Am I alone in finding this so tawdry?

Well, I admit to being fascinated to know what they will all be wearing to the opening of the Labour party conference tomorrow. If Victoria Starmer has any sense she will take a leaf out of Samantha Cameron's book and turn up in M&S dress, as Mrs. C did at their first Tory Conference. The fashion editors will have a field day!

I'd have been delighted if the milk had been snatched during my school days, I hated it!

Mollygo

Well we’ve had Mrs Thatcher, milk snatcher, now we’ve got Kier Starmer, pensioner harmer.

May I just point out that it was Harold Wilson who started snatching milk from the hands of children!

Harold Wilson's Labour government stopped free milk for secondary school pupils in 1968.

It doesn't rhyme though!

😊😊

Oh yes, don't vote, don't complain!

Agreed Allira but the last one was so bluddy divisive I don’t think any government will revisit the issue! And those who didn’t vote deserve no recognition of their view point.

I have supported Labour for all of my adult life but I do find the acceptance of clothing and other gifts by Keir Starmer and other senior cabinet members extremely disappointing and distasteful. In my view donations should only go to the party for activities such as campaigning. I have just listened to Lucy Powell on Question Time saying it is acceptable and I strongly disagree with her.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Rosie51

LizzieDrip are you saying Starmer hasn't accepted all these freebies, that the media are lying?
As for take us back into the EU, what makes you think its guaranteed all 27 countries would vote yes to having the UK back in? We were refused entry for enough years before finally joining. I wish we'd never left, I voted remain, but appreciate rejoining will not be easy, and likely won't happen in my lifetime.

And just disregard the Brexit referendum because it doesn’t suit (some)? Jeepers. What price democracy eh?

I think there would have to be another referendum first, FriedGreenTomatoes.

One with more options perhaps.

GrannySomerset

Though playing devil’s advocate, the willingness of some journalists to attack the appearance and dress sense of female politicians is part of the problem. Perhaps a taxable allowance for the top brass, to be spent on British made clothes, might be a solution? Bet Mme Macron doesn’t have this problem.

No allowance. They take enough. Pay, out of their own pockets for the hire of their posh frocks,or loan then return from British only designers, as other PMs wives have done before them.
Whatever macrons wife does is really no concern, or care of the British people.

Rosie51

LizzieDrip are you saying Starmer hasn't accepted all these freebies, that the media are lying?
As for take us back into the EU, what makes you think its guaranteed all 27 countries would vote yes to having the UK back in? We were refused entry for enough years before finally joining. I wish we'd never left, I voted remain, but appreciate rejoining will not be easy, and likely won't happen in my lifetime.

And just disregard the Brexit referendum because it doesn’t suit (some)? Jeepers. What price democracy eh?

Fancythat terribull RosiesMaw Galaxy and others have made good comments.

I was sorry to read some just threw mud as a way to extracted their party from the hypocrisy

Terribull was correct different snouts same trough

Although I think the bigger question is what will donor L Ali and others want in return?

Also it was revealed a 4 million pound donation to the party was given, which came from a Cayman Islands account which had connections with the arms trade and oil industry.

We are just about to be paying for net zero.
How is that squared?

This is a much bigger problem than who has free clothes.

Mollygo

Well we’ve had Mrs Thatcher, milk snatcher, now we’ve got Kier Starmer, pensioner harmer.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nicknames_of_prime_ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom

Mollygo

Well we’ve had Mrs Thatcher, milk snatcher, now we’ve got Kier Starmer, pensioner harmer.

And Robbin' Reeves, Princess of Thieves

Well we’ve had Mrs Thatcher, milk snatcher, now we’ve got Kier Starmer, pensioner harmer.

Consigned to the annals of time are the days when MPs were in the job to better the lives of their constituents and the country as opposed to raising their profiles and fattening their bank balances.

Sadly I think this is true.

To be fair to some people, including some around me in real life, they have been saying that for about the past two decades.

TerriBull

In opposition it's a lot easier to occupy the high moral ground. Look no further than GN on the run up to the election, we were even reminded to vote, like we somehow needed to be corralled sheep like into the voting booth in case we were too feeble minded to make an informed choice. The new threads were numerous, almost on a daily basis, the dawning of the new age of political integrity we were advised in a blind faith sort of way. The grown ups would be taking over and this new administration was going to listen to the people, be honest and open.

I'll believe it when I see it!

Hollow laugh Terribull!

😏

(was relying to eggplant)

Tony Blair was elected as PM on a wave of euphoria and the promise of change for the better. Keith Starmer was elected to get rid of the Conservatives. I am sick of years of behaviour by politicians that at best is questionable and at worse illegal. The PM must be aware that unlike Johnson, he will be cut no slack because we have had enough. Everything he does is under the microscope just now and until he can prove that he is not carrying forward the same old level of corruption, he will need to put up with it.

LizzieDrip

^I think the point is that we expected better of Labour politicians^

Ah ha, the crux of the matter - let’s all hold Labour politicians to a higher standard than Conservatives. We expected such things of the Tories … but not of Labour. Why???

Well, because they've spent 14 years criticising the Tories and snouts in the trough.

How naïve of us - we should have remembered the Blair years and known better!

I'd much rather be discussing policies. Like - which was for ward for NHS? How can we better trade with Europe? What about foreign policy? do we agree with certain public health measures being discussed? And many others

But a series of O/P's like this one do lead in the direction you allude to (guilty as charged).

MayBee70

Wouldn’t surprise me if most prominent figures get free clothes, especially from companies that want to promote their goods. I’m not condoning it but it is part of an unsavoury media campaign to vilify the PM. They’ve been desperate to find something to pin on him for years. And they’ve finally struck lucky.

There’s always an unsavoury media campaign to vilify PMs and often Ministers too.
I don’t like Starmer, but I really did not expect him to make it so easy for a campaign to start by showing his attitude to his own wealth and neediness and that of pensioners.
To use the excuse that some pensioners do not need the winter fuel allowance because they are well off enough to manage without it and then accept thousands of pounds of clothes for himself and his wife when they are definitely well enough to manage without it is appalling.
Do you really see that as
They’ve been desperate to find something to pin on him for years. And they’ve finally struck lucky.
Especially since he said it would be wrong of Sunak to do that.
The right thing to do might be for him to pay the money for those clothes into public funds e.g. the NHS.
I wouldn’t say give them back, because the firm would either refuse to take them or sell them without mentioning they were Starmer family castoffs.

TerriBull I’m getting disappointed more and more by the day! I had high hopes that Starmer, tho on the boring side would be vastly different and champion the poorer in society, not just the ones in benefits and wouldn’t be accepting freebies in this way.Clothes! Specs!
Haha, yeah, the daily threads heralding a new dawn did make for a smile at the time, and I felt a cringe coming on at the ‘the grown ups are in the room now’ comments.
KS needs to consider the vibes he’s giving out, cut the gloomy messages and talk of tough times for all (except politicians) and talk up the economy instead.That and give the poorer pensioners their WFA back.

I did carry a very tiny ( very) piece of hope re a change in government.

Its all too awful this back biting and nastiness. Pointless.
Better to try and go about life as best we can.

Reverend Starmer has turned out to be just the same as some of the other MP's with their noses in the trough. Why on God's earth are we paying for the clothes of his wife?'? I see more more money has been "found" to fill the black hole requiring our WFA. If they have any humility they will admit they were wrong, have listened to the electorate and decided to shelve the removal of the heating allowance. I suspect it's too late though, the scales have fallen from our eyes, not that I ever had any!

Good post TerriBull 👏 👏