Christmas party at Downing Street last year

Alegrias, I'd take no notice. It was quite clear you were telling a story of how you hadn't come across that mindset before and not in Scotland. I believe there is a big difference in how nations feel and how they vote.

Thank you JaneJudge

I have read the article and watched the interview.

There is/was a legislative loophole covering Government Buildings, this is mentioned in the article. (1984 legislation used to bring in the tier system)

I do not think the party was appropriate, but after reading the full article and the comments from Adam Wagner a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers (an expert on Covid regulations) it appears that it in all probability was not illegal, just inexplicably not thought through as how it would appear to the electorate.

The article does state that the PM was not in attendance.

Coastpath that’s a joke right? ?
I have rarely seen a person less likely to be worried about what other posters think.

Coastpath

lemongrove

Welcome back under your new name Coastpath, I had wondered where you were.

Well you see, I thought about it Lemongrove and decided not to let myself be bullied into submission.

That's a bit sinister lemongrove, does this mean you have some sort of program which analyses poster's writing styles?

JaneJudge

Alegrias, I'd take no notice. It was quite clear you were telling a story of how you hadn't come across that mindset before and not in Scotland. I believe there is a big difference in how nations feel and how they vote.

One person is not a Nation....
Personal anecdotes are usually shot down in flames by you Alegrias as not being representative of the facts.
Still....it’s nearly Christmas, so you can have this one as a present.

How nice to have been outside in the fresh air and now to catch up on all this.

Alegrias, do stop pretending you’re working class. Like me you were born into a family which was, and always had been, working class. Like me you have done well in life. As had the lady on the factory floor, and well done her. Thanks in no small part to the policies of successive Conservative governments. Your voting choice is your hard-won prerogative but please don’t pretend that all who vote Labour do so from altruistic motives and that all who vote Conservative are ‘all right Jack’. During my working life I used my professional qualifications to help others less fortunate than me and I now make significant donations to charity which is a private matter that I mention simply to enlighten you and others who seem to think that people with my political leanings are only in it for themselves. I prefer to make my own philanthropic choices rather than have them made for me by government.

I will address that to you too Kali. My family and me first, as I imagine is the case with most of us. Others helped too, not ‘s*d everyone else’.

Alegrias that reminds me of the woman I met at college when I went in my 30's .She always told people she was "middle class" because she had a fridge freezer and a washing machine.
Now I was raised in a council scheme for most of my childhood where I never heard about this "class" thing and was quite surprised , but the lady a Liverpudian who had moved here with her Scots husband assured me its what people she knew at home all believed and all wanted to move up a class.
A t that time I had 3 businesses running and she was very surprised I wasn't "middle class " too ...but alas I dont believe in these fake classes and as far as I'm concerned if you WORK for a living you're working class .Regardless of what job you do .Of course "class" is a manufactured thing topped by the RF .....for whom the divisive nature of them and us is what makes so many folk think a Lord or a prince is better than they are and have to be bowed to or obeyed( and worshipped by many) for their own gain .

Nothing sinister about recognising a certain writing style Gill ( note that I would never use an old name in case the poster didn’t want it.)
It’s also natural to wonder where posters have got to.

?

No Paddy, it may be wrong to defer to a class system ( which most countries have) but if you are a lawyer ( for example) then that isn’t working class.It’s not about where you started, but where you end up.I should imagine that many of us on here started life in a council house or similar.

lemongrove

Coastpath that’s a joke right? ?
I have rarely seen a person less likely to be worried about what other posters think.

Except yourself of course.

Well researched GG. I confess to having neither the time nor the patience. The whole thing is the best Starmer can do by way of opposition and a complete diversion from the important issues of the day which should be taking up parliamentary time, such as would-be asylum seekers drowning, the persistent failure to prevent children dying at the hands of their parents, the appalling NHS waiting lists, how we can get more people vaccinated and how we can find homes for the homeless. But all the opposition can talk about is an office Christmas do.

True Coastpath it helps on the politics pages I find.

Galaxy

Kinnock whether you like it or not paved the way for a labour victory. I am hoping and praying that Starmer can achieve what kinnock did.

I didn't say I didn't like it - let's face it, Kinnock lost four elections.
And it was John Major who paved the way to a New Labour victory.

Blair and some of his government knew which paths were paved with gold and didn't mind if people became filthy rich.

#disillusionedBlairvoter

I think Starmer has more ethics, Galaxy, so maybe not.

Dickens

lemongrove

As I said GSM ....it’s just gleeful political point scoring.

Political point scoring is also very much part of the Tory MO - and not specific to this current administration, either. Have you forgotten Cameron and Osborne continually pointing out Labour's failings?

Don't you think that our system of adversarial government - as opposed to consensus government - makes political point scoring inevitable?

The Opposition's job is to challenge the government of the day and hold them to account. If the boot were on the other foot, that is exactly what the Tories would do.

Interestingly, when Starmer is discussing issues and being methodical in his 'forensic' lawyer-type mode, he's considered 'boring', yet when he becomes more dynamic and challenges the government - he's scoring political points.

I think it's hypocritical to accuse one side of doing exactly what the other side do. It's Politics - Starmer and Johnson are 'in Politics'. And they score points against each other - because the British people don't appear to want any other form of government, certainly not one run on consensual lines.

Yes, of course, they all do it, which is why I was simply pointing that fact out, meaning it’s a nine day ( if that) wonder.
Starmer doesn’t think anything will come of it, but has probably been advised to go on the attack with every little thing that comes to hand.
The populace have more important things on their minds just at the moment though.

Thanks lemon. I was raised by working class parents (they would probably have been middle class had my father not become blind in his teens). I became a lawyer which I suppose moved me up to middle class. No fancy pretensions about household appliances. I was delighted to get a washing machine after several years of marriage but it didn’t make a jot of difference to the fact that I was then a secretary, so working class.

Because I mentioned she was on the factory floor, as a means of helping people understand that she was one of the "working class"? Like me? Me who was working in the same factory????

I'm confused now, that seems to be at odds with what else you have posted about your working life.

Germanshepherdsmum

Thanks lemon. I was raised by working class parents (they would probably have been middle class had my father not become blind in his teens). I became a lawyer which I suppose moved me up to middle class. No fancy pretensions about household appliances. I was delighted to get a washing machine after several years of marriage but it didn’t make a jot of difference to the fact that I was then a secretary, so working class.

Don't worry, GSM

We're all middle class now, because John Prescott, the millionaire Lord, told us so.

It might be Starmers ethics that hold him back from doing what needs to be done calistemon

Calistemon

^Because I mentioned she was on the factory floor, as a means of helping people understand that she was one of the "working class"? Like me? Me who was working in the same factory????^

I'm confused now, that seems to be at odds with what else you have posted about your working life.

Does it? Let me help:

Some people do whatever jobs they can at a given time because they need to have an income. Some people will work in factories or shops because even though they are smarter than the average bear, they know they need to make money and that careers aren't always linear.

That’s a relief Calistemon. One doesn’t like to mention it, especially in front of the staff. So relieved that they are middle class too.?

I see it as more of a weakness Galaxy as Starmer needs to
‘Get in there’ as it were and make his presence felt.When interviewed in the street most people have no idea who Sir Keir Starmer is, never mind which political party he is part of.

paddyann54

Alegrias that reminds me of the woman I met at college when I went in my 30's .She always told people she was "middle class" because she had a fridge freezer and a washing machine.
Now I was raised in a council scheme for most of my childhood where I never heard about this "class" thing and was quite surprised , but the lady a Liverpudian who had moved here with her Scots husband assured me its what people she knew at home all believed and all wanted to move up a class.
A t that time I had 3 businesses running and she was very surprised I wasn't "middle class " too ...but alas I dont believe in these fake classes and as far as I'm concerned if you WORK for a living you're working class .Regardless of what job you do .Of course "class" is a manufactured thing topped by the RF .....for whom the divisive nature of them and us is what makes so many folk think a Lord or a prince is better than they are and have to be bowed to or obeyed( and worshipped by many) for their own gain .

You lived in a scheme paddyann54? How posh.

Did you have an inside toilet? We dreamed of inside toilets.

You know what they say - a man of independent mind, he looks and laughs at a' that.