Have you ever tried asking a sales assistant.
There never has been much Oomph out there in reality, there was much Oomph promised in CVs but it never turned tangible 
i’m right out of Oomph ha
Looks like its time to “Stick it up ya Jumpa” 
good idea
The sales people in Bunnings seem to either know everything or absolutely nothing there is no halfway with them.
They are - more often than not - gormless idiots here. And you’ll be lucky if you can find one that speaks English.
1 Like
Hey Ho. Another Can of Maggots Opened.
Ellie Reeves. Sister of Rachel Reeve’s. Chancellor of The Exchequer
Sacked from the cabinet. !!
That won’t go down well in the Reeves Empire.
Fasten the “Seat” Belt.
Every indication, of a mass Cross Bench Exodus. From Labour >> Reform ? Per chance, !!
1 Like
You have to go looking for them here.
1 Like
Yep, just consult the forum ‘Think Tank’…
1 Like
IMO for what its worth, Rayner went wrong by trying to gain from a system she knew little or nothing about. She could have saught quallified expert advice, but thought because of ‘who’ she though she was, she could get one over on the general law abiding tax payer. Silly woman!
My base is about an hour’s lesurely drive westwards of her Hove flat, so I underdstand property prices along the south coast and she did pay around the going rate. However, I’ll lay good odds that she did not foresee the trail of trouble she laid for herself by buying it in her own name …again, Silly Woman, she should have stuck to what she does know.
1 Like
Every report on this confirms that Rayner did seek and obtain advice - and the advice was that because her previous primary residence had been placed in a trust therefore her new purchase was not a second home. That looks like fair advice. I think pretty much all of us in those circumstances would take that advice. Especially if it saved us a chunk of money.
However, this proved to be wrong advice as she was still using the previous property to stay in while looking after her children. She had not stopped using the original primary residence and so it would remain the primary residence. The clarified advice, in light of this additional info, was that in fact the Hove property would constitute a second property.
Yes Rayner got it wrong and should have double checked. But my own view is very, very few people would go out of their way beyond the initial advice to prove that they needed to pay tens of thousand more. Most would happily declare the new property as the only residence and take the saving.
But most haven’t been under the spotlight before about their house deals/sales, and most haven’t got a lotta folk watching ones every move, and most haven’t irritated do many others, and most aren’t the deputy PM.
1 Like
Never mind advice, she’s supposed to be very intelligent, otherwise why was she put in the job in the first place?
I hope it wasn’t just cos she’s a woman and diversity rules in the labour party…
Thing is I agree that Rayner, given her position and the targeting by the press (because she is a she, she is left wing, she doesn’t hide her looks, she outspoken and often effectively so) then she absolutely should have been super diligent. And wasn’t. And paid the price.
But my point was that the outrage expressed by many about her not paying the full stamp duty on a second home is, for many, two-faced as they would have done exactly as she did if faced with the same situation. And got away with it most likely because they are not targeted by the Mail and the Telegraph who will have reporters literally raking through bins to find any hint of anything that can be shaped into a scandal.
As a comparison, back in 2009 Chris Grayling got two taxpayer-funded loans to buy a flat in central London, even though his constituency is less than 17 miles from the House of Commons and he already owned three properties within the M25. He then claimed thousands of pounds to renovate the property and is alleged to have delayed putting in claims for decorating and refurbishing so he could receive the maximum in Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) over consecutive years. All of this is dodgy as you can get to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds. No punishment, no repayment and Grayling went on to screw up a number of ministerial roles. Rayner did a lot less worse and paid a much higher price.
I think her outburst at the 2021 Labour conference made her a target.
At the Labour conference in 2021, the now Deputy Prime Minister described the Conservatives as “a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic”, before later apologising.
I assume her apology was to the dozen or so Tory MPs who did not fit that description. If you had seen the documentary by the ex-SNP MP Mhairi Black then you would have had separate confirmation that Rayner’s description, for many tory MPs, was correct. Under-stated even. Ah well, the great British press loves its traditional Conservative male MP and likely made Rayner a target to protect the feelings of those poor, shy, sensitive, underdogs.
There is an old and wise saying … keep your friends close and your enemies closer still. From past struggles, it was obvious which one Ange was.
Hang on, this is a lot like you saying that politicians are given senior roles because of their intelligence (as opposed to other factors). When did you start thinking that intelligence was a factor in politician’s success - or even that politician and intelligence sit together in a sentence?