As the Guardian puts it:
George Osborne is accused of 'great train snobbery' after journalist says aide told ticket inspector the chancellor 'could not possibly' sit in standard class but could not pay any extra.
It is, yet again, a demand to be trated as an elite at cost to the rest of us.
Day after day the Tories prove they believe in the rights of the 1%.
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Apparently it isn’t the first time he has done it either,
Richard I am not sure about this so at the risk of being shot down. Looking at his ‘function’ rather than the man. He is what third down from the PM as chancellor of the exchequer – a high position of public office so in terms of privacy/ confidentiality and to do his job correctly, also to maintain national security and protection of high level public figures I do not believe he should be in second class. Indeed in many states he would have been in a chauffeur driven car with the police clearing the way. I am not advocating that whatsoever I just feel sometimes we treat our politicians in a way that we would never do so with top executives with their massive pay packages and compensation pay off’s.
The security risk may be higher in first class – more chance of being overheard
Your argument does not stack
Why is there more chance of being overhead in 1st class, generally?
Yes Osborne is a twit, but no one, including you, knows how many people were sitting in that carriage yesterday.
If it was quieter there was more chance of being heard distinctly
That was my point
If he is reading or talking about confidential and/or commercially sensitive information on public transport – whether he is in first or second class – then he is an even bigger idiot than I thought. All this episode demonstrates is the arrogance of the Bullingdon set from which potential leaders of the Tory Party are now drawn.
surely if he pays to go first class it ends up on expenses anyway and the taxpayer picks up the tab? I think Osbourne is loathsome, slimy and incompetent (and I am a conservative by inclination), but I’m not sure that this is a story.
The incident I referred to took place in May this year. Surely if one holds the Office of Chancellor one would expect them to be honest. It certainly makes it more difficult for him to accuse people of being cheats.
All you have to do is to look at their expenses behaviour, past and present, to see how high honesty is placed on the moral scale.
Nothing to see here: Move-on.
If you researched the story in full you would have seen that the Chancellor had taken a train earlier than the one on which he had been booked. On a salary of £150,000 per year and whatever his aide gets paid, then £200 for 2 upgrades sounds like very reasonable value for the time saved, and no i wouldn’t expect anyone, Chancellor or not to stand all the way from Cheshire to London.
For the record, it is worth noting that in this government 16% of all Conservative MP’s have claimed for 1st class travel, as have 33% of LibDem MP’s and 44% of Labour MP’s
Its also worth noting Bernard that 33% of Libs and 44% of Labour MPs arent the Chancellor of the Exchequer!! Osborne is in the hotseat and if he was ‘in touch’ or ‘in it with us together’ he wouldnt have made this gaffe
Only a fool wouldn’t realise how this would look and would pay whatever to avoid this situation.
Maybe Gorge suddenly discovered how grossly overpriced the trains are!
I find it interesting that in the week when MPs are found yet again to have their hand in the till, including several Labour MPs, by renting their properties for their own pockets while simultaneously claiming rental payments expenses (together with the typical associated disgraceful cover up attempt by that odious little Labour scumbag toad Bercow), that you choose instead to highlight the relatively trivial issue of George Osborne’s train ticket. I don’t defend him, but which is really the more significant issue Richard – could it be that it is because he is a Tory that this is the story you chose to comment on, rather than the outright immoral behaviour by several Labour MPs and the Labour Speaker?
@ Roger Rabbit
1) I think you’ll find that Bercow is TORY MP, Roger. Though I agree it was Labour votes that helped put him in the Speaker’s Chair,
2) Ricahrd was only commenting the news as it broke – and in this case, the Ticketgate scandal story broke ahead of the MP’s expenses story.
shame the “story” is nonsense. I am sure that as an honourable man you will retract and apologise following the press release from Virgin Trains.
I believe the story of those who were there