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Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by toyg on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @02:43PM (#36960489)
But that's the structural problem with the likes of Sunak being in government: maybe it's all legitimate business, but because of his role it looks bad, and there is no real way to prove it one way or the other.

An honourable person would recuse himself from situations where even the suggestion of impropriety is possible. Sunak should not have been PM to start with.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by penguin_booze on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @03:21PM (#36961180)
> Sunak should not have been PM to start with

Care you expand more? I thought (granted, without any evidence) he's poised better compared to his predecessors. Better in what way? Well, not a clown; lasted more than 45 days -- neither of which, I admit, is not high praise.

So, I thought he was maybe a decent chap. I'd be interested in any pointers au contraire.

Regardless, I agree on the recusal part: Caesar's wife must be above all suspicion.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by toyg on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @05:53PM (#36963666)
This government shouldn't have existed. His predecessors made very clear that the 2019 politic mandate does not exist anymore, and the nominally-majority party is now, reshuffle after purge after reshuffle, bereft of enough competency and political coherence to govern.

The end of Truss should have meant an election, we're all killing time to ensure MPs collect a few more paychecks. The project has been cancelled but the contractors are still here.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by mattzito on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @03:00PM (#36960808)
I'm not from the UK, so I don't have a deep understanding of the dynamics of politics there, but it seems like avoiding all situations where even the suggestion of impropriety is impractical for just about everybody who might be in a position to be PM.

If you're in a position of power, you're going to have relationships where there might be the appearance of impropriety for anything - and you may not even know there would be the suggestion of impropriety until after the fact.

Infosys has 40 clients w/ greater than $100m/year contracts, which they don't enumerate individually, but from skimming the internet, it looks like oil and gas, banking, manufacturing, and tech companies all potentially fit into that bucket - so should he recuse himself from everything that is related to any of those industries?

Before he was married into Infosys, he was a banker and presumably has lots of relationships with these large companies regardless - should he recuse himself from anything that might touch any of those large companies? Not a rhetorical question, I'm trying to understand what the criteria is.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by toyg on Thursday August 03, 2023 @04:27AM (#36982950)
As far as I'm concerned the answer is yes to all those. Which is why he is such a bad candidate for any role of importance in a honest goverment - the fact that he's been Chancellor and PM says a lot about how much his party cares about corruption.
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by ilc on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @02:59PM (#36960804)
You will always have a conflict of interest.

I remember there being a desire to build a concrete plant near my house when I grew up. When the council running the town had to put the meeting in the largest room they had, and people started poking through the whitewashing... it went away.

If I was a member of that zoning panel, I'd still not want it there. But if it is the best spot for the town... I am in conflict of interest.

These type of conflicts happen ALL the time.

People will never be lily white, and have no conflicts. And from what people are saying on the size of the deal, etc.. .it may have been in the works before he became PM. These type of deals don't happen over night.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by toyg on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @05:46PM (#36963561)
That's such a false equivalence. A conflict of interest over trivial matters is inconsequential; one where billions of pounds could change money, it very much is.

People will never be squeaky clean, but from the highest office in the land one must expect better than whiffs of dodgy multi-billion deals. If one can't possibly shake that whiff, s/he shouldn't be in that office.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by sky_rw on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @02:50PM (#36960609)
Yes, honourable politicians get their kickbacks through book deals, inflated speaking fees, and brilliantly timed stock deals. Having a business owner with a transparent revenue source is far less preferable to an honourable politician who's family gets legitimately deserved board seats on foreign energy corporations.
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by hh3k0 on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @02:51PM (#36960637)
> Yes, honourable politicians get their kickbacks through book deals, inflated speaking fees, and brilliantly timed stock deals.

False dilemma.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by rayiner on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @04:03PM (#36961880)
No, because in practice these accusations of corruption get leveled at politicians from business backgrounds, while overlooking financial and non-financial interests on the part of career politicians or academics.

Hilary Clinton’s speaking fees to big banks, or Elizabeth Warren’s connections to academia, are a lot more material to those individuals than Infosys turning a $100 million contract into a $150 million contract is to Sunak.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by toyg on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @05:48PM (#36963595)
And? The two are not exclusive problems, one can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Saying nothing is hypocritical and blaming only one side is tribalistic.

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by dsr_ on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @02:53PM (#36960664)
Those are not the exclusive range of options, so presenting it that way is a bad argument.
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by rayiner on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @02:47PM (#36960558)
So only unsuccessful people—or in this case, people married to people from unsuccessful families—should be in government?
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by olddustytrail on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @03:00PM (#36960820)
It's astonishing that you think that ordinary people in first world countries are "unsuccessful".
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by Valodim on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @03:13PM (#36961028)
It seems fair to compare to folks from the same country in this context, no?
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by olddustytrail on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @03:22PM (#36961197)
Yes, that's fair and the complete opposite of what the person I responded to was doing. What's your point?
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by rayiner on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @03:52PM (#36961699)
“Unremarkable” then? Maybe “undistinguished?” Or “unexceptional?”
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by olddustytrail on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @04:49PM (#36962644)
"ordinary"? "common"? "working class"? "not fitting with the gentry"?

A basic slob like you, you mean?

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by tptacek on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @06:31PM (#36964140)
There are a variety of ways to distinguish oneself, and not all of them are qualifying.
Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by tzs on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @06:54PM (#36964398)
> the likes of Sunak

What does that mean?

Re:Sunak’s family firm signed deal with BP before opening ne... by toyg on Wednesday August 02, 2023 @09:55AM (#36970955)
Multibillionaires from inherited wealth.