In the news

here's his wall mounted candle sticks, at £1.7k each

It does state that they come with a candle though, so there's a saving already.

Is Soane like Ikea for oligarchs?

I know it's a point made many times before but it's struck me just how the sheer sense of entitlement shown by Johnson is monstrous. He simply does not regard the fact that literally everyone has had enough of his lies as meaning he should go.

Rather than focus on Johnson himself, there's got to be some broader lessons to learn. Those who defended him are equally culpable so why do we have a political system that incentivises people to justify this entitlement rather than act with integrity? Why do we have a social/ class/ education system that inculcates such arrogance and entitlement in a few?

I'm loving the fact they paid for an interior designer whose design sense stretched to going into a single shop and buying "everything in gold please".

Also been reminded of Alan Clark saying Michael Heseltine "was the sort of person who had to buy his own furniture"

To be fair, that ‘designer’ founded and runs Soane so it makes sense that all the gaudy shit would come from there.

Easier to hide massive margins that way.

The interior designer and the shop are one and the same.

boris's plans to hold his wedding reception at chequers dashed, i'm sure he'll find an oligarch with a nice country pile to leech off

^^^Incroyable

This kind of stuff is going to drip-drip-drip hourly until he fucks off

This is one of the points made in the podcast I posted above. Time for a clear written constitution to avoid a future abuse of power.

That trolley is awful. I think Nurse Ratched had a similar one for wheeling the hypodermics around the ward

That tory is awful.

Time for a clear written constitution to avoid a future abuse of power.

Not a slam dunk - look at the US. There it has just shifted the potential for abuse of power to the body that interprets the written constitution.

Agreed but our current system uses arcane gentleman's agreements* that Johnson has shat all over.

*What's the non gendered version of that phrase? Unwritten agreements?

My grandma have that trolley! Abet not that expensive and from the 80’s.

We have a written constitution, it's just not codified in one document.

Gotta hand it to Carrie, she know how to fleece Alex off.

I'd politely disagree with you on that one but if you are right then parts of that 'constitution' are unwritten.

I'm very much of the view that calls for a written constitution are a distraction, a case of "well, something must be done".

David Allen Green argues it far more convincingly that I can:

https://davidallengreen.com/2020/11/why-we-need-to-stop-talking-about-a-written-constitution-my-november-2020-column-for-prospect-magazine/

That's interesting thanks for the link.

Do you agree that the current 'constitution' requires reform to prevent a future Johnson abuse of power?

there'll be people arguing that while the British constitution and democracy were tested they ultimately worked and Johnson was got rid of, so I suspect there'll be strong resistance to any formal written constitution and talk of it will start to subside as people's memories fade.

Starmer will not receive a FPN for the work event in Durham.

Durham Police: "It has been concluded that there is no case
to answer for a contravention of the regulations, due to the application of an exception,
namely reasonably necessary work."

Clear Starmer

was probably Bill Gates who paid them off.

Angela Nothing-to-Explainer