Damn. These are Eastern Europe levels of corruption. Has it only gotten this bad in the past few years or were Cameron/Blair/Major etc. just better at hiding it?
No, it got significantly worse for two reasons:
Trump showed that operating outside morals or regulations had no consequences, political or financial.
A kleptrocrat is now in the highest office, instead of just pulling strings.
I agree with the first point but Rishi definitely isn’t the first kleptrocrat in the job (he might be the richest, but not the first), we have a glorious (/s) history of being ruled over by the rich and privileged (not only in parliament, but the rest of government and of course the royals).
You are correct in essence, I was taking a bit of a shortcut, but Rishi is definately unique in that he is a step up in wealth compared to the traditional Old Boys Network. Ironically that’s the only level up the UK has accomplished since Boris XD
So yes, the rich and privileged have always been the ruling class, once the Millionaires get replaced by Billionaires the rules, and playing field, changes dramatically.
I don’t disagree, maybe I’m just more cynical about how bad it has been already, millionaire, billionaire, both are so many magnitudes of wealth above what we’ll ever have, and are both as disconnected from the rest of us, not to mention both are already funded by and/or are otherwise in bed with the billionaires that aren’t in government, so it doesn’t feel like this is the big shift that’ll make the difference.
Oh, it was bad already. But what most people do not realize how far removed from the “real” world that you, me and yes-millionaires inhabit the multibillionaires are. The “out of touch” elite of the old rich and powerful did exist in the same framework we did. The megarich do not. The difference between indirect influence and direct power might seem trivial but I am convinced it’s not just fundamentally different but also potentially catastrophic as they might as well be a different species from us for all practical purposes and to have them make decisions that directly influence our lifes but not theirs is Kafkaesque.
Again, I don’t fundamentally disagree, I just think things are already much worse than you’re giving them credit for, and that the person of the top of the capitalism pile being even richer than the others doesn’t have as much of a direct impact on those of us already being fucked by the rich for it to matter.
The idea that someone like Boris or Cameron, or any of the royals, has any idea how people like you and me live is just as absurd as if it’s Rishi.
Othering them (they are absolutely not a different species) and pretending as if the catastrophe isn’t already here (and that Rishi or not, we’ve been ruled over by billionaires for as long as there have been billionaires) just seems to me to be focusing on the wrong part of it all (one individual instead of the system that enables him to exist at all), and is counterproductive.
We have come to fundamentally different insight into the psyches of the rich and the ultra rich. There’s a reason I say that for me they might as well be adiiferent species, we’ll see in the fullness of time how this develops. Both the system and the individual in it can be problem. Glossing over an, in my mind, fundamental difference is a mistake. But that’s my opinion of course. It’s clear you do not get my argument and that’s that.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this subject. Fact is that the world is in serious peril, and the foundations of our system are shaking at its core.
I think probably a bit of both. The Conservatives seem to have done away with the concept of political embarrassment except as a political tool in itself.
I think we’ve been on a quick spiral towards seeing just how much the electorate would deal with.
There are deep parallels with Trumpists and Brexiteers in that their following is almost religious. Pair this with the fact that the UK doesn’t have a constitution, and we’ve found that it doesn’t actually matter if a PM is found to have misled parliament or have been charged by the police for an offence. Politicians can get away with whatever they want, including breaking the law, and people will still rather vote for them.
Is anybody really surprised that a billionaire politician abuses his office to make more money? That is the Number One reason why those people go into politics - to be able to distribute the pork barrels directly, without the need to pay other politicians like they normally do.
And this one didn’t even need to get elected (tbf neither did the last 2, or is it 3?), they just sit there and wait their turn at playing leader, when they do their best to fill their pockets by picking apart public services.
Ha. It feels good to have such a benevolent leader here in the US. He never talks business with his family. He only talks about the weather when family members call him on the phone. Whatever profits are made are because they are the smartest people he knows.
the tories are so corrupt it’d be comical if it wasn’t so sad
The UK populace is making a run at the throne for dumbest electorate in the world. USA has been the undisputed champ for years, but UK swinging!
To be fair its not like the public even voted Sunak in, they voted Boris in and we then got the Tory’s hand me downs (not that Boris was any better, granted)
you don’t vote for the prime minister, you vote for the party. no prime minister gets their position because the public wants them to. it’s an actual illusion of choice
While you are of course entirely right, people do tend to vote based on the issues the head of the party is championing at the time so I’d argue that it’s slightly more nuanced than just voting for the party given how the head of each party steers the policy in different directions
Very few people in the UK ever vote a PM into power, and even those people only vote them in as an MP, technically.
Boris was an intellectual equal with the president of the United States at the time of his election, so I don’t know how they can talk.
as bad as Truss was she at least fucked off before completely driving the country down the shitter
Bring back Theresa May!
Steady now
Can you imagine? She actually would be an improvement, it’s ridiculous how bad the Tories are.
What a happy coincidence.
What fortuitous luck!
Happy for him maybe
Of all the family values to export out of India, corruption and nepotism seem to be on top of Murthy family’s list.
ps : Sunak’s wife and Narayan Murthy’s daughter had avoided paying taxes on her nearly $1-billion fortune. Infoys also has a history of tax issues in a number of jurisdictions, including UK.
A. that’s racist
B. He was born in England, and his parents are Indians from East Africa
It’s racist because his values are not Indian, they come from England
A. Pointing out acts of nepotism and tax avoidance is not racist.
B. The comment was on his in-laws, their firm, and their daughter’s values.Sunak’s British values haven’t stopped his wife & his in-laws from tax avoidance and from profiting via nepotism, to which he, the PM of UK, is at best a passive participant and at worst actively involved.
It’s definitely racist when you say that those are Indian family values. It’s not racist is you say those are Sunak family values.
Nepotism and corruption are a way of life with India and particularly in a Indian family firm. How do I know? I’m Indian as is the Murthy family. I’m pointing out that they’re doing their misdeeds outside India.
If you see their actions as not being examples of nepotism and corruption or if you consider nepotism and corruption to not be misdeeds, you’ll need to explain.
I cannot comment on Sunak’s family values, but they can’t be good if he enables his wife’s tax avoidance and his in-laws profiting via nepotism.
You’re not even using the word ‘racist’ in the correct context. What you’re thinking of is the word ‘bigoted’.
Also, I don’t think OP is bigoted, sure didn’t seem that was his intention anyway.
Your argument is really “Indian isn’t a race”?
Do you think it is?
Also, in that context, OP was referring to his notion of Indian cultural norms.
This is the main reason why millionaires/billionaires become politicians.
Fuck Billionaires
with a spiny cactus
sideways
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It’s illegal for the poor, not the rich.
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Let me put things this way: In the UK all investigation and prosecution of Corruption is the sole responsability of the Serious Fraud Office.
Ever since the 80s, almost every single year under governments of the 2 major parties and even a cohalition one with the 3rd largest party, the funding of the SFO has fallen in real terms, to the point that it’s now at the level of the funding of a town council.
Just as recently as 2017 (if I remember the year correctly) the head of the SFO said they could only afford to prosecute a single large case per year.
By the way these are also the guys with responsability for prosecuting fraud, including Financial Fraud, in a country with over 50 million people, the 6th largest GDP in the World (last I checked) and were 17% of GDP comes from the Finance Industry (to give you a feeling of the size of it).
(Remember, they have the budged of a town council, maybe a small city one, to uphold the multiple areas of the Law, and do so for the whole country)
So of course there are no corrupt people in Britain, because nobody ever gets investigated for it much less prossecuted and convicted and if you ever point at anybody as corrupt there, they’ll crack down on you using Libel Legislation (which is so broad I remember this one time not that long ago that an Ukranian Oligarch used British Courts - which took the case - to punish an Ukrainian website who had a post in ukranian accusing him of corruption in Ukraine and the British judges in a British High Court took the case because “it could be accessed from Britain”).
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In a terrible twist of fate, we find that the world we have built is a parody of itself
yet another tory pm resigns in shame when?
If a Tory resigns every time they do something corrupt we’d get through them pretty quickly.
Are y’all not going through them pretty quickly? I seem to recall something about bacon and lettuce, with a certain red-faced fellow potentially being the tomato that completes the sandwich.
In the absence of snark if the person/party resigning gets to essentially pick their replacement then their is quite obviously no reason not to just do whatever hideous shit you want to, then resign and escape responsibility entirely.
No the problem is the system has broken down. Normally they don’t do shit like this because it costs them votes, but since they know they’re going to lose anyway they now don’t care anymore. This is a very obvious floor with the system but it’s never been fixed because up until relatively recently, MPs tended to act with least a little bit of decorum / The scandals they got up to were mostly related to having various affairs, rather than inappropriate financial dealings.
Sounds like y’all are gonna have to figure out a way to make the law apply to the rich. Good luck. We’re trying over here as well and there’s been some progress lately but it’s been less about getting the rich to submit to the rule of law and more about us getting so pissed off at one of them that the rest of them are willing to sacrifice him to maintain their own patrician standing.
Modern Tories have no shame.
Wow. This is worse than George Bush Jr!
obviously, because Dubya has a peanut sized brain, Sunak is corrupt and not dumb.
Does this qualify as Insider Trading?
In a literal theft from the people sense? Yes. In reality? No, he’s rich so he can do what he wants. Laws are to keep us poor in check, not to be fair.
Of course not!
He is clearly just a master negotiator and very savvy businessman!
Anyone could do what he has done if they just worked harder, were born into wealth and married the daughter of a billionaire.
It also helps to have zero morals/ ethics.
Insider trade?
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Don’t you even try. The people voted the Tories, UK is not a dictatorship. We are paying the consequences of our stupidity.
We are paying the consequences of our stupidity.
FPTP-voting was designed by ancient wealthy romans in order for them to maintain rule regardless of voter-outcomes, this system is inherently flawed in favor of the rich as it makes it easy for them to manipulate. Donate enough to both sides and it’s all business as usual no matter the opinion of the populace. In too many places it’s a trait of leaving democracy as a mere experiment and bonkers to continue without reform in modern times.
In all fairness, FPTP did create one of the oldest, most successful democracies that ever existed on the planet. Now, I’m not saying it shouldn’t be reformed (it should be), but calling it a straight up terrible no good isn’t right either
If you’re talking about Westminster, then I don’t agree. The measure of success for a democracy must be how well it represents the people. At this, Westminster has failed and continues to fail. The country itself has been very successful, historically. Its common people however have been subjugated and oppressed.
That’s true. I’d argue that a successful democracy is one where the will of the majority is consistently honoured, which long hasn’t been the case with our electoral system
It’s never been the case! Even if we extended voting rights to absolutely everyone, FPTP ensures that the will of the largest minority ifshonoured.
He’s not a dictator because of the simple evidence that he’s terrified he’s going to lose his job which is why he’s pulling shit like this. Got to get all of the money out of the system before he’s thrown out of office along with his useless party.
Time to pay more taxes, everyone!
