Leaderboard

Spot on there. We badly need a viable and strong opposition to keep the elected government in check. We also need to know what Labour are for, not just what they're against.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/10/stench-entitlement-now-oozing-from-rishi-sunaks-home-as-well-as-boris-johnsons

Unfortunately we do not have a viable opposition party to the current government nor have had one for several years. Personal attacks to get front benchers to resign rather than offer up ideas, thoughts or processes to help with the current cost of living crisis and world events just underlines that.

Much ado about nothing.

OK, so just thinking about the Rishi Sunak affair, doesn't this bring into focus to what extent a politician should be held accountable for the actions and opinions of their other halves? Do we expect them to be in perfect lockstep, or do we accept they are two separate individuals with their own ideas? I mean supposing Rishi's wife, Akshata Murthy, had refused to change her tax status and gone in front of the cameras to say what she was doing was legal, adding that it was to her financial advantage to keep things as they were, and she wasn't taking orders from anyone, including him? Should Rishi have then immediately resigned? Supposing Jeremy Corbyn's wife, Laura Alvarez, had publicly declared herself a Tory and gone on to say what a huge fan she was of David Cameron or Teresa May? Or if Philip May had criticised his wife for the police cuts back in 2014. Or back in the 80's Denis Thatcher had declared himself left wing and expressed his profound admiration for Karl Marx and Michael Foot. Possible examples are legion. What I don't get in the current instance is why Rishi's own judgement is in question for his wife's personal choices. With some of the sanctimonious crap that's emerging from the media, you might be forgiven for thinking that we'd gone back a long way in time, and she was thought of as a mere chattel, ready to do his bidding at the drop of a hat.

Exactly. Never mind his wife (though you'd have to ask why she doesn't become a full British citizen?), the question is why he had held a US green card when he intended to be full time as a British politician.

But so naive - they must know that the opposition and the tabloids are continually poring over their every move, looking for headlines, like the so-called "parties" and Dominic Cummings' road trip.