[BBN]

Didn't Labour stand in Chesham and basically said "yeah we're here but, y'know..."

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yep, Same as they did in Winchester, right in Blair's pomp.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This doesn't mean that Geoffrey Cox hasn't done anything wrong- I don't think you clear off amid Covid to the Caribbean, for starters. It's also far too much money. But this is also right, I think- Sir Keir probably thinks "Oh fuck!" at what Rayner said.

[Andy McDandy]

Depends on whether Cox was working on the cab rank principle or not. And that's something most voters get, despite all the "he defended criminals!" crap.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't know if it's the cab rank principle, but I think everybody is entitled to legal advice, and you shouldn't draw inferences about the lawyer from whom they represent, and the advice is confidential. You can't infer as people as saying on the Guardian that "Cox was telling them how to avoid tax" or whatever.

Labour have lots of lawyers in their ranks. Not a front I'd start if I were them.

[The Weeping Angel]

Yeah we know Boris has tried to cover up for his dodgy MPs but Keir voted against Brexit so he's just as bad.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... gniter-rhr

[mattomac]

Yeah I saw a guido (Paul Staines) piece that mentioned a couple of Labour MPs, one involved in a think tank which I thought was a bit of odd and ended it with all it is this is a bit of tit for tat.

Well Johnson is the tit but I think Paul is missing the W when describing himself.

This isn’t about second jobs, this is are using that second job to abuse power and did your mates let up you off, very simple to follow the Nolan Principles on this.

[Boiler]

Yeah we know Boris has tried to cover up for his dodgy MPs but Keir voted against Brexit so he's just as bad.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... gniter-rhr

Ah yes, Fenton was railing about this today.

[The Weeping Angel]

Outside of Corbynite twitter does anyone care about these 'pledges' being dropped.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 53101.html

Keir Starmer has refused to commit to his leadership election pledge to abolish the House of Lords.

Asked on Sunday whether he stood by the promise made in 2019, the Labour leader would only say the institution “needs change”.

But during his leadership campaign, Sir Keir made 10 pledges – including a commitment to “abolish the House of Lords” and “replace it with an elected chamber of regions and nations”.


He was asked about the policy on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show in light of reports that the Conservative Party has been offering peerages to wealthy benefactors as a “reward” for large donations.

“We certainly need change in the House of Lords. What I’ve done, Andrew, is I’ve set up a commission to look at the future of the UK, including the institutions such as the House of Lords. Gordon Brown is leading that and I’ll look at it,” he said.

[Cyclist]

As the Upper House appears to be the only properly-functioning part of government we have at the moment I'd say it's a good idea to not do away with them just yet.

[Andy McDandy]

The Lords will never be gotten rid of because it's just too damn useful. Whether as a bill killer, reward for your cronies, or general scapegoat, it's got something for everyone.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I couldn't care less about the pledges. The Lords does sort of work but it's hard to defend. If it's elected you can't make any promises about who will be in it. The US senate isn't obviously better than the House. Why would the Lords be better than the Commons?

[Andy McDandy]

Quite. Just like the PCCs, the party machines take over and any actual independent candidates get pushed out.

[Youngian]

Upper house reform is so low down the to-do list its not worth the political energy.

[Nigredo]

https://archive.md/Ojoeq

Corbynistas have been making as much hay out of this as the Tories have.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Starmer doesn't support banning second jobs outright, does he?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

No. It's taking the piss to which he is objecting.

[Andy McDandy]

This is all pretty thin gruel. Guido Fawkes had an alleged hit piece up claiming that Starmer had "raked in" over £100,000 in legal fees over 6 years, and that he was "worth" millions. People pointed out that that wasn't a lot for a top lawyer, and as for the total worth, that's called "owning a home in London".

[The Weeping Angel]

Real scandal here

[mattomac]

As the bloke says it takes dedication and it’s become very obvious who they see as the opposition. About time they were cut completely from the party.

Does not surprise me the discredited are putting this out. MP turned down second job offer… is this Corbyn’s lot doing the “good Friday agreement stuff” again?

They done this one before when Corbyn didn’t apologise “we’ve got texts and emails showing this and that” and they still haven’t published them.

Fact of the matter is they may have emails from Clark saying it is advised you don’t take the post but the decision not to do so and when that happened would be between the Starmer and the consultancy it’s probably why his team have told them it’s untrue as it’s literally unprovable.

But I go back to the start on all this, the reason this is an issue is that Paterson benefited financially and used his position and the government then turned around and tried to overrule the checks and balances and bully the system to fit its own agenda.

That’s corruption, when Starmer turned down a job literally is not.

This is the former Director of Public Prosecutions not the bloke from the Simpsons.

The fact is if they hate the polling and hate what Labour have done in this last week then they know they can jog off and join the Tories at least then they will be the actual opposition.