So it's alleged nigella took drugs with her kids?

[Bradsplit]

In the trial prosecution evidence. Aha.

Usedto will not surprise many people. NL is probably well rid of him.
The point about other personal assistants and their similar spending is interesting however. I wonder if that is proven. If CS was careful with money and paid fairly low wages to staff and would be shocked at staff taking a taxi from the train for absolutely miles it seems unlikely he would sanction lots of private spending by the staff on the cards.

If on the other hand he was content with the spending he might just have had this investigated because one of them moved with NL to the other place I think they said with her and her two children.

The issue of rich people making payments "in kind" to domestic staff is one that deserves highlighting: it effectively keeps domestic staff tied to their employers because the payments in kind reward longevity/loyalty and keeping schtum. Should the Grillo sisters look for new domestic employment they could not expect, initially, to make much more than their official salary from the CS-NL establishment - which would represent a massive drop in living standards.

It is, as the Grillo sisters say, a form of modern-day slavery, albeit a gilded form.

Err no - she might not be who she says she is, golddigger, but I don't think it matters particularly. It wouldn't surprise me if her allegations are true, and she's not said anything that's pertinent to the case.

Why is everyone so bloody literal on here at the moment? It's doing my head in

Once every 2 years, I agree with one of your posts, Bonsoir, and that is one of them. It is indeed gilded serfdom. Not to mention tax avoidance

This piece in the Independent, from just after the restaurant photos were published, is interesting in the light of what people are saying about their encounters with Saatchi.

Love the expression "casual tyranny".

"it effectively keeps domestic staff tied to their employers because the payments in kind reward longevity/loyalty and keeping schtum"

Fascinating point Bonsoir, I never realised the bit about "keeping schtum". Makes sense.

One might also imagine that the Grillo sisters would have been frightened to "walk away" from their employers in case their hazy-boundary spending habits were used against them. They would have been easily blackmailed for years into doing all sorts of things...

Poor things, they seem to have got really caught up in a horribly dysfunctional household.

"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation" - Vladimir Lenin

That is the tactic of socialist governments. Increase taxes on the middle classes, squeeze the middle and wreck the economy and the value of money and the pound in the pocket of the Daily Mail reader.

The biggest enemy of the communist is the bourgeois, not the aristocrat. It is us who are the threat to their rule, that is why they all hate the paper of the people - the Daily Mail.

Sorry, wrong thread. That was meant to be about communism

Rules about what accountants should report (ie how liable they are if wrong doing is discovered) are being tightened and the government is supposedly pressuring hmrc to uncover more cases of tax evasion - maybe this kind of employer/employee relationship is feeling less acceptable these days if one thinks of oneself as a law abiding person. I would hope so anyway.

He said he had prepared a letter inviting the two women to agree to the proposal and admit they had "fraudulently stolen money", but that they had refused to sign it, saying had they done so they would have been tied to the company "for the rest of their lives"."

If this is the case I don't blame these women for not going with it.

Honestly - they stole and as such are criminals. he police should have been called. But by making everything very informal the employer is asking them to be put almost into bonded labour. Not great.

That's a really good point.

When I first heard about them indignantly likening their lot to a Philippina housekeeper, I scoffed. But that gilded serfdom thing is right, isn't it.

I cant see how the grillo sisters are in gilded form of modern day slavery.

I think real slaves from days gone by would be incredibly affronted by that.

Still being free to walk away to probably a job that pays ok or not brilliant, can in anyway be compared to slavery imo.

It's feudal. The feudal system officially lasted a very long time in this country because it was effective and still exists unofficially in many places.

Gold digger, the difference is in the 'modern day' prefix. It's more akin to indentured labour.

Still dont see how it is modern day slavery either.
They had full choice of walking.
The only thing that was chaining them was extra cash, and that is called greed in my book. It wasnt another person that was making them stay there. It was themselves and possible greed.

I don't think anyone's seriously comparing it to slavery Golddigger.

But there is a level of control there, which is at odds with our naieve idea that we operate in a free market.

This sort of employment gives the employer an enormous amount of control.

They can walk but into what?

A career structure with equal ops where their CV's are going to be the main criteria as to whether they get a job?

They are v. weird jobs aren't they, this housekeeping/ childcare to the stars thing.

Remember that nanny of Cherie and Tony Blair, who is not allowed to talk about her life with them because they don't want her to?

Nannying, housekeeper, whatever.

Supermarket worker? Whatever takes their fancy, and whatever they are qualified for.

Servants are in a difficult position when not managed properly. It sounds as if the Grillo sisters overstepped somewhat - but the fact that the overstepping continued for a very long time and the boundaries were unclear in the first place makes it all very hard to unravel.

I disagree with that analysis (of Bonsoir's). They are responsible for whatever theft they managed to accomplish and it doesn't matter who left the wallet open on the table. Either something is right or it is wrong and figuring out which is which is something we expect mere children to manage before age 10.

Servants are in no more of a difficult position than anyone on this thread might be in, when faced with knowledge of an unlocked car with the key in the ignition, or a house with a front door swinging open or an untended handbag.

If they truly felt they were modern day slaves and if they themselves saw their position as gilded serfdom then why not do the sensible thing with the stolen money and invest it or buy life insurance so they could one day walk out of their cage free and set up financially? Instead they threw it away on shiny objects. What they did looks more like behaviour motivated by envy of the lifestyle of their employers than any realistic appreciation of their predicament.

And no matter how their jobs are painted, one sure way to guarantee you won't walk into another in the same line when it all comes to an end is to be caught stealing from your employer.

Though I agree with Howrudeforme that what CS had in mind for them was indentured serviture, and I agree with their analysis of his proposal too. However, what went before was not imo in the same league at all.

I don't agree that the servants of the rich are bound. Of course they might get used to the high life but it is not wrong that whilst they are employed their employers might be generous (although not as generous as perhaps these women thought their bosses were being, who seem to me to have over stepped the mark and stolen) . The converse is not to give any perks. Is that better?

I suspect the Guardian related encounter as to what CS is like is true and that NL who described herself as geisha in one article probably fitted very well with CS. Does it not sound at least initially like the perfect mix - woman was domination and ends up with controlling man (or swap the genders if you are into the opposite) ? I am not sure it makes him wicked although for many people it would make him hard to be around and perhaps best avoided. Another objection is he is a chain smoker. For someone whose first husband died of throat cancer I am surprised NL was prepared to go anywhere near a smoker however rich or controlling.