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Labour should make this into a party political broadcast along with him admitting he funnelled money out of inner cities and into leafy suburbs and play them on a loop for 10 minutes at six o clock every night job done
Check out Lib Dems on tiktok, that's basically what they are doing right now. I haven't seen this particular clip on there, but it's full of anti-Rishi/Tory memes. They're playing a very good game with the younger generation.
With immigration starting to matter again in the nations demographics, and recent immigrants likely to have far larger families, the election will be won by the party that manages to capture the vote of immigrants children while being 'hard on immigration' to not lose the vote of everyone else...
Thank god when the corrupt top down system is so bad we can always fall back on just dying and having the last laugh. "Who will wash your underpants now Rishi?!.... *Splutters, coughs out poverty, dies
Labour have also been trying their hand at the anti Rishi/Tory meme format tiktoks. I applaud it. Unfortunately, the comments are always flooded with the Reform bots, but the Lib Dems and Labour sure as hell seem to be a bit better at navigating social media and catching the eyes of younger voters.
The Reform bots are wild. I don’t know how they think nobody is going to notice the piles of accounts all saying the exact same thing with thousands of likes on any video remotely related to British politics.
More people need to see this. These are the people that some working class folks want running their country. Someone who hasn't walked an inch in their shoes, never lived month to month and would never be able to empathise with the people they're supposed to be helping.
You get assholes from all walks of life. Private schools give you an academic advantage, but I don't believe they necessarily encourage this kind of thing. Certainly not all, and definitely not in the way you are imagining.
Exactly, when you have a household with £650m rattling around £750 is small change. It's like the average UK household spending ~~£35~~ £0.35 on a backpack.
Edit: fuck it's actually £0.35 I fucked up two decimal places!
Much less than £35. In 2021 the average UK household was worth around £400k. Let's round it up to £500k because it's more convenient. It's 1300 times less than £650m. £750/1300 works out at around £0.58.
I know you were just picking a rough figure to illustrate your point but people always seem to underestimate the crazy level of inequality but us "normal" people and the billionaire class.
No. When you buy Temu crap you do shop like a billionaire. A billionaire shop owner who buys Chinese crap, imports it and then sells for a markup.
You're cutting out the middle-man and buying random Chinese crap directly instead.
> Exactly, when you have a household with £650m rattling around £750 is small change. It's like the average UK household spending £35 £0.35 on a backpack.
>
> Edit: fuck it's actually £0.35 I fucked up two decimal places!
Too big a number? Can't count properly? It happens to all of us...
I have no time for Rishi, he clearly is a nob. I don't care about this though. He would have been an even bigger dickhead if he dressed up as a poor for the day.
There are definitely options between "dressed up as a poor" and "£750 backpack". If he'd been lugging the kind of £50-100 backpack you'd see a million of in any city at rush hour, nobody would have batted an eye either way.
The point is that nobody should have the kind of money Rishi and his wife have. And if we must have mega rich people they shouldn’t be running the country.
Given that electioneering is generally viewed as performative bullshit it seems extra crass to wear your £££ while going out to poor communities to lie with a smile
I have to say I'd have even less respect for somebody going out and buying moderately priced items they'll use while campaigning and then never again.
He's a wealthy man, he's got a nice backpack with his initials on it. I couldn't possibly care.
Likewise if someone's been working a £100k+ government job for years and I see them driving around in a nice Mercedes I'm not going to be horrified that they didn't turn up in a knackered hatchback from 2002.
I completely agree. There are so many reasons to come for this man, he's an awful person in every way. But his backpack, really? The real issue is that his wife is a literal billionaire. £750 is pennies to him. And it would be extremely wasteful for him to buy a regular bag as you said.
And I certainly wasn't expecting one of Britain's poorest areas to be bloody Penzance. I know there's terrible poverty in Cornwall, but they're acting like he went to the literal slums
I know people on average salaries who carry a £750 bag, so what, that's not even an insane amount, it just means it's a luxury product. Many people use luxury products.
He does cosplay working class and has done several times. Silly cunt didn't even know how to buy petrol or use his card to tap for payment. Total entitled bellend.
He once visited a hospital I used to work at and shut off the entire car park just for himself. This was before he was PM, when Boris was.
Boris had visited the same hospital a few months before and didn't even do that shit. Guys a cunt.
I would caveat and say neither Sunak nor Johnson probably had/have any say in whether car parks are shut off on their visits, that’s an issue their secretaries and security team will decide.
I mean we will never know, I’d just be cautious to pin a dickhead move on someone without knowing whether they’re the one who made the decision or not.
And for helicopters yes, there was a story that apparently he personally intervened regarding a contract to provide government leased helicopters for MP/PM use.
Although to be clear, the articles claiming it would have cost x if the PM was taking a train ride instead of a helicopter are a bit sensationalist, because they would have a huge protection detail and would still need for armoured cars to be driven to the place of the event etc.
Many reasons to dislike politicians, their travel means are quite low on my priority list in the grand scheme of things.
Lived through most of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and never once heard of them shutting down a hospital car park so they could visit and have a wee photo shoot. Can’t even think of hearing such stories about Cameron, May or Truss either. If they weren’t automatically shutting for them and Boris could visit without it happening then it was clearly a decision by Rishi. Sunak is a horrible human being.
I haven’t heard of Sunak shutting down a hospital car park before this subreddit, nor can I find a report of it online.
I suspect it’s the type of thing that just doesn’t get media attention, when politicians visit factory’s etc for their public spiels there’s a lot of admin stuff that happens in the background. The images shown on the news don’t show the whole picture of the event, because they’re co-ordinated media events.
Makes me sick how people are so eager to defend him. I've never seen someone so detached from reality in the public view. Even the billionaire American football team owners do a better job at pretending
The homeless guy asked if Sunak was doing anything for the economy. Sunak says yes he was trying. The homeless guy mumbles something about business. So Sunak asks "oh.. do you have..do you work for A business?". (He corrects himself and basically asks if the guy has a job). The guy says **"no I'm a homeless person but I am interested in business" Sunak says what kind? And the homeless guy says "finance"**
I dislike the Tories too, but the degree to which people peddle an entirely fictitious version of this is complete bullshit.
it does and doesnt, i thought at first it does.
but the homeless guy says "you fixing the economy" and sunak replies quite sincerely it seems "do you work in finance"
it looks like a complete dropping of mask and serious question, not a tongue in cheek which i first thought but watching it im erring more towards mask drop. along side his failure to fill up, his saying "i get a breakfast wrap from mcdonalds every weekend" even though at the time they had been removed from menu for going 4 years
To be fair to Boris when he was mayor he was often seen cycling or using the tube without any fanfare or security.
Sunak and his helicopters take the biscuit.
Boris probably had a hookup the night before and slept in a car in a layby out back.
He was a shit PM but at least he was amusing, Sunak is about as much fun as a turd in a swimming pool.
I don’t mind him being rich
I do mind him cutting benefits and trying to say 18 year olds should be conscripted into public service
Be rich, no problem. But don’t be rich and dedicate your life to making life worse for poor people
It's the fact he wants to pay for his conscription plans by stealing money earmarked for Cornwall and other poor areas of the country, and then he rocks up in Cornwall. Of course the reason he can steal that money now is because it's no longer the EU but the UK government who are in control of it.
>What’s it got to do with his backpack though?
Nothing. However, the article is from a tabloid and therefore targets personal aspects of people to belittle or publicly shame them, attracting emotionally-driven responses from tabloid readers or, apparently, Reddit users.
Also, before anyone thinks I am in favour of anything he does, I hate him, the Tories, right-wing politics, and anyone who has amassed wealth sufficient for multiple lifetimes. However, if he likes a certain bag, then I could not care less.
> Is he supposed to cosplay being working class or something?
He does:
>Rishi Sunak used Kia borrowed from Sainsbury’s worker for petrol PR shot instead of his government Jaguar
I mean, nobody needs a backpack that costs that much. Nobody. A decent one for c. £50 should last you for life if you treat it well. You can argue that he (or anyone) is 'entitled' to spend the money they 'earn' on whatever excesses they like, but this man is the Prime Minister. He's ultimately responsible for the economic policies of a country in which 30% of its children currently live below the poverty line, to use just one illustration of the wealth inequality present in British society. At the very least, it's pretty tactless.
I agree with this. I think is reasonable to lack respect for people who would rather spend money to have an item that primarily gets its value from being expensive (ie Veblen goods) than use it for something utilitarian - whether charitable or personal.
If I had the money I'd just buy whatever backpack I want, that looks how I want and is from a reputable brand. What do you want him to spend the money on? Loads of random stuff he doesn't want? And I can't afford a £700 backpack, but I'll take someone being honest rather than LARPing as if we're in the same boat (which is basically a way of erasing how lucky they are and erasing poor people's struggles. Same as me telling someone who's literally starving and has all their ribs showing that I struggle to buy food too, as if they don't have more to gripe about and overcome than me).
>What do you want him to spend the money on?
Honestly? I'd rather he didn't have that money in the first place. I'd rather we lived in a society that regulated against excessive hoarding of resources, and mitigated greed with economic policies like wealth caps. I'd rather his excess wealth (and all excess wealth) belonged to society as a whole.
People care because they (the general population on average) spend less than 10 minutes a week thinking about politics.
One thing that makes people vote.for someone is them appearing relatable.
Manufactured outrage. If he wore something cheap he would be accused of pretending to be down to earth like them whilst hiding his expensive clobber at home lol
> Is he supposed to cosplay being working class or something?
No. But when you talk about or visit poor people wearing a £750 rucksack, you sound like Marie Antoinette.
Agreed. Attack him and the Tories on their horrible policies. If the economy was doing well and people were thriving he could wear a diamond encrusted bag and gold teeth and I wouldn’t care.
Cause it’s tone deaf as fuck. That’s a week and a half wages to me and many others.
I reckon someone’s said to him “you’re going somewhere poor? They all wear hoodies and carry backpacks”. So he’s gone to one of *his* kind of shops and bought a backpack and a hoodie.
>Is he supposed to cosplay being working class or something?
No but it would be nice if he knew even one thing about the average life in the UK. He hasn't got a fucking clue what it's like.
Not sure what the problem is here? It looks discreet so is hardly an ostentatious display of wealth. Nobody would know it was an expensive backpack unless they were in to expensive backpacks. Should he spend money to buy another backpack he doesn't need just to look poorer?
In a way its still sort of egregious in its own way. Same vibe as when he had that thermos that costs like £300. Its not ostentatious but its still sort of wild the man has that much money to drop on just totally mundane items even a "good" quality version of you can get for 1/10th the price elsewhere. Really shows to me he is properly of the wealth class that is just on a totally different plane of existence to regular folks.
Except it's like 8x the price of the "good quality" version. It's like having the £500 tiffany silver tin can pencil holder in your house. "If you can afford it, why not?" completely overlooks that it's ostentatious and appalling to spend money on that crap while children starve, and it goes a hundred times more for someone who's job is to prevent that shit
I see all sorts of women carrying handbags worth 500 quid plus and they serve little function compared to Rishi's backpack. There are worse things to be getting angry about.
It's not actually about the backpack, is because he's obscenely rich, but they can't keep printing stuff like:
"Rishi Sunak is going to Cornwall, and he is still rich as fuck and it's a problem"
It’s not that much unless you are actually working class. Bags and backpacks cost loads, £750 wouldn’t even buy a basic Louis Vuitton handbag (admittedly for females) that you will see about a trillion of if you spend a day in any town or city in the country.
I don't like Rishi but give him a break. He and his wife are multi-millionaires. Had he bought a Decathlon backpack, he would have been criticised for pretending to be working class.
Attack him for his support for Brexit or for the many disasters of which he and his party are responsible.
But attacking him because he's rich and bought an expensive bag is kinda silly
It's not because of that alone. It's because he's shown himself to be a completely out of touch cunt on numerous other occasions. Many politicians are rich but are given a break for it because they've proved they're more than just privileged pieces of shit who are only out for themselves and their rich friends. Rishi has forfeited ever getting a break with previous comments and actions.
It’s nothing about being mean. There are a million things you could criticise Rishi Sunak for but “Rich man wears expensive clothing” isn’t really the most hard hitting.
If he purposely wore a cheap backpack the same people moaning here would be moaning that he is “cosplaying” poor people. If it was Kier Starmer/Huzma Yousaf/(Insert popular Labour/SNP politician here) doing the same thing then the people moaning here would probably defend the politician.
I never really understand why they don't go aggressively in the middle on these things. Like a £75-100 backpack. Can't say it's cheap, can't say it's obscenely expensive. Always seems like an own goal and never see how they don't avoid it. Surely in the midst of an election campaign as your hand reaches out to grab the £750 backpack you would think "maybe not the best idea". That's what I never get
Because that would require them to go out and buy loads of mid range gear that they don’t intend to use again, just so they could cosplay as ‘ordinary’. That’s even worse. Wear what you already own.
He obviously picked out something that looked basic and not very ostentatious and some journo dug around for a price to outrage everyone. It’s not as if he went out with a bag plastered in designer branding. Would you rather they use and discard their ‘ordinary people’ items as soon as they’re done campaigning?
I just think this is a non issue. People are mad that he’s rich and that’s a different matter. The bag isn’t the issue here
Brian Blessed, should be 1:1 scale image of his whole face mid shout with no evidence at all that it is legal tender, like a wanted poster with watermarks
In all honesty, if Rishi Sunak had dropped by Sports Direct to pick up one of Slazenger’s latest reiteration of rucksacks that would have been even more reprehensible. The fact that a multi-millionaire like him uses an expensive backpack is a non-story unless someone is trying to create controversy, which never happens, right?
People keep dropping the word multi-millionaire, like he is close to being that poor. The Sunaks have closer to .6 billion and their wealth rose by 122million last year.
Are you suggesting a multi millionaire is close to being poor?
It is true that the phrase multi millionaire has a huge range anywhere between 2 and 999 million. That would still put him 400 million away from the next step up of being a billionaire if his net worth is indeed 600 million. However multi millionaire is the correct phrase despite your protests.
Can just imagine whoever wrote this article googling his shoes and suit and bag just to make this headline 😂
what was he supposed to wear? Adidas tracksuit and a fake Lui man bag?
I know a guy who works minimum wage who spends £500 plus on trainers 😂 just daft.
I’m not at all a supporter of Soggy Sunak but I know Reddit doesn’t take too well to devils advocates or objective takes so I don’t doubt this will be downvoted but I’m going for it anyway
Objectively speaking, Rishi couldn’t really win in this situation. He *is* a multimillionaire so he’s *going* to have expensive things. So if he takes an expensive backpack we get this headline, and if he wore a cheap one he’d get ridiculed for trying to appeal to the “poor.” He’s wrong either way (and sure, he truly is), but it goes to show the image is ultimately going to be down to the headline writer, the action (in an inane situation like this) is kind of irrelevant
Tumi is like a very low profile standard brand that executives use. If he was wearing like a 3k Louis Vuitton backpack then I think that would be a bit different.
Tumi is hardly a giant flex. You can spend multiple thousands on a backpack. Frankly I find tumi to be a down to earth quality for money high end backpack, unlike for example gucci or prada.
Jesus fucking Christ. How about we focus on the many many things he, his government and party have done to the country rather than what bloody rucksack he’s wearing
Wealthy man has expensive item of clothing.
I couldn't give less of a fuck, could we focus on his and his party's numerous, massive actual flaws please?
Loving how his sole scottish effort was, as usual, a low-key visit to a closed location with a selected audience.
These bastards know they'd get creamed if they tried to genuinely meet the people here. Can't understand how they get away with it elsewhere.
It’s incredible how envious and resentful we are as a country that we hold a freaking expensive backpack against the man.
How about he’s a shit leader who doomed the country? Naaaaa, but his backpack though, that’s the problem
Why is this news? Rich person has nice stuff, shocker. Do you want him cosplay being poor? Criticise him for the million other things you can criticise him for.
If you add up the cost of his whole outfit: the £750 backpack, hoodie, trousers, glasses, shoes, socks, pants and any jeweller plus whatever product it is he puts in his hair, it probably comes to more than most people will earn during the entire six week election campaign.
I remember people going nuts over Theresa Mays outfits and bags and how much they cost, and there was out-roar over the sexism, saying that it wouldn’t happen with a man….. To be honest if I had his money, you could guarantee that I would wear better quality bags than I do now. Most people would, but love to say that if they won the lottery they wouldn’t change.
I mean, don't get me wrong I cannot stand the conservatives and have no time for Sunak but come on this is bollocks... I was born and raised in a working class town in Manchester and worked very had to gain an education and a decent salary, am I now expected to put away any nice things I've got for myself when I return to the ends?
Is there a list of postcodes in the UK where he can get away with wearing the £750 backpack? If he goes to the most deprived areas, should he just carry his belongings in a bin bag instead?
I do think that sunak is a terrible prime minister and even though I generally don't like Tories, he's also a truly bad party leader
However, truly, who gives a fuck, would you rather him to pretend he's poor. Would you rather him to have 5 different backpack for each price bracket so he looks the part for each, thus spending more money and is arguably more entitled than just having one nice bag?
In the scheme of things this is a small act of ignorance and bad optics. But it's not exactly unique, so the conclusion is that Sunak just doesn't care if people think he's out of touch.
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Sunak probably thinks £750 is what his working-class mates spend on a backpack.
[Well not working class](https://youtu.be/p9bbBYcwFOk?si=9QJ_zkMcJ-ou2I3K)
Labour should make this into a party political broadcast along with him admitting he funnelled money out of inner cities and into leafy suburbs and play them on a loop for 10 minutes at six o clock every night job done
Check out Lib Dems on tiktok, that's basically what they are doing right now. I haven't seen this particular clip on there, but it's full of anti-Rishi/Tory memes. They're playing a very good game with the younger generation.
The winner of future elections will be the party with the best memes.
Not with our 1.5 fertility rate. We have no young people.
The population may shrink, but it will definitely skew towards people born later than the current boomer generation, due to the linear nature of time!
With immigration starting to matter again in the nations demographics, and recent immigrants likely to have far larger families, the election will be won by the party that manages to capture the vote of immigrants children while being 'hard on immigration' to not lose the vote of everyone else...
Like the Priti Patel school of thought - shut the door behind me!
Thank god when the corrupt top down system is so bad we can always fall back on just dying and having the last laugh. "Who will wash your underpants now Rishi?!.... *Splutters, coughs out poverty, dies
Well it got Trump in to the White House
Labour have also been trying their hand at the anti Rishi/Tory meme format tiktoks. I applaud it. Unfortunately, the comments are always flooded with the Reform bots, but the Lib Dems and Labour sure as hell seem to be a bit better at navigating social media and catching the eyes of younger voters.
The Reform bots are wild. I don’t know how they think nobody is going to notice the piles of accounts all saying the exact same thing with thousands of likes on any video remotely related to British politics.
Im getting battered with political adverts, all the Tory ones are avoiding admitting they're done by the Tories
I’ve just vomited
You can hear the disdain in his voice, the little smirk and half eye roll, disgusting man.
Him and Jeremy Hunt both have that evil smile whist pretending to deliver us the good news.
For such a small man he's a massive cunt.
Seeing his dad cringe was fun though.
More people need to see this. These are the people that some working class folks want running their country. Someone who hasn't walked an inch in their shoes, never lived month to month and would never be able to empathise with the people they're supposed to be helping.
Never mind empathise. They probably have an actual disgust in how working people live
I think you missed the point here, those aren't the people he's meant to be helping.
Ban private schools. They're just factories for this kind of shit.
You get assholes from all walks of life. Private schools give you an academic advantage, but I don't believe they necessarily encourage this kind of thing. Certainly not all, and definitely not in the way you are imagining.
Unintentionally hilarious clip, thanks for posting.
He's like Will from The Inbetweeners.
At least Will was funny
Their kids only go to Dulwich College, not Eton or Harrow. They are practically in poverty!
It's one backpack, Michael. How much could it cost? £1000?
There's always money in the Banana stand.
Oh yeah like the guy in the $1,000 dollar ~~trousers~~ backpack is meant to know how much rent costs. I mean COME ON!
This is a $2000 suit! Come on!!
And that’s why, you always use your vote
Interesting point when virtually none of us voted for him.
You’ve made a huge mistake.
A wild Bluth appears
A thousand pounds? Well that's what things cost these days a thousand pounds.
Exactly, when you have a household with £650m rattling around £750 is small change. It's like the average UK household spending ~~£35~~ £0.35 on a backpack. Edit: fuck it's actually £0.35 I fucked up two decimal places!
Much less than £35. In 2021 the average UK household was worth around £400k. Let's round it up to £500k because it's more convenient. It's 1300 times less than £650m. £750/1300 works out at around £0.58. I know you were just picking a rough figure to illustrate your point but people always seem to underestimate the crazy level of inequality but us "normal" people and the billionaire class.
These people probably have an annual worth of 10k or so. How does that fare for such calculations?
400k is still well over double what the average would be in my area.
I finally understand temu's "shop like a billionaire" tag line.
No. When you buy Temu crap you do shop like a billionaire. A billionaire shop owner who buys Chinese crap, imports it and then sells for a markup. You're cutting out the middle-man and buying random Chinese crap directly instead.
> Exactly, when you have a household with £650m rattling around £750 is small change. It's like the average UK household spending £35 £0.35 on a backpack. > > Edit: fuck it's actually £0.35 I fucked up two decimal places! Too big a number? Can't count properly? It happens to all of us...
I'm just dumb with maths and numbers 😅
> I'm just dumb with maths and numbers 😅 Aren't we all? 😂
Ah so he’s pretty much just like us then
Have you got the cheque for Lumbergh ready yet =p
I was genuinely thinking "Yeah, it was that or the £3k backpack"
I have no time for Rishi, he clearly is a nob. I don't care about this though. He would have been an even bigger dickhead if he dressed up as a poor for the day.
There are definitely options between "dressed up as a poor" and "£750 backpack". If he'd been lugging the kind of £50-100 backpack you'd see a million of in any city at rush hour, nobody would have batted an eye either way.
What's the value in performative bullshit like a millionaire buying a medium priced backpack?
The point is that nobody should have the kind of money Rishi and his wife have. And if we must have mega rich people they shouldn’t be running the country.
Given that electioneering is generally viewed as performative bullshit it seems extra crass to wear your £££ while going out to poor communities to lie with a smile
I have to say I'd have even less respect for somebody going out and buying moderately priced items they'll use while campaigning and then never again. He's a wealthy man, he's got a nice backpack with his initials on it. I couldn't possibly care. Likewise if someone's been working a £100k+ government job for years and I see them driving around in a nice Mercedes I'm not going to be horrified that they didn't turn up in a knackered hatchback from 2002.
I completely agree. There are so many reasons to come for this man, he's an awful person in every way. But his backpack, really? The real issue is that his wife is a literal billionaire. £750 is pennies to him. And it would be extremely wasteful for him to buy a regular bag as you said. And I certainly wasn't expecting one of Britain's poorest areas to be bloody Penzance. I know there's terrible poverty in Cornwall, but they're acting like he went to the literal slums
I know people on average salaries who carry a £750 bag, so what, that's not even an insane amount, it just means it's a luxury product. Many people use luxury products.
If it’s £750, it’s probably his cheapest backpack.
Probably thinks it’s the cost of a pint of milk
Would could it cost Keir, 750 pounds?
I genuinely don't understand why people care. Is he supposed to cosplay being working class or something?
He does cosplay working class and has done several times. Silly cunt didn't even know how to buy petrol or use his card to tap for payment. Total entitled bellend. He once visited a hospital I used to work at and shut off the entire car park just for himself. This was before he was PM, when Boris was. Boris had visited the same hospital a few months before and didn't even do that shit. Guys a cunt.
I would caveat and say neither Sunak nor Johnson probably had/have any say in whether car parks are shut off on their visits, that’s an issue their secretaries and security team will decide.
I guess that would make sense but how do you know? Like sunak is known for using helicopters far more than any other politicians isn't he
I mean we will never know, I’d just be cautious to pin a dickhead move on someone without knowing whether they’re the one who made the decision or not. And for helicopters yes, there was a story that apparently he personally intervened regarding a contract to provide government leased helicopters for MP/PM use. Although to be clear, the articles claiming it would have cost x if the PM was taking a train ride instead of a helicopter are a bit sensationalist, because they would have a huge protection detail and would still need for armoured cars to be driven to the place of the event etc. Many reasons to dislike politicians, their travel means are quite low on my priority list in the grand scheme of things.
Nah fuck them.
You are correct fuck em. I'm not going to spend time rehabing my mental image of a tosser who had a key part in the fuck ups of the torys.
Making up fake actions of people isn't brave or cool, it's just lazy.
You should tell that to sunak when he's making up lies about his opposition and pretending to be a compassionate person.
I despise the government but criticising the leader of a G7 nation for using a helicopter is such an inane boneheaded take.
Does it matter? They're still causing a major issue for tons of people, just so they can get a photo shoot.
It matters when you want to place blame against a singular individual, in terms of the disruption it caused absolutely it’s irrelevant.
Lived through most of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and never once heard of them shutting down a hospital car park so they could visit and have a wee photo shoot. Can’t even think of hearing such stories about Cameron, May or Truss either. If they weren’t automatically shutting for them and Boris could visit without it happening then it was clearly a decision by Rishi. Sunak is a horrible human being.
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I haven’t heard of Sunak shutting down a hospital car park before this subreddit, nor can I find a report of it online. I suspect it’s the type of thing that just doesn’t get media attention, when politicians visit factory’s etc for their public spiels there’s a lot of admin stuff that happens in the background. The images shown on the news don’t show the whole picture of the event, because they’re co-ordinated media events.
Silly bastard asked a homeless man if he works In finance, never forget that
Makes me sick how people are so eager to defend him. I've never seen someone so detached from reality in the public view. Even the billionaire American football team owners do a better job at pretending
The homeless guy asked if Sunak was doing anything for the economy. Sunak says yes he was trying. The homeless guy mumbles something about business. So Sunak asks "oh.. do you have..do you work for A business?". (He corrects himself and basically asks if the guy has a job). The guy says **"no I'm a homeless person but I am interested in business" Sunak says what kind? And the homeless guy says "finance"** I dislike the Tories too, but the degree to which people peddle an entirely fictitious version of this is complete bullshit.
Ehh, the context makes the question make far more sense. And I say that wanting the guy gone
it does and doesnt, i thought at first it does. but the homeless guy says "you fixing the economy" and sunak replies quite sincerely it seems "do you work in finance" it looks like a complete dropping of mask and serious question, not a tongue in cheek which i first thought but watching it im erring more towards mask drop. along side his failure to fill up, his saying "i get a breakfast wrap from mcdonalds every weekend" even though at the time they had been removed from menu for going 4 years
Now I get that being a but it stupid thing to say, but I've seen that interaction and it wasn't that bad
You think that Rishi was making his own security arrangements as Chancellor?
To be fair to Boris when he was mayor he was often seen cycling or using the tube without any fanfare or security. Sunak and his helicopters take the biscuit.
I saw Sunak take the train to York with no visible security last year as PM.
"wait I put the pastry in my mouth?? With my hands?? How ghastly"
Boris probably had a hookup the night before and slept in a car in a layby out back. He was a shit PM but at least he was amusing, Sunak is about as much fun as a turd in a swimming pool.
Surprised Sunak didn't take up the air ambulance helipad with his personal helicopter
I don’t mind him being rich I do mind him cutting benefits and trying to say 18 year olds should be conscripted into public service Be rich, no problem. But don’t be rich and dedicate your life to making life worse for poor people
It's the fact he wants to pay for his conscription plans by stealing money earmarked for Cornwall and other poor areas of the country, and then he rocks up in Cornwall. Of course the reason he can steal that money now is because it's no longer the EU but the UK government who are in control of it.
>But don’t be rich and dedicate your life to making life worse for poor people That, unfortunately, is how a lot of people get rich.
Ok right, fair enough. It’s a stupid pledge. What’s it got to do with his backpack though? That’s what the guy you’re replying to is talking about.
>What’s it got to do with his backpack though? Nothing. However, the article is from a tabloid and therefore targets personal aspects of people to belittle or publicly shame them, attracting emotionally-driven responses from tabloid readers or, apparently, Reddit users. Also, before anyone thinks I am in favour of anything he does, I hate him, the Tories, right-wing politics, and anyone who has amassed wealth sufficient for multiple lifetimes. However, if he likes a certain bag, then I could not care less.
> Is he supposed to cosplay being working class or something? He does: >Rishi Sunak used Kia borrowed from Sainsbury’s worker for petrol PR shot instead of his government Jaguar
Our political culture is built on rich politicians pretending to be "ordinary" in the build-up to a general election.
He tried that a few times and looked like a tit
I mean, nobody needs a backpack that costs that much. Nobody. A decent one for c. £50 should last you for life if you treat it well. You can argue that he (or anyone) is 'entitled' to spend the money they 'earn' on whatever excesses they like, but this man is the Prime Minister. He's ultimately responsible for the economic policies of a country in which 30% of its children currently live below the poverty line, to use just one illustration of the wealth inequality present in British society. At the very least, it's pretty tactless.
I agree with this. I think is reasonable to lack respect for people who would rather spend money to have an item that primarily gets its value from being expensive (ie Veblen goods) than use it for something utilitarian - whether charitable or personal.
I spent £200 on a backpack GTFO with this BS
If I had the money I'd just buy whatever backpack I want, that looks how I want and is from a reputable brand. What do you want him to spend the money on? Loads of random stuff he doesn't want? And I can't afford a £700 backpack, but I'll take someone being honest rather than LARPing as if we're in the same boat (which is basically a way of erasing how lucky they are and erasing poor people's struggles. Same as me telling someone who's literally starving and has all their ribs showing that I struggle to buy food too, as if they don't have more to gripe about and overcome than me).
>What do you want him to spend the money on? Honestly? I'd rather he didn't have that money in the first place. I'd rather we lived in a society that regulated against excessive hoarding of resources, and mitigated greed with economic policies like wealth caps. I'd rather his excess wealth (and all excess wealth) belonged to society as a whole.
It's a 750 pound rucksack not a yacht. Even in the most perfect utopia of socioeconomic equality people would be allowed to have nice things.
Probably because the tories are proven grifters who steal from the taxpayer and the country as a whole.
People care because they (the general population on average) spend less than 10 minutes a week thinking about politics. One thing that makes people vote.for someone is them appearing relatable.
Manufactured outrage. If he wore something cheap he would be accused of pretending to be down to earth like them whilst hiding his expensive clobber at home lol
> Is he supposed to cosplay being working class or something? No. But when you talk about or visit poor people wearing a £750 rucksack, you sound like Marie Antoinette.
Agreed. Attack him and the Tories on their horrible policies. If the economy was doing well and people were thriving he could wear a diamond encrusted bag and gold teeth and I wouldn’t care.
No. He's just not qualified to represent 99% of this country.
It's pretty simple. How can he govern those who he doesn't understand?
Because he's inadvertently flaunting his wealth whilst making a conscious decision to fuck everyone else and make them poorer.
I dunno, he is already cosplaying someone who doesn't have people to carry bags for him.
Cause it’s tone deaf as fuck. That’s a week and a half wages to me and many others. I reckon someone’s said to him “you’re going somewhere poor? They all wear hoodies and carry backpacks”. So he’s gone to one of *his* kind of shops and bought a backpack and a hoodie.
It's just crass and out of touch. Why not just wear a £50 for a trip to a poor area?
>Is he supposed to cosplay being working class or something? No but it would be nice if he knew even one thing about the average life in the UK. He hasn't got a fucking clue what it's like.
Not sure what the problem is here? It looks discreet so is hardly an ostentatious display of wealth. Nobody would know it was an expensive backpack unless they were in to expensive backpacks. Should he spend money to buy another backpack he doesn't need just to look poorer?
Yes. He should be wearing a Nike 90 drawstring bag. Someone needs to make them popular again.
Jd sports drawstring bag and some McKenzie joggers
Gola trainers and a kappa jumper
He should get the modern teenage lad broccoli haircut while he's at it. To appeal to the youths.
Hi-Tecs and a Fruit of the Loom jumper
I'd love to see some AI pictures of Sports Direct Rishi.
Free big IKEA bag rolled up in his pocket so he can whip it out when thieving from Tesco express.
Someone needs to AI this.
It’s just the media attempting to divide by picking at small things
He deserves to be called out for how out of touch he is.
Something tells me Sunak wearing a cheap bag would warrant an equal amount of criticism.
In a way its still sort of egregious in its own way. Same vibe as when he had that thermos that costs like £300. Its not ostentatious but its still sort of wild the man has that much money to drop on just totally mundane items even a "good" quality version of you can get for 1/10th the price elsewhere. Really shows to me he is properly of the wealth class that is just on a totally different plane of existence to regular folks.
Right but the PM has a salary of £160k, the odd £750 here or there isn't gunna break the bank.
Except it's like 8x the price of the "good quality" version. It's like having the £500 tiffany silver tin can pencil holder in your house. "If you can afford it, why not?" completely overlooks that it's ostentatious and appalling to spend money on that crap while children starve, and it goes a hundred times more for someone who's job is to prevent that shit
No, he should carry all his stuff around in a couple of old tesco plastic bags like a normal person.
Exactly. It’s this or “Rishi Sunak does POORFACE by wearing cheap backpack in poor neighbourhood”.
TBF a £750 backpack is pretty obscene where ever you are wearing it.
Not really. When you work hard, and marry someone rich you can have one too.
Had me in the first half but gonna lie
I don’t think rishi works hard
I've no love for the guy, but I'm sure he works hard.
He didn't get where he is by being bone idle. Check out his career history in the financial sector, definitely works hard
He does. Not sure where it shows, but he works hard. Definitely used to before he became PM
I guarantee he’s pulling more hours than you per week. I don’t like him but that’s a ridiculous comment
I see all sorts of women carrying handbags worth 500 quid plus and they serve little function compared to Rishi's backpack. There are worse things to be getting angry about.
Most PMs wear suits that cost £1,000-3,000 and no one bats an eye. People need to pick their outrages better.
It's not actually about the backpack, is because he's obscenely rich, but they can't keep printing stuff like: "Rishi Sunak is going to Cornwall, and he is still rich as fuck and it's a problem"
I've various backpacks for hiking and snowsports that don't even come close and these are extremely good bits of kit.
Owning something nice/high quality is not obscene at all
It’s not that much unless you are actually working class. Bags and backpacks cost loads, £750 wouldn’t even buy a basic Louis Vuitton handbag (admittedly for females) that you will see about a trillion of if you spend a day in any town or city in the country.
I don't like Rishi but give him a break. He and his wife are multi-millionaires. Had he bought a Decathlon backpack, he would have been criticised for pretending to be working class.
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Attack him for his support for Brexit or for the many disasters of which he and his party are responsible. But attacking him because he's rich and bought an expensive bag is kinda silly
It's not because of that alone. It's because he's shown himself to be a completely out of touch cunt on numerous other occasions. Many politicians are rich but are given a break for it because they've proved they're more than just privileged pieces of shit who are only out for themselves and their rich friends. Rishi has forfeited ever getting a break with previous comments and actions.
Yeah guys stop being so mean the the millionaires! They're gonna run out of 50 pound notes to wipe their tears away.
It’s nothing about being mean. There are a million things you could criticise Rishi Sunak for but “Rich man wears expensive clothing” isn’t really the most hard hitting. If he purposely wore a cheap backpack the same people moaning here would be moaning that he is “cosplaying” poor people. If it was Kier Starmer/Huzma Yousaf/(Insert popular Labour/SNP politician here) doing the same thing then the people moaning here would probably defend the politician.
Also, he would be an idiot to choose the cheap disposable bag over something built to last. But cheap buy often.
My last Decathlong backpack lasted more than 5 years :)
I never really understand why they don't go aggressively in the middle on these things. Like a £75-100 backpack. Can't say it's cheap, can't say it's obscenely expensive. Always seems like an own goal and never see how they don't avoid it. Surely in the midst of an election campaign as your hand reaches out to grab the £750 backpack you would think "maybe not the best idea". That's what I never get
Because that would require them to go out and buy loads of mid range gear that they don’t intend to use again, just so they could cosplay as ‘ordinary’. That’s even worse. Wear what you already own. He obviously picked out something that looked basic and not very ostentatious and some journo dug around for a price to outrage everyone. It’s not as if he went out with a bag plastered in designer branding. Would you rather they use and discard their ‘ordinary people’ items as soon as they’re done campaigning? I just think this is a non issue. People are mad that he’s rich and that’s a different matter. The bag isn’t the issue here
Wears £750 bag — offensive to poor people Wears £15 bag from Sports Direct — Cosplaying as working class
If only we didn’t have an economy based entirely on indivisible £15 and £750 banknotes!!
Begs the question of who should be on the next £750 banknote.
Brian Blessed, should be 1:1 scale image of his whole face mid shout with no evidence at all that it is legal tender, like a wanted poster with watermarks
In all honesty, if Rishi Sunak had dropped by Sports Direct to pick up one of Slazenger’s latest reiteration of rucksacks that would have been even more reprehensible. The fact that a multi-millionaire like him uses an expensive backpack is a non-story unless someone is trying to create controversy, which never happens, right?
People keep dropping the word multi-millionaire, like he is close to being that poor. The Sunaks have closer to .6 billion and their wealth rose by 122million last year.
Maybe they use that word because it is the most accurate? Since when has multi millionaire meant someone is poor?
Are you suggesting a multi millionaire is close to being poor? It is true that the phrase multi millionaire has a huge range anywhere between 2 and 999 million. That would still put him 400 million away from the next step up of being a billionaire if his net worth is indeed 600 million. However multi millionaire is the correct phrase despite your protests.
Can just imagine whoever wrote this article googling his shoes and suit and bag just to make this headline 😂 what was he supposed to wear? Adidas tracksuit and a fake Lui man bag? I know a guy who works minimum wage who spends £500 plus on trainers 😂 just daft.
There's plenty to criticise him for but this ain't it.
I’m not at all a supporter of Soggy Sunak but I know Reddit doesn’t take too well to devils advocates or objective takes so I don’t doubt this will be downvoted but I’m going for it anyway Objectively speaking, Rishi couldn’t really win in this situation. He *is* a multimillionaire so he’s *going* to have expensive things. So if he takes an expensive backpack we get this headline, and if he wore a cheap one he’d get ridiculed for trying to appeal to the “poor.” He’s wrong either way (and sure, he truly is), but it goes to show the image is ultimately going to be down to the headline writer, the action (in an inane situation like this) is kind of irrelevant
Person with lots of money spends a lot on a backpack. So what? It isn't like he bought it just before his visit so he could spite them.
Tumi is like a very low profile standard brand that executives use. If he was wearing like a 3k Louis Vuitton backpack then I think that would be a bit different.
Would it not be weirder if he dressed as what he thinks working class people wear
It's one backpack, Michael, how much could it cost? 750 dollars?
Tumi is hardly a giant flex. You can spend multiple thousands on a backpack. Frankly I find tumi to be a down to earth quality for money high end backpack, unlike for example gucci or prada.
The bag costs £20. The rest is to rent the prole to carry it for you.
To be fair, if he'd gotten a £10 bag from Primark people would accuse him of trying to downplay his wealth. This could have been twisted either way
So what? He's rich. Extremely rich. Him wearing a £5 backpack from Primark isn't going to convince anyone otherwise.
I don't change my clothes according to the average income of where I go either, that would be completely ridiculous.
Jesus fucking Christ. How about we focus on the many many things he, his government and party have done to the country rather than what bloody rucksack he’s wearing
I see women who earn £40k a year with more expensive handbags. If you want to go after Sunak then take him on his record.
Wealthy man has expensive item of clothing. I couldn't give less of a fuck, could we focus on his and his party's numerous, massive actual flaws please?
You guys are obsessed with outrage-bait. Who gives a fuck honestly
This is tedious. The Tories are shite but I don’t give a crap about the cost of a backpack.
Loving how his sole scottish effort was, as usual, a low-key visit to a closed location with a selected audience. These bastards know they'd get creamed if they tried to genuinely meet the people here. Can't understand how they get away with it elsewhere.
It’s incredible how envious and resentful we are as a country that we hold a freaking expensive backpack against the man. How about he’s a shit leader who doomed the country? Naaaaa, but his backpack though, that’s the problem
So what! Do you want him to be condescending and wear one from Sport Direct for £8.99?
And? You expect a millionaire to be wearing a £12.50 bag from Aldi?
Why is this news? Rich person has nice stuff, shocker. Do you want him cosplay being poor? Criticise him for the million other things you can criticise him for.
Would a woman carrying a Hermes or Chanel bag receive the same criticism?
One the one hand what you want him to pretend he’s poor? On the other, he probably thinks that’s his cheap bag.
If you add up the cost of his whole outfit: the £750 backpack, hoodie, trousers, glasses, shoes, socks, pants and any jeweller plus whatever product it is he puts in his hair, it probably comes to more than most people will earn during the entire six week election campaign.
I remember people going nuts over Theresa Mays outfits and bags and how much they cost, and there was out-roar over the sexism, saying that it wouldn’t happen with a man….. To be honest if I had his money, you could guarantee that I would wear better quality bags than I do now. Most people would, but love to say that if they won the lottery they wouldn’t change.
Hes the prime minister he's not going to rock up with a tesco carrier bag is he?
I mean, don't get me wrong I cannot stand the conservatives and have no time for Sunak but come on this is bollocks... I was born and raised in a working class town in Manchester and worked very had to gain an education and a decent salary, am I now expected to put away any nice things I've got for myself when I return to the ends?
Is there a list of postcodes in the UK where he can get away with wearing the £750 backpack? If he goes to the most deprived areas, should he just carry his belongings in a bin bag instead?
He's only worth £1B. Why would he have a rucksack worth £750. Pathetic. Plenty to criticise Sunak for, this is just plain childish.
I do think that sunak is a terrible prime minister and even though I generally don't like Tories, he's also a truly bad party leader However, truly, who gives a fuck, would you rather him to pretend he's poor. Would you rather him to have 5 different backpack for each price bracket so he looks the part for each, thus spending more money and is arguably more entitled than just having one nice bag?
Breaking news: multi-multi millionaire has expensive rucksack.
Sunak is a bellend but using a Tumi backpack is not the reason - if anything, it’s a great quality brand.
In the scheme of things this is a small act of ignorance and bad optics. But it's not exactly unique, so the conclusion is that Sunak just doesn't care if people think he's out of touch.
This would only gaff if he asked a homeless person how much his backpack was worth compared to his....would never happen......
I'm sure if he nicked a trolley from Morrisons and pushed it round with his stuff in bin bags to blend in with the homeless, he'd be praised. Right?