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?
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.
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.
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.
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.