William Hague - What a Tosspot!!

Just read this article on the BBC news site: William Hague: Don't judge politicians solely on their finances

I think that an MP's personal finance choices are very appropriate to the electorate in making decisions on their worthiness to hold their posts. Especially as we have many MP's in favour of widespread cuts to our welfare system yet they are taking advantage of tax loopholes and seemingly dodgy offshore tax havens to increase their own personal fortunes. What planet is this man on???

 

George Orwell: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Just replace animals with people, in the above quote.

 

Perhaps if we replaced people with animals more would get dine.

 

I see they're already spinning the whole thing as jealous hatred of the rich.

Which is complete and utter bobbins, of course. Nowt wrong with being rich, or even super-rich.

Using offshore tax havens to avoid paying tax in your own country while, at the same time, influencing MPs and civil servants to benefit your own interests - well, that's a different matter.

MPs claiming to be tough on tax avoiders, whilst making use of off shore tax havens themselves, whether legal or not, is immoral at the very least and certainly colours the way that individual might look at other employing the same tactics.

 

Freudian slip there, old chap?

 

I stand by it

Bloody sunshine on my phone screen.

 

I blame food on the brain.

 

Yeah it'll be this pastrami hat I've been wearing since lunchtime.

 

I would heartily challenge this, based on the entirely logical presumption that to be super-rich you generally have to be the sort of person who is likely to fall into such practices as tax avoidance/illicit investment etc. As always, there are exceptions to that rule (note: exceptions with a capital, bold and underlined E) - very rich people who give most of their income away - but the vast majority of the super rich are super rich precisely because they keep all their wealth to themselves and keep re-investing.

I don't think it's a long shot to say that our wonderful "democratic" government is in essence the same as the super rich - they really don't grasp the value of money, which leads to the mentality that one can reasonably claim a £40 breakfast as an expense, or consider £53K a reasonable salary for a fashion adviser. And all this in the context of crazy budget cuts that...wait for it... don't affect their social class.

/rant

 

With respect, that's a generalisation. The kind of generalisation that the spin-doctors I referred to will lap up.

 

Yeah it's a generalisation, but that doesn't make it false or inaccurate. I'm just challenging the notion that the state of being rich can be isolated from the mindset that brings it. Taken at face value there's nowt wrong with your statement. But I don't do face value.

 

Never trust a politician and if you do, more fool you.

 

I'd say there is something fundamentally wrong with being 'super-rich' if you define that as the 'gold plated lambo outside of Harrods' type.

Just remember that to have one super-rich person that means hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of other live with hunger or fear because of lack of funds.

The world is not equal or fair, and it's not your fault or my fault. I put all the blame on the 'very rich' wanting to become 'very very rich' and the 'very very rich wanting to become very very very rich' etc...

Unfortunately, rather than improving over time, the last few years have seen the super rich stay rich and more 'in the middle' people fall into poverty.

I don't think the likes of the conservatives or (spit) Trump understand why this is such an issue.

 

I can't remember the exact quote, think Nexxo put it more eloquently in another thread.
Essentially there has always been rich people and poor people and there always will be.


Funny thing is even the poorest in the Uk would be considered super rich by some 3rd world countries it's all relative.
Same way the Polish guys at work are aghast when they see me spend £3 on lunch.

 

I think the real problem is that we are supposed to have a representative selection of individuals from all backgrounds within the UK as MPs. How many of our current flock of MPs have actually held down real jobs prior to taking up politics? How many of these are in senior government positions? There isn't enough diversity of backgrounds, ideologies and understanding of real life issues as far as I can see. I'd like to see a much more representative spread of MPs, where real people with real world experiences and who have faced real world struggles were more prevelant than they are today. It takes living through the real world challenges that ordinary people struggle with to understand them and to appreciate the problems.

Attending a public school such as Eton doesn't make you a good politician, experience and understanding of the real world and the issues real people face, well away from school, university, some cushy desk job number and then the benches of parliament does.

It's strange how the wealthy are the minority in the UK yet they are the majority in the Commons and Lords.

 

You're right, I would much rather have a government where the people holding the purse strings have made poor financial decisions in their personal finances and are flat broke. Because all you need to run a country is a good idea and lots of hugs.

NB: I say this not because I want to get entrenched in discussion, because IMO where politics are concerned I'm right and everyone else is an idiot. I say this because it seems we're making sweeping generalisations here, which are silly, so why not be silly?

EDIT: Ooh, one more post to the magic 10k. I best make it a good one... so much pressure!

 

Couldn't resist, but that reply, almost as funny as you thought it was, was crap. Just had to share there.

 

Thanks for sharing, refer to my subsequent comment about opinions.

Dammit! Now look what you made me do.

 

These days anyone with more money than you is considered rich and there's always gonna be people around with more money than you. With that said. Many people would be richer if they budgeted their lives and stopped living beyond their means.

 

You're welcome, I do like to call sarcasm out for what it is, crap.

Now, how is the statement I made a generalisation? We have proof that at least one MP has used dodgy offshore tax havens for their gain whilst being in favour of widespread welfare cuts, the Prime Minister no less. Admittedly, there could be no other politicians that have done the same, but I'd bet my right ball that isn't the case.