Right, here’s the deal. They pay you the salary anyway, and there’s nothing you can do to stop them. They deduct the tax and NI at source, which is fair enough. But out of what’s left, I’ll keep only the national median wage for full-time work, and divide the rest equally among a community cause in each of the former District wards in which I had topped the poll. All right?
I have to say that I find it alarming in the extreme when people suggest that it is somehow selling out to draw the salary. Going all the way back to Marx and Engels themselves, how very trustafarian the Hard Left has always been, and clearly still is. In the proper Labour Movement, we believe in the rate for the job.
And I have never claimed to be “an anti-corruption candidate”. I am not corrupt and never will be. But I am standing on a philosophical and political platform, not as some Man In A White Suit whose only line is how sleazy his opponents are.
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Hmmm. It could look like you were trying to build a power base by dolling out patronage. Not good. Better to pick a charity you have no connections with.
ReplyDeleteThat's called politics, dear.
ReplyDeleteI thought you said you weren't corrupt?
ReplyDeleteThat's not corrupt. That's politics. Grow up.
ReplyDeleteIt's politics in the US, where the pork-barrel is a lamented but immovable feature of the political landscape. But I don't believe Britain does have a tradition of MPs directly funding local support from taxpayers' money - nor, even if you believe it does, would anyone suggest that it's something you should indulg in. The avoidance of "politics as usual" is a key part of your appeal. Don't be seduced!
ReplyDeleteGrow up.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever BEEN to Britain?
I say again, grow up.
Of course, I know what this is really about: you recognise the popular appeal of this.
"But I don't believe Britain does have a tradition of MPs directly funding local support from taxpayers' money"
ReplyDeletehahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Well, exactly.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this wouldn't be direct funding out of taxpayers' money. It would be donations out of my salary.
I have already been contacted out of the blue about matching funding by various pro-life, pro-family, pro-worker and anti-war interests. Nothing agreed yet, though. But I'm very open in principle. And the more offers, the better: you can all match it as far as I'm concerned.
So, just to clarify: under the guise of taking a moral stand, which you believe will be highly popular, you plan to directly funnel taxpayers' money to your own local political support. You claim that this is in no way corrupt, and that anyone who has any problems with it is either ignorant or naive.
ReplyDeleteAs Tom Lehrer said, "Ah, but what have you got when there's nothing left to sell?"
I don't believe that these objections are real.
ReplyDeleteThey are not being made by ignorant or naive people, but by politically active people, paid to be so, who are pretending (not very convincingly) to be ignorant or naive.
They assume that the voters at large (whom they have never met) are ignorant and naive, and so will find something distasteful about this proposal.
But they aren't. So they won't. Indeed, I already know that they don't.
Local voters who are hoping for the crumbs from your table are probably thrilled. But what about voters elsewhere? What sort of national figure will you cut if you're so clearly part of NE England machine politics?
ReplyDeleteSooner that than a faaashionable London machine politician. They leave no crumbs.
ReplyDeleteThe more of our candidates the better, so long as there is only one in each constituency.
This really has riled your filthy kind, hasn't it?
How many candidates do you think you will have? (Roughly.)
ReplyDeleteHaven't a clue. We're all Independents.
ReplyDeleteThen how are they your candidates?
ReplyDeleteThey are our candidates, as a people.
ReplyDeleteDon't listen to them, David. If the No2EU guys can organise a national grassroots campaign without your contacts, experience or advantages, just think what'll happen when you put your foot on the gas!
ReplyDeleteI don't need the contacts to organise a national campaign. I need the contacts to be the first past the post in North-West Durham at an election when most people who might have voted Labour or Tory in this seat are going to stay at home. And I have those contacts coming out of my ears.
ReplyDeleteIt's breaking my heart.
ReplyDeleteGet used to it.
ReplyDeleteDude, that's cold.
ReplyDeleteWhereas I am really a man of sunny disposition.
ReplyDeleteNow, back on topic.
Wasn't "That's not corrupt. That's politics. Grow up"
ReplyDeletebasically what all the MPs caught fiddling have claimed?
No.
ReplyDeleteIf you've come to be told how clever you are for coming out with that one, then you are sadly mistaken.
Still, you got to chuckle to yourself, I suppose. Very soon indeed, you'll have absolutely nothing else to do.
The difference is, David will be following the rules.
ReplyDeleteI'll be spending it on my constituents, not myself. And certainly not on the likes of you.
ReplyDeleteYou're all at it, aren't you? You really do think that lame student revue jokes are clever. They're not.
What are you going to do when the MPs who are the only people who have ever employed you, or ever would, lose their seats, if not their liberty?
Bribing voters is hardly a claim to the moral high ground, David.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the record, I'm not employed by an MP, a think-tank or any other political body. You're going to have to embrace the concept that I just think you're wrong.
This isn't "bribing", you silly little boy.
ReplyDeleteAfter that one, I believe you. You must be too young to work. Why aren't you revising?
He doesn't need to pass exams, he has a safe Labour seat lined up for as soon as he's legally old enough.
ReplyDeleteOh, call a spade a spade. You agree you're "building a power base by dolling out patronge."
ReplyDeleteThen he must be a she. Apologies for getting your sex wrong, Hiro.
ReplyDeleteAnd you agree that that's called politics, Ando. There's no other way of doing it. Standing forlornly in elections as a sort of hobby, yes. But that's not politics. That never puts you in any position to get anything done. Grow up, the lot of you.
ReplyDeleteYes, this would be "dolling out patronage" to build a powerbase. Labour doesn't do that here anymore. That's why it no longer has one.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
ReplyDeleteThe student sectarian Left is an odd combination of the nasty and the naive, and New Labour has not only retained, but exaggerated, both of those features.
They only want to be MPs at all for the money. And spend money on their constituents? They'd only set for in their constituencies for the General Election count.
ReplyDeleteBut still claim huge sums for doing up houses here before flogging them and not paying any CGT on them.
ReplyDelete