97
Starmer defends borrowing £18m flat as place for son to study during election
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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Weeeeellll he borrowed it from a peer, so this isn't as overtly bad as it may seem with that rather buried lede. For our American friends, this is as though the President's son used an apartment lent to him by a Senator (of the same party as the President, no less). That's arguably more of a co-worker relationship than anything, so I can absolutely see why they wouldn't have though it improper. I myself am not sure that it is.
Senators are elected, aren't they? Peers are given honours by the monarch, usually after a recommendation from the Prime Minister, and can sit in the House of Lords, unelected, and make decisions about legislation. A Labour peer is just a peer recommended to the monarch by a Labour PM. So Lord Alli is a businessman who received favours from the Labour Party, giving him unelected political influence, and he's giving favours to a Labour PM in return.
Seems quite different to me.
Which UK Law considers perfectly normal, legal, and good.
So, there's no problem, see?
I love how those in positions to take bribes have managed to make blatant corruption totally legal and cool.
That's true, but I don't know of a comparable position in the US. Perhaps a "cabinet" member, like the Secretary of State?
As to your point about favour-trading, that's absolutely accurate, but I consider that more of an indictment of peerage in general. Within the bounds of the current system, for all its flaws, they are effectively colleagues, no?
There isn't a comparable position in the USA. But corruption has the same whiff everywhere. That said, this example seems relatively minor and harmless.
I might argue that the SCOTUS is at least approaching comparable. But then imagine Clarence Thomas letting Baron Trump borrow the RV he got from his billionaire sugar daddy Anthony Welters, executive VP at UnitedHealthCare.
And then imagine Trump appointing Welters to an advisory committee at HHS. That's in the ballpark of what we're dealing with.
The supreme court is an altogether different branch of government so that comparison isn't accurate at all, especially since commonwealth countries also have supreme courts.
The British Parliamentary Ministerial system combines the Legislative and Executive branches. So even talking about "branches of government" goes out the window.
They don't have co-equal branches and their courts aren't organized in the US Circuit model.
But even that's beside the point. What's at issue is a lifetime appointee (who gained the position through bribery) continuing to bribe an elected official to be favorable towards his political position. It's pure patronage.
What leads you to believe this is accurate?