Am I being too old fashioned?

[cromwell]

I was honestly surprised last night. As a commentator on the Supreme Court referendum pantomime, Sky news invited on as a pundit - Denis MacShane.

Yes, the same disgraced ex-MP Denis MacShane who submitted 19 false invoices to fiddle his Parliamentary expenses and was sentenced to six months in prison.

If I had done that I couldn't show my face in public again, yet here he was, as smug and as self confident as ever, gassing away. What is wrong with Sky? What is wrong with people in public life these days? Have they no shame at all?

Time was when people like MacShane would have had the decency to retire from the public eye; not any more.

[Kaz]

Bold as brass, aren't they, and with the 'example' of Trump, in the US, it will only get worse

[Suff]

I'm wondering what "example" Trump is giving?? If we're talking being rude but speaking your mind. Not putting up with political double speak. Paying your own way. Shunning the establishment.

Then I'm right with you Kaz.

But, from what I can see. The very people you dislike most seem to be the very people Trump is fighting. He wouldn't have two seconds for a smirking and self preening moneygrubber who makes his living out of politics.

Did you see that Trump is not going to take his £400,000 salary? That's $1.6 Million not going out of the public purse for the next 4 years. At least another $1.6M if he gets another term and will not be $400,000 a year for life when he leaves office.

Not only that but by refusing the salary he also blocks any raise in that salary for the entire time he's in office.

After his phone call with Taiwan, his brushing off with China and lambasting them for free access to American markets but trade barriers for American goods....

Added to his refusal to take salary.

I'm struggling to understand which example he should be giving? Never saying a bad thing but actually doing really bad things (Blair)? Not, in the end, having the courage of his convictions (Cameron)?

Here's an interesting point. 52% of white American women voters, who voted, voted for Trump. Clearly they didn't get into the press painting Trump as the next Antichrist. They didn't vote for the "Female" candidate.

Denis MacShane would tell you that the "right example" was to be "tolerant of the intolerant" to give money away to anyone who shouts loud enough and to keep on taking money from the middle classes because they are, in some way, morally corrupt for earning so much money when others don't.

Nobody is perfect. God knows I know this. But, in the end, it is a choice of lesser evils. Trump, for me, is a far lesser evil than a Blair or a Denis MacShane.

Sorry if I'm a bit brutal about it, but I'm really aware of what the press is trying to do and how people have bought the Kool-Aid. I'll take a loud mouthed, pushy, billionaire over a war criminal every day.

[Workingman]

I am sick and tired of the media's, especially the BBC's, infatuation with all things American. I could not care less what Trump thinks or says, though I will be interested in what he eventually does, but that's another matter.

When it comes to being old fashioned, then I probably am. It is not only McShane, it is also Blair, Vaz and all the expenses fiddlers. Had they done it in a private firm they would have been shown the door, but No!, they are allowed back to preach to us mere mortals how we should run our lives. And what about Osborne, supposedly the MP for Tatton. He has been swanning round the States earning £320,000 for his after dinner speeches.

These people have no shame, none, especially if they can feather their nests.

[Kaz]

I meant his dodgy dealings. Suff you really seem to like him, I hope your faith is justified. The next four years will tell no doubt.

Sorry Cromwell, I only meant to use Trump as a example of 'brass neck' I didn't mean to send the thread sideways into a rant about Trump!

[cromwell]

That's OK Kaz!
I know that Trump has treated, and talked about women in an appalling way.

But, some of the things he has said about foreign policy - like fewer wars - sounds quite good; set against that, he has hired people for his advisers who have said quite the opposite. So like you say, we'll have to see,

[Workingman]

What Trump actually does depends upon whether the system sucks him in and covers him with a blanket, or puts him in a straightjacket.

One thing is perfectly clear, he will not be allowed to get away with everything he wants to do. Realpolitik will kick in at some point.

[TheOstrich]

Last week, I think, the BBC gave air-time to an "economic pundit" whom I'm pretty sure was Vicki Pryce (?), the woman who took the speeding rap for her MP husband?

[Workingman]

You mean Vicky Pryce, former wife of Chis Hune, who perverted the course of justice and was imprisoned for eight months, that Vicky Pryce?

Had she been a cleaner or an hotel receptionist, or some such 'unskilled' worker, she would never have worked again. DBS checks would have seen to that. She committed fraud, as did the expenses fiddling MPs, and yet they are allowed to continue to carry on as if nothing happened.

[Suff]

Kaz, like him? Not sure I could eat a whole one.....

Sorry if I took it the wrong way. I do that you know..

I don't think I could stomach Trump for long, but I do believe he represents an opportunity to reset some of the more bizarre things which have been growing, like a cancer on the body politic.

In that I think he should be, if he is allowed as WM says, very useful in setting a new tone in the place. The problem is that Washington is like Westminster. The people you see talking to you are not the people who wield the actual power. So those power brokers are the one's who Trump has to overcome and not be captured by.

I saw in the press that Trump was going to an evening affair with the Republican Donors. It was a theme night, Heroes and Villains. When asked who he was going as, he replied, "me". I'm pretty sure he thinks he's a hero. Personally I think he might just be the Villain we need.