Westminstenders: Where are we now?

[RedToothBrush]

Twenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead

Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know

Just that.

Don't really want to reflect more than that right now.

I think I'd rather sing the praises of Marcus Rashford for pointing out that letting kids go hungry over the summer isn't great than laud a government who was all set to just let those kids go hungry before they were shamed into changing their minds.

Delighted at the U turn forced on the Govt by Marcus Rashford and supporters!

He has raised millions for fareshare. Incredible.

A few less sleepless nights for me hopefully!

4 years today since Jo Cox was murdered by a far right extremist with ties to EDL and UKIP.

RIP.

Now here’s the difference, when private citizens advocate from a position of great wealth and power/celebrity for their government to spend more public money or x or y, then I absolutely do think they should also be prepared to be spending some of their own money in supporting the cause they advocate for.

...and are you suggesting that it should come with some sort of super power for you - or your chosen right wing rag of choice - to make such things public ? Does advocating for a cause mean a loss of privacy ?

If I advocate for a good cause, I wouldn't give up even 5% of my worldly goods

Hardly anyone ever would,
so requiring this would mean silencing / ignoring almost anyone advocating for other people

What a small minded shill you are louise

Its funny how Johnson won the election and the party leadership on the back of a celebrity persona and following.

And its a celebrity footballer not a politician who has the power to hold him to account.

Maybe we should just be encouraging footballers and love island contestants to stand for parliament.

Couldn't do a worse job red!

and when I do donate, it's normally anonymous anyway
probably even more so for v wealthy people, to avoid attracting the wrong attention

Always donate Anonymously...why wouldn't you?

BJ showing he can make decisions on his own, to spend taxpayers' money
... on wanking his ego

In case you wondered what he's been working on, since it doesn't seem to have been either the Brexit or COVID crisis:

Boris Johnson's jet gets 'Austin Powers' makeover

news.sky.com/story/boris-johnsons-jet-gets-austin-powers-makeover-12007923

We've even praised billionaire Bill Gates for his charitable foundation work

Hasn't he - and Warren Buffett - stated that if they die with their fortunes they will have failed ?

I saw a meme today that if you had $10 for every year of the Universes existence, you still wouldn't be as rich as Jeff Bezos.

I found myself daydreaming a future where $1,000,000,000 grants are dropped into the world in the shape of one thousand $1,000,000 start ups. That's 1,000 companies every drop. And you could have a drop a month - 12,000 companies a year - and still not have to sell a private jet.

Going back to DGR’s comment about a 1992 vibe - yes I agree. I am old enough to remember and have voted in 1992, lot of young people didn’t vote as were avoiding the electoral register because of the poll tax. I remember the looks of horror in the office when the mortgage rate went up so steeply - and a few of us saying should have voted labour! 🤣 There was a similar vibe in that the government seemed to lurch from one scandal to another and despite a surprise majority (probably from having a new leader) pretty soon it was clear no one was supporting them and by 1997 labour getting in seemed inevitable. Hope it’s not just wishful thinking!

Bill Gates has not left his fortune to his kids, just some millions to keep them secure

His billions will go to his charitable foundations, which are mostly tacking diseases in developing countries - but now they are also working on a COVID vaccine too

Warren Buffett donated several billion to Gates' foundation, rather than duplicate the structure and create his own org.

I am old enough to remember and have voted in 1992, lot of young people didn’t vote as were avoiding the electoral register because of the poll tax.

Very wise, since despite the promises of the time that it wouldn't be used for the poll tax, it was. Even then no one trusted the Tories. Funny old world, innit ?

Warren Buffett donated several billion to Gates' foundation, rather than duplicate the structure and create his own org.

Clearly he missed the memo about pissing away funds. Oh, hang on. That's his money he was saving ... not someone elses. Makes perfect sense.

However, a 22-yr-old footballer would be wise to hang onto his money, which is several orders of magnitude below the Gates / Buffett class

He needs several years to set himself up for life,
but every match risks a career-ending injury, or just losing his touch one season

I have seen it said that Rashford has given large sums of his own money, he just hasn't asked for publicity for it. Can't verify but I find it believable.

Now, if we're going down that road, I wonder how much our personally wealthy PM, who used to get a decent whack from the Telegraph even though he thought it 'chicken feed' has ever given to good causes?

Now, if we're going down that road, I wonder how much our personally wealthy PM, who used to get a decent whack from the Telegraph even though he thought it 'chicken feed' has ever given to good causes?

It's fascinating how we went from wealthy - but very public minded - Victorian philanthropists; to the self serving shower of shits we got today. That said, I don't live that far from the madness that is Bournville, so maybe I should understand better. Free schools, free healthcare, subsidised housing, adult education. What a fucking crock eh ? Thank goodness we stopped that nonsense when we could. (Not before the Krupps copied it though ...)

I know a few very wealthy people.

The answer is = fuck all.

It would - simply - never occur to them.

When a Merchant Banker with a French name married to a German gets to set himself up as the man of the people British Bulldog
we are doomed

And yes, rich people do not get that way by being generous
that is why they invented "trickle down"
and low taxes for themselves

.

Rashford achieved something that the Official Opposition could not,
because he did not have to work through Parliament
and also as a very young sporting hero, he has been difficult to demonise

And yes, rich people do not get that way by being generous

When I helped my DF run his business, I encountered something so often you could bet on it.

People with really nice cars were the tightest c*nts on the planet. The epitome being one chap who owned (not rented) a house on Connaught Square trying to get £5 knocked off a £50 bill in the same week a single mum of 3 struggled to pay £30 for a new tyre without a murmur of complaint.

(Yes - that Connaught Square).

Also, just as anecdata, the very first to suggest a "discount for cash" were the well heeled. While less well off customers paid what was due.

That said, one of our customers was a peer of the realm. We only realised when he wrote a cheque ... if you marched in 2017, you passed a couple of streets his family owned.

Personally I’m much more interested in what people do with their money than their public advocacy.

Like donating to and working with Fareshare perhaps?

Was that depicting Major constantly grey

That was Spitting Image. Constantly portraying him talking about trivia with Norma too - these peas are round, Norma, stuff like that.