On Sky news this morning there was an item regarding 10 Downing street considering setting up a Whitehall charity, so that Carrie Symonds can do up 11 Downing street. She wants a complete overhaul, including gold wallpaper. The charity will ask for money from Tory Donators.
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It won’t be their permanent abode…so why not set up a fund…,
Charity fund?..I would love to see it once renovated.
I don’t see the problem personally.
It’s doubtful that any government-owned accommodation is going to be to everybody’s tastes and why shouldn’t a new occupier be able to put their “stamp” on it just as any renter tries to do when they rent a new property?
FWIW surely it’s better that the taxpayer isn’t funding redecorating and a makeover.
Zaphod - its the sheer crassness of it, given the state of society now in this pandemic. Poverty, job losses, tax rises…and she has the audacity to whinge about gold wallpaper. I know I’m probably going a bit overboard about it, but what about solidarity with the country? She has the cheek to work with an animal charity, yet is chatting about a charity to fund her redecorating? It just feels so very wrong.
On the one hand, it’s a good idea to set up a charity to provide funds for the maintenance and conservation of Nos 10 and 11, Downing Street rather than relying on the public purse … on the other hand, it seems like a subterfuge to cover Symonds’ expensive tastes (she’s, allegedly, already spent over £100,000 on refurbishment) by employing multi-millionaire financier and Tory peer Lord Brownlow to run the “charity”.
Perhaps Boris is being optimistic and assumes he’ll win another election…
Hi
The State Rooms and offices are decorated by the Civil Service, nothing to do with Boris.
The Two flats, one at 10 and one at 12 are occupied by Politicians who get an allowance for decorating when they move in.
This allowance is paid for by the Government, us the taxpayer.
Any cost over this allowance is paid for by whoever is living there.
It’s a publicly owned building, so she should apply for a grant-in-aid payment or apply to Historic England for assistance as it IS a building of great historic interest. It used to be under the wing of DAMHB, but since that was absorbed some years back, I do not know where it’s replacement can be found.
Who cares?
I agree, there seems to be an abundance of unnecessary news items these days…
If someone wants to pay for gold wallpaper that is their choice.
I can’t see Carrie Symonds with gold wallpaper anyway whatever the gossip press may say , it is rather unsophisticated and lacking in good taste (more curry house than number10) and Ms Symonds comes across as a classy lady .
Why doesn’t she ask her fat scruffy partner to pony up?
It may be true:
Top designer who inspired Carrie’s chic makeover
The woman said to have inspired Carrie’s lavish makeover is Lulu Lytle – one of the UK’s most influential and successful interior designers. Her designs combine a riot of bold colours and showstopping old-fashioned glamour.
Think oiled-oak shelving, rattan furniture, shimmering gold wallpaper and intricate textiles. A marble bathroom, perhaps, with wrought iron finishings.
Examples of her “style”:
IMHO:
Give over, there’s nothing crass about a bit of decorating otherwise a good portion of the country is also somehow crass because houses are still being bought and sold and are still being rented, and places like B&Q are mobbed.
Or are none of these houses being redecorated or refurbished?
Oh and BTW, the work being done keeps people in jobs and puts tax receipts in the country’s kitty thus helping alleviate poverty - if that’s not “solidarity with the country” then surely nothing ever can be.
Apart from a few who seem determined to disparage no matter what, nobody cares - and why should they?
TBH it looks to me more like somebody having a go at Carrie Symonds purely because it’s another way to have a go at Boris Johnson and frankly it’s getting beyond ridiculous.
Is it because there’s no Dom Cummings to have a go at now?
I can almost guarantee that the moaners know absolutely nothing about either of them other than what they have read or been told, Chinese-whisper style.
It wouldn’t matter what those two did but some whinger somewhere would have to have a pop at them.
The worst bit is that as usual it’s all supposition and media hype.
There’s not a shred of fact in the rumour so far; none.
Wallpaper?
So what?
I don’t care and why you or anybody else does makes no sense, other than if it is either pure hatred or downright jealousy.
Because unless it is one of them, what these two do in private has absolutely nothing to do with either you or me.
Despite what you might think, I’m not sticking up for either Carrie or Boris.
I am opposed to unfounded rumours which are doing nothing more than trying to cause division, especially using other people who are just going about their business.
It amounts to nothing more than plain simple nastiness.
Certainly it is beyond mere gossip.
It’s not that it’s unnecessary that grates with me, it’s the constant need to provoke dissent.
Why can we not have news that doesn’t deliberately set out purely to cause ill-feeling?
You don’t have to read it .
Hmmm…well, its not my taste, and I’m not bashing her style…just to have everyone else pay for it under the guise of “charity” seems really off. Charities are there to support those who need help, and she does not need help.
Ermmm…ok then. Just making a bit of conversation, no harm done. 
Omah that is the Daily Mail’s interpretation of Carrie’s style based on the work of Lulu Lytle.
It doesn’t mean we should assumed that is how 10 Downing Street will be decorated and even if it is, the flat is a private residence and it is down to the occupant who have to live there how it is decorated. It is no business of anyone else.
A slow day for news maybe ?