Liz Truss claims £3000 of taxpayers money for a “business” lunch

With all that us wrong in this Country and this Government’s behaviour a lunch for 10 people at £140 a head is not something I can get worked up about.

I would rather concentrate on more important things, if this lunch had not taken place it would not have made one iota of difference to the working poor .

Let’s concentrate on unscrupulous employers not paying decent wages, unscrupulous loan sharks, crap parents who abuse both their children and the system. That’s just for a start!

Barmeyoldbat

GG13, rich country for just a few.

Yes, exactly the same as any Country in the world.

We should aim to bring the poorest up the ladder, not send the richest down the snake.

Mind you, if I had to sit through lunch with Liz Truss I would need to order a bottle of gin too. She looks like one of the awful girls I was at school with who changed their opinions and views on everything just to keep up with the in crowd. I would need a lot of gin to sit and listen to her wittering on about pork.....

I am no scrooge when it comes to spending one's own money. In times of plenty, I could even understand a government (or any employer) pushing the boat out to make life a bit nicer for its employees.

But in time of austerity (and yes, Maisie, I know!) when there are cutbacks (justified or not) spending public money in that way is a slap in the face to a family struggling by on UC, or managing on minimum wage and zero hours.

I am well aware that it's perfectly possible to spend that sort of money in any city if you choose to push the boat out. That's what a lot of people do on special occasions (and probably not at lunchtime).

Arguing over the price of gin, or boasting about how much you can personally afford to spend is missing the point spectacularly, though. The 'let them eat cake' (when the brioche has run out) attitude has brought arrogant regimes down before now, and may do again - people are getting increasingly fed up with being taken for fools.

GillT57

Mind you, if I had to sit through lunch with Liz Truss I would need to order a bottle of gin too. She looks like one of the awful girls I was at school with who changed their opinions and views on everything just to keep up with the in crowd. I would need a lot of gin to sit and listen to her wittering on about pork.....

Something we agree on ??

I wonder how many people haven't been able to pay for their relatives funeral during the pandemic too and have been buried in a paupers grave

If someone dies without enough money to pay for a funeral and no one to take responsibility for it, the local authority must bury or cremate them. It's called a 'public health funeral' and includes a coffin and a funeral director to transport them to the crematorium or cemetery.31 Mar 2020
Funeral director fees: £2,600
Doctor’s fees: £164 (no fee in Scotland)
Cremation fees: £850
Burial fees: £2,200

They have spent more on jolly. Thoughtless, detached behaviour

GillT57

Mind you, if I had to sit through lunch with Liz Truss I would need to order a bottle of gin too. She looks like one of the awful girls I was at school with who changed their opinions and views on everything just to keep up with the in crowd. I would need a lot of gin to sit and listen to her wittering on about pork.....

But not a private school. Phew!

I thought the price of the Americano was reasonable.

But we are not taking the poorest up the ladder are we, after how many years in Government the Tories have managed to take them even further down the ladder but not to worry we are a rich country and the general public have managed to provide food banks for the poor while the mp claim £176 per week for food. However hard you try to defend your beloved party they are an absolute disgrace, and a bunch self serving corrupt b…….s

Barmeyoldbat

But we are not taking the poorest up the ladder are we, after how many years in Government the Tories have managed to take them even further down the ladder but not to worry we are a rich country and the general public have managed to provide food banks for the poor while the mp claim £176 per week for food. However hard you try to defend your beloved party they are an absolute disgrace, and a bunch self serving corrupt b…….s

I am not defending my party Barmeyoldbat (I am currently politically homeless) .

I am just trying to put into perspective the fact that business lunches whether political, public or private sector are away of networking, whatever/whoever is hosting.

A media feeding frenzy is being whipped up by backbiting politicians.

If not having this lunch meant one family not using a food bank I can assure you I would be for the family not using the food bank. Unfortunately this is not the case, but the lunch could/may secure contracts for the U.K. which in turn provide jobs.

£31.50 to have with the wolves in sheep's clothing too

Barmeyoldbat

But we are not taking the poorest up the ladder are we, after how many years in Government the Tories have managed to take them even further down the ladder but not to worry we are a rich country and the general public have managed to provide food banks for the poor while the mp claim £176 per week for food. However hard you try to defend your beloved party they are an absolute disgrace, and a bunch self serving corrupt b…….s

What makes me very cross is that there wasn't much, if any, need for food banks before the tories came to power. It was their unnecessary 'austerity' programme which has made the growth and use of food banks inevitable.

Yet some tory MPs prance around at food banks for photo opportunities as if a food bank is some sort of laudable achievement. When it isn't . It's a BADGE OF SHAME that their economic policies have brought people to a state where they have to depend on the charity of their fellow citizens to feed themselves and their children.

gg13 not with the USA - at least not in the foreseeable future.

Until the ideologues understand that America will not tolerate any danger to the GFA by their daft proposals there is no chance.

GrannyGravy13

The lunch was for 10 people including the US trade representative, would you rather she hosted them at the local McDonalds, KFC or Wetherspoon’s?

For some people any of these would be a treat.

My point is, she could have a perfectly lavish enough lunch in the Houses of Parliament, foreign envoys or whoever would no doubt enjoy being in such historic surroundings. This maybe a “rich” country, but wealth is partly measured in property ownership - much of the hugely expensive real estate in this country is owned by foreigners - Russians, Chinese, Saudis, who buy luxury apartments in London as investments and then leave them empty, meanwhile there are people sleeping in doorways a few miles away. Wealth is NOT distributed anything like evenly, this is one of the most unequal western societies. This lunch, though relatively insignificant, just demonstrated the huge gap between them and us.

GrannyGravy13

The lunch was for 10 people including the US trade representative, would you rather she hosted them at the local McDonalds, KFC or Wetherspoon’s?

?
I think many on this thread would like that GG13
If the meal was for ten people then it was a reasonable price indeed.
Any political party in government would spend large amounts on hosting ( I will await Starmer announcing there will be cheese sandwiches and crisps only for trade envoys in the future.)Haha.

It isn't even just London. They are buying them up in other major cities too, Birmingham for example

My reply was to vegansrock but I thought Mr Wetherspoon was a Tory donor anyway

( I will await Starmer announcing there will be cheese sandwiches and crisps only for trade envoys in the future.)Haha.
Good grief. Whataboutery in the future tense?

nadateturbe

GrannyGravy13

The lunch was for 10 people including the US trade representative, would you rather she hosted them at the local McDonalds, KFC or Wetherspoon’s?

For some people any of these would be a treat.

Oh dear, we are close to getting into Monty Python territory now, ‘ You had clogs?!!

Doodledog....as an intelligent woman you know that the price of the meal for trade envoys was a reasonable price and furthermore that a Labour government would do the same (and has done many times) so all this hooha and manufactured outrage is simply point scoring, tedious and daft.

lemongrove

*Doodledog*....as an intelligent woman you know that the price of the meal for trade envoys was a reasonable price and furthermore that a Labour government would do the same (and has done many times) so all this hooha and manufactured outrage is simply point scoring, tedious and daft.

Couldn’t agree with you more Lemongrove it’s all becoming rather hysterical, faux outrage over a non story on a slow news day.

lemongrove

*Doodledog*....as an intelligent woman you know that the price of the meal for trade envoys was a reasonable price and furthermore that a Labour government would do the same (and has done many times) so all this hooha and manufactured outrage is simply point scoring, tedious and daft.

Even a stupid person would know that it could have been bought more cheaply, though, and in the current climate it is surely insensitive at best to spend public money on something that could have been spent in a more equitable manner.

It's not about point scoring (although the 'Whatabout what Starmer might do one day?' is perhaps exactly that?), but about pointing out the contempt or inability to connect with ordinary people that is so often displayed by this government.

As I say, spend your own money how you like, but spending public money is a different ball game.

Even a stupid person would know that it could have been bought more cheaply, though,

Even the civil servants in her department knew that it could be done more cheaply, and just as effectively, and I would think that they have much more experience of organising high level lunch meetings than does Liz Truss. She over ruled them in favour of a tory donor.

We'll get nothing from the US until they are ready to talk. Truss was wasting her time and our money...

Doodledog

*( I will await Starmer announcing there will be cheese sandwiches and crisps only for trade envoys in the future.)Haha.*
Good grief. Whataboutery in the future tense?

Or even in conditional mood.

How do we go from either that expensive meal or McDonald’s? .