| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? 19:51 - Sep 18 with 5938 views | mutters |
Sue Gray, the lady whose report led to the downfall of Boris Johnson as PM highlighting his shocking behaviour during the pandemic. She was then appointed as Labours' chief of staff. She now earns more than the PM does.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx247wkq137o
Am I right here to say that this smells a bit of cronyism? (Obviously not as bad as the previous incumbents, but still....) |  |
| |  |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 13:53 - Sep 19 with 2013 views | DJR |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 13:04 - Sep 19 by DJR |
I hope I'm wrong!! |
Sadly, I was not wrong!
This from the Guardian indicating even more control by the Starmerites over the party.
Labour has announced the results of the election for nine CLP [constituency Labour party] representatives on the party’s national executive committee. Tom Belger from LabourList has a good write-up here. He says four pro-leadership slate candidates, three left candidates and two candidates outside the two largest slates were elected. He goes on:
Labour to Win [which organises the pro-leadership slate] said on social media its candidates had won a “decisive victory” and an “emphatic win for Labour’s mainstream”. It said it was the first time in two decades that self-described party moderates had won more CLP representative seats than the left.
The group also said 50 candidates it backed for places on Labour’s national policy forum, the party’s official process for drawing up its platform in the lead-up to the next election, had won election, calling it “our best-ever results since it started being elected by OMOV”. [Post edited 19 Sep 2024 13:53]
|  | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 14:18 - Sep 19 with 1983 views | ArnoldMoorhen |
To be honest, I would rather person who is running the Prime Minister's operations to be paid a significant professional salary, as it reduces the risk of them being "bought" or bribed by other interests.
As an analogy, there is a BBC podcast about football match fixing which reveals that Far Eastern bookmakers now promote gambling on English Non-League games, because players on a couple of hundred quid a match are much easier to bribe.
To out things in context, there are plenty of League One players earning more than Sue Gray each week, and maybe even one or two in the Conference.
The Prime Minister is underpaid, but in the context of austerity budgeting, it is understandable that it hasn't been addressed. But if his pay was closer to that of a FTSE 100 CEO (and it should be higher, really) then maybe we wouldn't have seen stories about people buying clothes for him Or maybe Boris Johnson wouldn't have taken time out to write a book. |  | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 15:09 - Sep 19 with 1943 views | Bluefarrier |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 20:10 - Sep 18 by Mullet |
I think it’s the Tory press in general.
They’ve constantly gone after him from day one because the timescale doesn’t matter. It’s all about discrediting him as it’s the only play they have.
The clothes thing is weird to be honest, Sue Gray is old news being raked over by people with a grudge and misrepresentation at its most cynical.
Until he starts giving out peerages to dodgy people and millions to his mates it’s a rather lopsided pissing contests. I just hope we start seeing some light and some progress this side of Christmas. |
Yeah, evil fascist tories! How dare they attack socialist saints. | | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 16:57 - Sep 19 with 1889 views | Lord_Lucan |
To be fair it's probably a poor wage considering her job.
All politicians are also massively underpaid, if we paid a decent amount we might get better people. |  |
| |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 17:27 - Sep 19 with 1849 views | Churchman |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 20:01 - Sep 18 by DJR |
I certainly agree with you there, and wouldn't have touched her with a barge pole.
But having appointed her, I don't have any particular concerns about her pay.
But I realise now that was not the only point you were making. [Post edited 18 Sep 2024 20:03]
|
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it or what she’s paid. A certain person in HMRC was being paid double what the PM was being paid 15 years ago so that’s not a factor.
I just wouldn’t have employed her, not least because there will be people just as capable out there, but without the baggage. |  | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 17:37 - Sep 19 with 1838 views | MattinLondon |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 16:57 - Sep 19 by Lord_Lucan |
To be fair it's probably a poor wage considering her job.
All politicians are also massively underpaid, if we paid a decent amount we might get better people. |
Wholeheartedly agree with you on this.
I think I would double what MPs earn, allow them a budget for their staff wages, but that’s it. |  | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 17:54 - Sep 19 with 1804 views | DJR |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 17:37 - Sep 19 by MattinLondon |
Wholeheartedly agree with you on this.
I think I would double what MPs earn, allow them a budget for their staff wages, but that’s it. |
I agree too but increasing pay for MPs has been difficult politically for a long time.
To make up for this the expenses system was made much more generous, but when the Telegraph exposed the system around 15 years ago there was a backlash. [Post edited 19 Sep 2024 17:54]
| | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 19:30 - Sep 19 with 1745 views | Whos_blue |
QT is going to be excrutiating tonight.
Labour are having a bumpy ride, but some of these stories are just noise. The Arsenal ticket "scandal" is another one.
There is no way the PM could use his regular seats, but his detractors are trying (and in part succeding) in distracting the public from two great successes this week. Ending the train driver's and Drs disputes are significant achievements, but the narrative is dresses, football tix and the irrelavent pay of a civil servant.
You could be mistaken for thinking there is concerted effort to deflect from the abject misery of the last 14 years of tory (mis)rule. |  |
| Distortion becomes somehow pure in its wildness. |
| |
Login to get fewer ads
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 20:18 - Sep 19 with 1720 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 19:30 - Sep 19 by Whos_blue |
QT is going to be excrutiating tonight.
Labour are having a bumpy ride, but some of these stories are just noise. The Arsenal ticket "scandal" is another one.
There is no way the PM could use his regular seats, but his detractors are trying (and in part succeding) in distracting the public from two great successes this week. Ending the train driver's and Drs disputes are significant achievements, but the narrative is dresses, football tix and the irrelavent pay of a civil servant.
You could be mistaken for thinking there is concerted effort to deflect from the abject misery of the last 14 years of tory (mis)rule. |
It’s right up there with Corbyn’s tie and Ed’s stone |  |
| |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 20:58 - Sep 19 with 1681 views | ronnyd |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 13:50 - Sep 19 by DJR |
As I mentioned above, this particular issue has nothing to do with left/right issues.
This from a tweet from ITV's political editor.
"New- the reason Labour’s special advisers are so upset about this is many of them were put on standing salaries of £57k when they began, so Sue Gray is earning 3x that. Equivalent Tory spads were on over £100k. Contracts since negotiated but some still landing this week 1
They were told the Tory pay was not relevant. Instead there were four new pay bands. I understand that the highest goes from £140k- £180k. So is someone earning more than Sue Gray? Then there is senior spad, spad and junior spad. Sounds like even big depts are in 3rd band 2/
And though many have negotiated a bit higher than 57k it doesn’t sound like much higher, and way below predecessors. These are all big salaries of course but they feel they are working 7 days a week and not much more than in opposition 3/
Beyond that- there were people who were told they were getting roles in govt - but then weren’t on a pre-agreed list from no10 and so were suddenly out of jobs after working for four years or more in opposition. So there is bad blood 4/
Tories saying over £100k was quite rare but still the salaries were higher. In a way it’s less about salaries but more the upset it’s caused among a group of people who are pretty core to govt political functioning 5/"
For what it is worth, I had dealings with special advisers when I worked in the Cabinet Office during the Blair government. They tended to be young and bright, often not long out university, but they were not as clever as they thought they were and really didn't have much common sense or much of a clue about the real world. [Post edited 19 Sep 2024 13:51]
|
There in your last paragraph is politics and politicians in a nutshell. | | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 21:32 - Sep 19 with 1650 views | DJR |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 19:30 - Sep 19 by Whos_blue |
QT is going to be excrutiating tonight.
Labour are having a bumpy ride, but some of these stories are just noise. The Arsenal ticket "scandal" is another one.
There is no way the PM could use his regular seats, but his detractors are trying (and in part succeding) in distracting the public from two great successes this week. Ending the train driver's and Drs disputes are significant achievements, but the narrative is dresses, football tix and the irrelavent pay of a civil servant.
You could be mistaken for thinking there is concerted effort to deflect from the abject misery of the last 14 years of tory (mis)rule. |
I am not so sure about his free tickets.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/19/keir-starmers-35k-in-free-ticke
Keir Starmer is facing questions about whether his £35,000 of free tickets from football clubs risks a conflict of interest as his government prepares to bring in a new regulator opposed by the industry.
A large chunk of his free tickets have come from Premier League football clubs, many of whom are lobbying against the introduction of a football regulator first suggested under a fan-led review by Tracey Crouch.
Labour has said it will bring in a regulator, but rejected some elements of the review, such as the idea of a 10% levy on Premier League transfer fees.
Starmer has also accepted free football tickets from businesses such as Tees Engineering and the construction firm Mulalley and Co – a company that was subject to an adverse £8m judgment to compensate for unsafe cladding after the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Emma Dent Coad, the former Labour MP and a councillor in the Grenfell area, said Starmer’s decision to accept the tickets was “an insult” and it was not credible to say that going to football matches was part of his job.
“It’s not ‘his job’ to go to a football match paid for by a company that didn’t remediate cladding. Where is this public service he keeps talking about? It’s self-service, rather than public service,” she said.
“Clearly he’s a football fan but it’s wearing. His first job is to serve the people who have been let down for 14 years. He can pay for his own football tickets. It’s such an insult for people who are literally scraping pennies together to feed their families, pay their bills and worrying about their winter fuel payments.”
Dent Coad said she had previously written to Starmer about the free tickets from Mulalley and got no response. Mulalley declined to comment on why they had provided the £700 of hospitality to Starmer in April 2023 to watch Arsenal v West Ham United. [Post edited 19 Sep 2024 21:33]
| | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 23:01 - Sep 19 with 1604 views | Whos_blue |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 21:32 - Sep 19 by DJR |
I am not so sure about his free tickets.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/19/keir-starmers-35k-in-free-ticke
Keir Starmer is facing questions about whether his £35,000 of free tickets from football clubs risks a conflict of interest as his government prepares to bring in a new regulator opposed by the industry.
A large chunk of his free tickets have come from Premier League football clubs, many of whom are lobbying against the introduction of a football regulator first suggested under a fan-led review by Tracey Crouch.
Labour has said it will bring in a regulator, but rejected some elements of the review, such as the idea of a 10% levy on Premier League transfer fees.
Starmer has also accepted free football tickets from businesses such as Tees Engineering and the construction firm Mulalley and Co – a company that was subject to an adverse £8m judgment to compensate for unsafe cladding after the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Emma Dent Coad, the former Labour MP and a councillor in the Grenfell area, said Starmer’s decision to accept the tickets was “an insult” and it was not credible to say that going to football matches was part of his job.
“It’s not ‘his job’ to go to a football match paid for by a company that didn’t remediate cladding. Where is this public service he keeps talking about? It’s self-service, rather than public service,” she said.
“Clearly he’s a football fan but it’s wearing. His first job is to serve the people who have been let down for 14 years. He can pay for his own football tickets. It’s such an insult for people who are literally scraping pennies together to feed their families, pay their bills and worrying about their winter fuel payments.”
Dent Coad said she had previously written to Starmer about the free tickets from Mulalley and got no response. Mulalley declined to comment on why they had provided the £700 of hospitality to Starmer in April 2023 to watch Arsenal v West Ham United. [Post edited 19 Sep 2024 21:33]
|
I'm not sure EDC has had anything good to say about Labour since she resigned from the party, so perhaps her comments are to be expected.
It just feels a bit of a pile on at the moment and a welcome distraction for those wanting to obscure the good work, such as the aforementioned success with the conclusion of the Drs and train driver's pay disputes. | |
| Distortion becomes somehow pure in its wildness. |
| |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 00:40 - Sep 20 with 1568 views | rkc123 |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 10:07 - Sep 19 by DanTheMan |
It's so weird they've had to put out another story this morning explaining why it matters... |
Yes and it might just be me, but I felt the second story by the political editor was poorly written, almost as if it had been done in a hurry. It was a bit all over the place, and didn't really explain why the salary has been made such a big story (despite being titled 'why finding out about Sue Gray's salary really matters'). Not exactly justifying why his public funded salary is nearly 100k more than the one they made a story about. | | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 08:30 - Sep 20 with 1458 views | DJR |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 23:01 - Sep 19 by Whos_blue |
I'm not sure EDC has had anything good to say about Labour since she resigned from the party, so perhaps her comments are to be expected.
It just feels a bit of a pile on at the moment and a welcome distraction for those wanting to obscure the good work, such as the aforementioned success with the conclusion of the Drs and train driver's pay disputes. |
The problem it seems to me is that all of what has been going on recently is self-inflicted.
In other words, Labour didn't have to cut winter fuel payments in what I think is an unfair way, there didn't need to be a briefing war between factions at the heart of the government, Starmer didn't need to accept as many freebies as he has, and the pain in the budget didn't need to be trumpeted as much as it was (leading today to reports of a dramatic fall in consumer confidence)
This is all grist for the mill for the right wing press who are clearly making hay. But even John Crace in the Guardian has picked up on tbis.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/19/with-a-lust-for-freebies-and-ho
What it suggests to me is that Starmer and his close advisers just don't have the political nous that Blair and people like Campbell had. [Post edited 20 Sep 2024 9:02]
| | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 10:17 - Sep 20 with 1387 views | positivity |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 08:30 - Sep 20 by DJR |
The problem it seems to me is that all of what has been going on recently is self-inflicted.
In other words, Labour didn't have to cut winter fuel payments in what I think is an unfair way, there didn't need to be a briefing war between factions at the heart of the government, Starmer didn't need to accept as many freebies as he has, and the pain in the budget didn't need to be trumpeted as much as it was (leading today to reports of a dramatic fall in consumer confidence)
This is all grist for the mill for the right wing press who are clearly making hay. But even John Crace in the Guardian has picked up on tbis.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/19/with-a-lust-for-freebies-and-ho
What it suggests to me is that Starmer and his close advisers just don't have the political nous that Blair and people like Campbell had. [Post edited 20 Sep 2024 9:02]
|
agree that the presentation hasn't been great, largely non-stories (not including the boundaries on mean-testing winter fuel allowance) that have been allowed to run undefended.
comparing to 1997, i think there is an element that campbell and blair courted the right-wing press heavily prior to the election, whereas this time labour has largely ignored them. you could argue this is a strategic error or that it's a morally preferable move.
(also major left the country in a much better financial position than johanson, truss & sunak, so there was more leeway for popular policies) | |
| |
| "The only pensioner better off under Starmer" (n/t) on 13:42 - Sep 23 with 1164 views | Crawfordsboot |
| "The only pensioner better off under Starmer" (n/t) on 19:54 - Sep 18 by Bloots |
|
One of your more sensible posts Bloots 😉 |  | | |
| "The only pensioner better off under Starmer" (n/t) on 15:10 - Sep 23 with 1075 views | DJR |
| "The only pensioner better off under Starmer" (n/t) on 13:42 - Sep 23 by Crawfordsboot |
One of your more sensible posts Bloots 😉 |
I may be being unfair on Bloots with regards to his originality, but I saw this joke before he posted it, reportedly said by a Labour insider disgruntled at Sue Gray's pay.
Still a good joke, and perhaps a type of gallows' humour. [Post edited 23 Sep 2024 15:16]
| | | |
| "The only pensioner better off under Starmer" (n/t) on 15:12 - Sep 23 with 1062 views | positivity |
| "The only pensioner better off under Starmer" (n/t) on 15:10 - Sep 23 by DJR |
I may be being unfair on Bloots with regards to his originality, but I saw this joke before he posted it, reportedly said by a Labour insider disgruntled at Sue Gray's pay.
Still a good joke, and perhaps a type of gallows' humour. [Post edited 23 Sep 2024 15:16]
|
bloots' secret life? | |
| |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 16:00 - Sep 23 with 996 views | Leaky |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 19:30 - Sep 19 by Whos_blue |
QT is going to be excrutiating tonight.
Labour are having a bumpy ride, but some of these stories are just noise. The Arsenal ticket "scandal" is another one.
There is no way the PM could use his regular seats, but his detractors are trying (and in part succeding) in distracting the public from two great successes this week. Ending the train driver's and Drs disputes are significant achievements, but the narrative is dresses, football tix and the irrelavent pay of a civil servant.
You could be mistaken for thinking there is concerted effort to deflect from the abject misery of the last 14 years of tory (mis)rule. |
Problem is you can settle any dispute if you simply give in. Wonder if the commuter's will be so happy when thier season tickets go up. |  | | |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 16:34 - Sep 23 with 951 views | positivity |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 16:00 - Sep 23 by Leaky |
Problem is you can settle any dispute if you simply give in. Wonder if the commuter's will be so happy when thier season tickets go up. |
as a commuter i'd rather pay more for a service which exists rather than a non-service due to constant strikes.
you can solve a lot of things by talking, listening and compromising, which the previous government were apalling at | |
| |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 16:59 - Sep 23 with 917 views | Freddies_Ears |
| Blimey, cronyism at its finest? on 19:57 - Sep 18 by bournemouthblue |
I think the BBC are keen to engineer a scandal that isn't really there
Will the general public care about this in a few days time, in all honesty? |
Given ghe BBC is led by a Tory nominee wìgh views towards the right of the previous govt, I am not surprised. Starmer should sack him and put his own puppet in charge. | | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
