be dropped right in it, but I know that's highly unrealistic, especially as Johnson took so many people down with him.)