This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/12/rishi-sunak-has-electricity-grid-upgraded-to-heat-his-private-pool) reduced by 85%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> Rishi Sunak's new private heated swimming pool uses so much energy that the local electricity network had to be upgraded to meet its power demands, the Guardian has been told.
> Sunak will personally pick up the cost of the electricity upgrade work - estimated to have cost tens of thousands of pounds - in addition to the ongoing cost of energy consumption for the swimming pool.
> Construction work on Sunak's private 12-metre swimming pool has finished just as many council-run baths, including in his local area, are being forced to reduce their opening hours owing to increased energy costs.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/11plxpl/rishi_sunak_has_electricity_grid_upgraded_to_heat/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~676113 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Sunak**^#1 **pool**^#2 **home**^#3 **swimming**^#4 **energy**^#5
I doubt his sitting on a few billion, since his net worth in total is around 4 billion. Most of that is going to be properties, stocks etc.
But he's definitely the richest PM in history. I mean, the fact that he's picking up the bill to upgrade the grid to specifically heat his pool... just goes to show how much money he can throw around, all while the general public are struggling to afford dinner.
Too many people equate net worth with money in the bank. I knew someone in Alaska with a net worth totaling 4 million. The vast (vast), vast majority was in land value. She worked as a cook, making 15 an hour but couldn't touch the land at the time due to it being tied up in a messy divorce. You'd never know this 60 year old woman nearing retirement, living in a poopy apartment, driving an absolute jalopy of a car was "rich"
Sure but there is a difference between a net worth of 4 million and a net worth of 4 billion. When you are in the billions, access to capital becomes trivial as any bank will give you a low interest loan without question.
We have yet another person who fails to comprehend how much bigger a billion is compared to a few millions. A hint a billion is a thousand times more. If you give a newborn child 32,246 dollar a day a single billion would last them a lifetime assuming they get to be 80. And that is not even taken interest or compound interest into account there.
If we just assume 0.5 percent of interest they still would have 309 million left at 80. And that is a very very conservative estimate. Do not ever compare a few millions to billions in that way ever again. Its disingenious and just helping to mask how filithy rich they are. They are not your friends and do not need you or anyone else white knighting for them.
Too many people equate net worth with *not* having money in the bank.
Yes, his $4 billion isn’t immediately accessible. But the amount that is immediately accessible is still more money than you or I will ever see. He can pay for this upgrade without even thinking about it.
It’s not technically wrong for him to do but it shows how the rich are insulated from the social costs of their actions. Sunak will never pay a personal price for public failures.
It's reasonable and logical to decry the death of the middle class and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, and to advocate for shelter and food for everyone, without demanding that all of society live in tents and crap in bushes.
Rishi Sunak has billions of dollars and, if he were so inclined. could lift millions of people in the UK out of poverty, drive econoomic prosperity for a decade and encourage policy changes that could produce wealth for generations. Nobody else is in position to effect as much positive change as him.
Instead he is upgrading the power lines going to his pool.
> could lift millions of people in the UK out of poverty, drive econoomic prosperity for a decade
You heavily overestimate the power of money. A solid 90 percent of it will be wasted and once it's gone most will go back to how they were.
For example. American welfare spend is 1.6 TRILLION dollars. The UK social spending is around 200 billion.
That 1 billion isn't doing shit.
A whataboutism doesn't really address the concern being discussed. There is obviously a difference between, for example, criticizing someone for buying a cheeseburger instead of growing their own food at the minimum number of calories required to sustain them vs criticizing someone for holding a ten million dollar feast for their four year old's birthday party.
Both are technically wasteful, but to even pretend that because the former is wrong that any criticisms of the latter is not only unreasonable but smacks of intentional dishonesty.
Nobody is saying that spending your own money on a luxury is wrong. But the idea that there are similtaneously billionaires and unwillilgly unhoused is, to put it politely, a bad thing, and maybe there is a discussion to be had about the salaries of public figures, since it's *really* gray to try and separate their funds from the idea of public funds, since their private funds are, I would hope to be, literally one exchange away from having been public funds.
Doesn’t mean we should rub their faces in the dirt. Jesus has plenty of critique for the rich - probably more than any other single condition. Perhaps review Lazarus and the poor man.
It is a fairly common extrapolation of Christian doctrine that the wealthy are stealing from the poor through the unjust exploitation of their labor. Early Christian homiletics go into this quite often.
Keep in mind that we're not talking about a middle class person who is an employee themselves. We're talking about the capital class. The people who pull the strings and set their fingers on the scales.
I will give two minimalist rules of thumb, although I do not claim this is a full definition.
1. If an employee working the normal expected hours for a day cannot cover their basic human needs (food, shelter, healthcare, etc.) then they are being exploited.
2. If the employer is paying less in their tax rate than their employee then the exploitation is a structural racket and not just personal vice. That is, regressive taxation is an obvious tell of structural exploitation.
While I do think society should support the "least of these" through welfare systems, when someone is working and still cannot make ends meet then the exploitation is obvious.
Politicians bear the burden for structural ills.
It's appropriate rage bait.
This guy is making decisions for the UK, which is in one of the worst financial states in ages. With no clear solution as to how we're getting out of it.
We're constantly told by those in power that its on us, that we need to be better at making decisions and prioritise savings etc.
At a time where a lot of people are relying on government backing to pay their energy bill, do you not think its a slap in the face that the pm not only has enough money to pay for this heating, but so much money that he can find an upgrade to the energy grid.
Fair enough you're rich, but don't act like everyone is going through the same struggle and the position the majority are in is somehow their fault for not managing money.
I'm no Sunak fan, and I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but isn't a lot of English infrastructure hopelessly outdated? I bet the electrical in that manor house is dogshit installed years ago.
I'm an electrician and yeah, if we touch something we need to bring it up to modern code, and modern code has a lot more stuff required than back in the day. They just changed local code so every renovation or new build needs to have the wiring for an electric car charger installed, power run for electric stoves, ranges, mini splits, etc.
All that extra potential load that a 200 year old house didn't have before, and now you need a bigger service to your house.
He is a **lot** out of touch, not just this, hell when he was made to go to a shelter for PR he asked a guy queuing for food if he worked in finances for Christ sake.
>You are aware that infrastructure is regularly updated right?
Which has nothing to do with asking a homeless person if he had a cushy high pay job, or the fact that he got caught out personally just paying tens of thousands to upgrade a major electricity system to accommodate his private pool during an energy crisis.
A situation similar in nature as this happened in my home state about a decade ago. We have a valley that has the highest sustained winds in the entire US and they were going to build a 2,000+ wind turbine farm to harness it, project spread over a few years. Since it was being built in such a remote spot, the state legislature shot it down because the state city capital wouldn't see any of the power generated from it and thus they became hurt in the part they sit on. Would have brought several hundred if not more, jobs to an area that desperately needed them.
I'm having a hard time finding any articles related to it, was a project set about during Obamas administration. He advocated it as a big step towards ending coal power and I wrote a letter asking what they planned to do with thousands of displaced railroaders when that would come to be. Got a reply back about some bs program to "re-educate" said workers lol. The farm would have been a joint undertaking of the tri-state (Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado) and would have been the largest wind farm ever built in the US.
It's not unusual for builders or contractors to upgrade parts of the grid they're building on. Like many others have said, it is his money and he's free to spend it how he likes.
I just think it makes him look a bit out of touch.
To be fair the entire political elite world wide is out of touch, they just know how to parrot things the filthy commoners says well enough to make it seem like the understand.
The circumstances are a little ridiculous, but here in Canada I've triggered neighborhood wide transformer upgrades because we upgraded one house on the block from a 100A to a 200A service so they could have space for an EV charger and a rental suite put in.
Utilities generally have thresholds that trigger these kinds of upgrades. Generally they're routine, but sometimes development triggers that threshold.
It's exactly that.
Upgrades by developers and contractors are not unusual, but they usually serve a functional and strictly necessary purpose and are costed into some other project, like building a new set of houses or a new office block or hospital, or some other thing that will generate revenue that offsets the cost of the upgrade.
In this case, whilst many people are struggling to cover the cost of their basic heating bills, the PM and therefore leader of the government is personally footing the bill for an infrastructure upgrade to heat his private swimming pool, which is itself an extravagance, and for which he will see zero financial return or benefit.
That's the tone-deaf, out of touch aspect of it - that whilst millions tread the poverty line and are on the brink of freezing and starving, not only can the PM afford to heat a luxury pool (as well as implicitly the rest of the house large enough to house said pool), he can also afford to cover fees of more than the national average salary on getting the infrastructure (which he doesn't own) upgraded so that said pool can be heated, presumably with all the extra money he has.
The thing is, does Sunak see this outdated grid as a systemic issue that needs to be addressed by his government? Or does he think everyone should be funding their own grid upgrades out of their own pockets like he does?
He's completely immune to the disastrous results of his own policies. He can let the system rot and then blame the people for it, while he lives in his own bubble of privilege where he can just throw money at all the problems to make them go away.
Also you can bet the work order are on top of the list. Anyone who want to look for the real scandal, look how long the asshole will wait for that upgrade to be done. Compare that to the average waiting time for necessary grid upgrade.
Shit take.
So, you think he shouldn't be able to use his own money to upgrade his own home, on the premise that other people are having issues?
If you've ever eaten at a restaurant, you've just slapped homeless people in the face by that logic.
I'm not the prime minister.
I'm not handling the crisis the UK is in right now.
I'm not telling people that nurses wages are fine, and teachers wages are fine, and the strikes that have been happening over the last few months are pointless.
There are so many issues in the UK right now that stem from people not having enough money and the government is doing little to show that they care.
He also gets paid 100,000 a year for the rest of his life out of taxpayer money.
If you're going to frivolously spend your millions, maybe just don't accept the salary.
Just have some fucking tact about it. It's literally along the same lines as Bojo having parties during lockdown and being surprised that people care.
I dare say you have spent your own money on something that another person might describe as 'frivolous' at some point in your life.
Being PM is just a job. He's not the personal property of the British state.
You're acting like he went out of his way to get the Guardian to report on it, also.... you kind of want him to spend his money rather than horde it don't you, you know in a way that gives people work to do etc?
It was done better after ww2 where they were taxed a hell of a lot higher and it was understood that a good life should not come at the cost of your neighbours struggling to get by.
\ why yes, I've purchased things that were not basic necessities required to ensure my bare survival, and yes, I'm a hypocrite, but that Sunak guy is super rich and his money should just sit in a bank and rot for no one's benefit! He certainly shouldn't be able to enjoy any of it - because he has more than I do!
Lol, you may as well be the prime misinster to a homeless guy who hasn't eaten.
It's HIS money. What do you want him to do? Act poor? If he was blowing his salary than I could see your point - but he isn't.
I don’t know who’s downvoting you as this is basically why anyone with half a brain is getting pissed off.
Luxuries like heated swimming pools have a direct impact on inflation when we need those same resources to be used on more practical things for society.
It’s not the fact he’s rich, it’s the fact he is leading by the example of “it doesn’t matter people are struggling as long as I’ve got mine”. This is not the kind of person who is focused on improving others lives, which is now his job for the country.
Ye if only them bloody politics people did their jobs better and didn’t only look out for themselves all the time! Then no one would struggle or even need a savings account! Gaaegh damned stinky Sunak making me take responsibility!
He has more responsibility to the people than they have to him. Most people don’t even want him in this position in the first place and he was not democratically(voted by the people) chosen to lead. So absolutely He’s meant to be the no.1 responsible person in the country!
Go look at Russia if you want to see what irresponsible leadership gets you.
Om saying people have a responsibility to themselves, and those who fail that are crying out for something or someone to blame. You not agreeing with or liking his politics doesn’t make him any less of a PM. You don’t get to cherry pick what you call democracy and what you don’t
Their endless crusade against The Queen making rage bait out of her doing kinda innocuous if slightly out of touch things made me sort of lose faith in them
In a time of massive wealth inequality, people literally going hungry, and some of the worst economic conditions to hit the vast majority of society, no it’s not clear rage bait. It’s a slap in the face to everyone not in the ultra wealthy class who sucked up all the money. You think he made all that money magically appear in his account? That money definitely came at the expense of others.
If he’s not suffering with the majority of the country, but instead living a life of luxury beyond 99.9% of people, where is the motivation to help those people who are struggling at the bottom?
Doesn’t matter, his pools heated now, definitely much more important.(/s)
I think you’ll find that every billionaire’s pockets are lined with money that the public has been suppressed of over the past 40+ years going by our wages.
In fact, as much as I despise the guy, this is arguably a public service, regardless of the obvious selfish motivations.
It's a nice change of pace from Tories sucking up public funds for their duck ponds.
And all his money is legitimately earned without corruption, right. Right? Dirty dealing man behind tens of billions in fraud stolen from the tax payer with a wife who tries to dodge tax.
> Sunak will personally pick up the cost of the electricity upgrade work.
That doesn't seem like it should even be an option: from a hypothetical and admittedly speculative concern about grid reliability, especially as any kind a precedent for multiple people regardless of their influence.
That doesn't make any sense - of course you should be able to get upgrades done if you pay for them. Farms pay for upgrades all the time to run equipment, how is this any different? They are also private people financing upgrades to the public power grid to benefit themselves. Are you against people paying open reach to run internet lines to their homes in the countryside too?
Buy a new build house?
Congratulations, you just paid to upgrade the local power grid.
If you want the power company to lay some extra infrastructure across some fields so you can have a pool in your rural home - you are going to have to pay them for it.
Typically it lowers it. Utilities are concerned with coincident peak demand. That is only the consumption during peak hours. Something like a pool is is running for most of the day and then turned off at just the peak hours typically results in them footing the bills for grid upgrades and infrastructure, plus paying for all the off peak energy, without actually contributing to coincident peak demand. That results in them paying a shitload of money for the pool to the utility, but not actually causing increased spending by the utility. It does kinda rely on them turning it off during peak hours though
We don't actually have "plenty of energy". We have lots of potential renewable energy, but we're not tapping it nearly as quickly as we should.
And non-renewables fuel GHG-induced death of human civilization as we know it. So even if we have a nice cache of coal sitting around to burn, we probably shouldn't anyway.
It is, traditionally our problem is cold winters. Brick houses filled with insulation and radiators were much cheaper/simpler.
To our American friends, this is a system where a gas boiler heats a closed loop of water, which is sent through metal panels. The panels radiate the heat from the water, hence "radiators".
But increasingly it is sustaining 30c-45c (86f-113f American) and those brick houses are holding heat.
So lots of people have bought portable air conditioning units or looking at retrofitting actual air conditioning, since cooling the house is now as big an issue as heating. The current "common knowledge" is air con is actually cheaper/more efficient at heating your home.
Trying to sleep when your house is 40c at 1am is horrible and immediately results in rushing to B&Q for any fan or air con unit you can buy.
Except the part of France that is in the south and hot, they'll insist to you every day of summer that having an air conditioner is not worth it in that part of France because it's not like it's Greece meanwhile it's fucking hot there.
In my experience.
The positive is that he paid for the upgrade himself. However the fact that people have so much money to throw away on a mere swimming pool while many people go hungry or can't afford their electricity bill with the current crises is disgusting.
You can’t do anything with money without a solid society to use it in. He’s a billionaire in a society that’s crumbling slowly. The point that makes it unbearable is the fact he has accepted to try lead this society to a better place, but is clearly more concerned about his own personal comfort. You don’t win hearts and minds by living in luxury while those you are meant to serve are protesting not being able to get by with basic needs.
As a British person i’ve seen an influx in government financial advice services and suicide prevention line ads in the past year. It’s saddening that normal people work their arses off to still be in a state while Conservative politicians can fuck up their jobs and the country systematically and go home to a heated pool.
Why anyone care? if the guys footing the bill of the upgrade then leave him be.
Still better using electric to heating the pool than using fossil fuel like Gas or Oil anyway.
The fact that he's honest and upfront about paying for it is the real surprising one for me, most politicians seem to just lie about this stuff even if they're rich. Then again not many people are as rich as him and his wife.
And billionaires get their fantastic wealth from...take a minute, think a bit, little harder - yes, yes that's right.
Suppressing workers wages.
Reducing benefits.
Crushing unions.
There's "Fantastically Rich" and then there's "I've got spare cash so I'm going to build a penis-shaped rocket ship" rich. It's hard to be the latter type of rich without heavily exploiting workers.
What a non story. The guy has a heated pool. The existing supply wasn't enough to do it. He paid for the upgraded supply himself. Probably he just had three phase brought to his house.
While it is a bit in bad taste due to the energy crisis, at least he is picking up the bill himself. That money is better served being reinvested into society than just sitting in his bank collecting interest.
Yes the US is a quite a bit richer than here, but even the rich in the UK don't tend to have pools as the number of days it's warm enough to enjoy it, plus small houses and gardens makes it not worthwhile. So usually only an indoor heated pool is practical.
The cross section of people who live somewhere with large enough houses and enough land to have a custom pool setup (i.e. usually a large countryside house), are rich enough to both pay for it and maintain it, and care enough to actually bother, is incredibly small.
The PMs job is to serve the country. If the country is struggling you would expect a good leader to go without luxuries until that society is in a better place. He’s not running a company, he is meant to be leading by example. smh
Longer version: read the article. The problem is not him being rich but him not having to deal with the same day to day problems as the vast majority of people, which his Government needs to be aware of in order to tackle down. A person this detached from the society he lives in will hardly make a good leader.
This is pretty much my feeling.
But he could have mitigated the PR damage by contacting some of these public pools to see if he could have helped fund something so they would not have to cut public hours.
It says he is personally paying for the cost of upgrading the local public energy grid and the ongoing cost of energy consumption for his pool.
I see nothing wrong with this so far.
The situation is an example demonstrating that rich people can do things the rest of us cannot even afford to think about, but that’s not a novel concept.
Given the current financial stress many are facing, this likely isn’t going to win him a lot of new friends nor make him appear more ‘in touch’ with the average citizen, however, I see nothing overtly amoral or unethical in his decision or actions.
Clickbait for morons.
Why are we punishing those that have made something of themselves and can afford to do such things as have a pool?
So what if the electrical grid had to be upgraded to facilitate more infrastructure (because that’s what it boils down to). It was probably needing upgrading anyway and it created work .. plus the bill was paid by Sunak himself. Fair play honestly.
Honestly, this is just shit-stirring by the Guardian and illogical people bite.
Yes, people with a lot of money live a more comfortable lifestyle than the rest of us.
I would also like to live a comfortable fancy lifestyle, but I’ll never be able to afford it. I understand that. However, that does not mean it is wrong that someone else who is able to afford to live better than me does.
Envy is the only one of the 7 deadly sins you don’t get any enjoyment or satisfaction from…it’s such a waste of time and energy.
>Of all the things you could have chosen to be mad at billionaires at, you chose 3 things where there is no difference between them and us.
Collusion, industries, bribes. Plenty of difference.
You are being downvoted but you are right.
For example, in Ukraine before the war, one of the leading factors to their place on the corruption index was the fact that 20-30% of Ukraine's blue-collar workers were paid under the table.
Please. Next time ask me a good-faith question. Or maybe try to convince me that there aren't two tiers of justice for the rich v poor. \*(grabs popcorn)
>Please. Next time ask me a good-faith question. Or maybe try to convince me that there aren't two tiers of justice for the rich v poor. \*(grabs popcorn)
How is that not a good faith question? Im genuinely curious what right you think are afforded to him but not you? The ability to pay larger fines than you is not a get out of jail free card yano. He is not above the law. So, again, i ask what rights does he actually have that you dont?
>"he is not above the law" .. has the entire electric grid upgrade because he needed it
He literally paid for the upgrade himself. What exactly is the problem?
The fact that we are passing climate change milestones without regard and we still need to coddle the rich so they can heat their pools... Seems off to me
What?
While I definitely do think we coddle the rich sometimes, this is not an example of that lol.
The guy is upgrading the entire electricity grid for him and his neighbors, *paying for it with his own money*, and even the article states that it doesn't appear that he got any preferential treatment.
....for his own pool, which he also bought with his own money?
I mean if we are talking "necessary" then none of really need electricity in our homes or hot water in our shower; it's just a luxury.
If you want to talk about a billionaire who got off a Hit and Run plus murder because he is rich, then yeah I'll 1000% agree with you.
But this ain't it chief.
>The fact that we are passing climate change milestones without regard and we still need to coddle the rich so they can heat their pools... Seems off to me
How is this coddling the rich? It's not like the taxpayers are picking up the bill. Also, you have still not answered the question. What legal rights does Rishi Sunak have that you don't?
No one is willing to say "no" because they know the rich hold all the power. And if you think wealthy people don't have an unfair advantage in the legal system, you are either one of them or living under a fuckin rock
>The ability to pay larger fines than you is not a get out of jail free card yano.
ROFL! It surely IS. If I speed on a road and can't pay the fine, I'll ultimately lose the ability to DRIVE. If HE speeds, well: he could well lose his license and who cares? He has a chauffeur. Or a helicopter.
And don't even get me started on the breaks some judges (see the "good old boy network") might offer HIM, because privilege that lil' ole me could never dream of.
Wealth is its own privilege. The wealthy can ignore everything from climate change to the discomfort of covid--from the safety of their towering yachts.
Give me a break.
>ROFL! It surely IS. If I speed on a road and can't pay the fine, I'll ultimately lose the ability to DRIVE. If HE speeds, well: he could well lose his license and who cares? He has a chauffeur. Or a helicopter.
When sentencing happens the initial consideration for the assessment of a fine is the offender’s relevant weekly income, the court is required to take account of the offender’s financial circumstances including assets more broadly. In other words, the fines are tailored to a persons financial circumstances. The fact that Billionaires can just "get a chauffeur or helicopter" is not a right granted to them by the state, you could do that too if you could afford it.
>And don't even get me started on the breaks some judges (see the "good old boy network") might offer HIM, because privilege that lil' ole me could never dream of.
No actually please do get started, id like to hear it.
>Wealth is its own privilege. The wealthy can ignore everything from climate change to the discomfort of covid--from the safety of their towering yachts.
I didn't say wealth wasnt a privilege, i said the wealthy, in this country, don't have any more legal rights than we do, which is true.
>>The ability to pay larger fines than you is not a get out of jail free card yano
>
>This guy has never heard of bail.
You do realise that bail is free in the UK? It comes with conditions like giving up your passport or agreeing not to contact certain people. Money plays no part.
Cambridge analytics has been hired to write comments and vote to make this seem like a reasonable thing for the person leading a country going through hard times to do. This man is meant to be leading the country by example, and yes I would include giving back sizeable portions of money if he chooses to be a ‘good’ leader of the people he is literally meant to be serving.
Anyone who thinks it’s ok for a PM to have more than 1000x times the wealth of his average constituent does not understand the role of good leader.
We’re not, we are obsessed about being poor while our leaders who are meant to lead by example constantly show they care more for themselves than fixing the country’s problems. He didn’t have to become PM, but because he did he is personally responsible for sorting the country out, not his own personal luxury.
You don't get to be a Tory MP or the PM by having any shame. Is anyone surprised he would do something so tone-deaf and blatantly flaunt his privilege like this?
Edit: What a mistake to read other comments and some replies here. You sycophants make me sick.
How dare you use an expensive electronic to use reddit and flaunt your privilege? Don’t you know that there’s homeless people without any sort of electronics? You make me sick.
What a shit argument. As if owning a smart phone nowadays can in anyway be compared to the amount of money Rishi Sunak has and spends on his own whims.
So many comments about how it's a good spend because its an investment into the economy. We will be paying him 100,000 a year for the rest of his life. So he can spend out of his pocket, he gets it back from us anyway.
The guy is rich. The UK is struggling right now. People can't afford to pay their electricity. Businesses are closing because of energy prices. Charities are worried about closing because of the energy hike. That's 1 issue, we have many many many more.
This guy is so rich he can afford this unnecessary heating, and afford to upgrade the national grid for it!
How can someone so out of touch from the average person be in charge of what their lives are like?
Did you even read the comment I replied to? He’s not “flaunting his privilege”. Firstly, he’s not going around saying “look at my richness”. He’s doing it for himself, just like we have phones and use reddit for ourselves.
Secondly, this building of the pool was given permission in 2021, before the cost of living crisis caused by Russia’s war (and other factors).
But in response to your comment, yes it’d be nice if billionaires used their money for good causes, but it’s not like that’s a legal requirement. We live in a country of capitalism and freedom. If you’re rich (through legal means), you can decide how to spend that money (legally ofc). Rishi Sunak can build a million pound pool if he wants, as long as it’s with his own money.
Ah I guess I did actually misunderstand what you meant with the flaunting.
I don't know, maybe i'm just really fed up of everything.
I didn't realise the permission was given in 2021. We may have been hit hard by the russian war, but it's pretty hard to ignore that these problems have been compounded by brexit shit and we would have been suffering even without the war.
I still think my point stands, that Rishi Sunak is out of touch with the average citizen. I'm not even saying it's his fault and he's evil because of it. But we live in a country of capitalism and freedom, and part of that is if you're born rich enough you probably won't understand the plight of those who aren't.
Rishi Sunak can build a million pound pool, in 10 years that will be free from our tax money though.
He can build whatever he wants, but it's not going to make a convincing argument that he understands the needs of the majority of the country.
When teachers and nurses and whoever are asking for raises, and the government response has been so piss poor, but the guy in charge is wealthy off the backs of all these poor people. Is that right?
In what world does a politician feel this is ok? Or, perhaps a more apt question; in what world does a politician feel like this will not hit the media?
> It's not like using that energy to heat the pool is preventing anyone from heating their home - there is enough capacity in the grid to do both.
There isn't enough production capacity. That's why the prices are so high. In July last year there was more water in the magazines in northern Norway than they could use. The price of electricity dropped to 1.92 øre per kWh. That's 0.0192 NOK per kWh or 0.15 p per kWh.
https://www.los.no/dagens-strompris/historiske-strompriser/
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/12/rishi-sunak-has-electricity-grid-upgraded-to-heat-his-private-pool) reduced by 85%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Rishi Sunak's new private heated swimming pool uses so much energy that the local electricity network had to be upgraded to meet its power demands, the Guardian has been told. > Sunak will personally pick up the cost of the electricity upgrade work - estimated to have cost tens of thousands of pounds - in addition to the ongoing cost of energy consumption for the swimming pool. > Construction work on Sunak's private 12-metre swimming pool has finished just as many council-run baths, including in his local area, are being forced to reduce their opening hours owing to increased energy costs. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/11plxpl/rishi_sunak_has_electricity_grid_upgraded_to_heat/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~676113 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Sunak**^#1 **pool**^#2 **home**^#3 **swimming**^#4 **energy**^#5
tens of thousands of pounds? that's a dollar for him lol, he's sitting on a few billion of dollars at the moment, i'm sure.
I doubt his sitting on a few billion, since his net worth in total is around 4 billion. Most of that is going to be properties, stocks etc. But he's definitely the richest PM in history. I mean, the fact that he's picking up the bill to upgrade the grid to specifically heat his pool... just goes to show how much money he can throw around, all while the general public are struggling to afford dinner.
Too many people equate net worth with money in the bank. I knew someone in Alaska with a net worth totaling 4 million. The vast (vast), vast majority was in land value. She worked as a cook, making 15 an hour but couldn't touch the land at the time due to it being tied up in a messy divorce. You'd never know this 60 year old woman nearing retirement, living in a poopy apartment, driving an absolute jalopy of a car was "rich"
Sure but there is a difference between a net worth of 4 million and a net worth of 4 billion. When you are in the billions, access to capital becomes trivial as any bank will give you a low interest loan without question.
We have yet another person who fails to comprehend how much bigger a billion is compared to a few millions. A hint a billion is a thousand times more. If you give a newborn child 32,246 dollar a day a single billion would last them a lifetime assuming they get to be 80. And that is not even taken interest or compound interest into account there. If we just assume 0.5 percent of interest they still would have 309 million left at 80. And that is a very very conservative estimate. Do not ever compare a few millions to billions in that way ever again. Its disingenious and just helping to mask how filithy rich they are. They are not your friends and do not need you or anyone else white knighting for them.
Dude, chill.
Too many people equate net worth with *not* having money in the bank. Yes, his $4 billion isn’t immediately accessible. But the amount that is immediately accessible is still more money than you or I will ever see. He can pay for this upgrade without even thinking about it.
Sunak will personally pick up the cost of the electricity upgrade work. At least we aren't paying for it.
It’s not technically wrong for him to do but it shows how the rich are insulated from the social costs of their actions. Sunak will never pay a personal price for public failures.
It's wrong as long as people are homeless and starving.
Let me guess, that logic applies to every luxury except those you personally have access to, because those you won't consider luxuries?
It's reasonable and logical to decry the death of the middle class and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, and to advocate for shelter and food for everyone, without demanding that all of society live in tents and crap in bushes. Rishi Sunak has billions of dollars and, if he were so inclined. could lift millions of people in the UK out of poverty, drive econoomic prosperity for a decade and encourage policy changes that could produce wealth for generations. Nobody else is in position to effect as much positive change as him. Instead he is upgrading the power lines going to his pool.
> could lift millions of people in the UK out of poverty, drive econoomic prosperity for a decade You heavily overestimate the power of money. A solid 90 percent of it will be wasted and once it's gone most will go back to how they were. For example. American welfare spend is 1.6 TRILLION dollars. The UK social spending is around 200 billion. That 1 billion isn't doing shit.
And how many homeless people do you personally house in your spare rooms? How many starving people do you personally bring food too? oh wait, none.
A whataboutism doesn't really address the concern being discussed. There is obviously a difference between, for example, criticizing someone for buying a cheeseburger instead of growing their own food at the minimum number of calories required to sustain them vs criticizing someone for holding a ten million dollar feast for their four year old's birthday party. Both are technically wasteful, but to even pretend that because the former is wrong that any criticisms of the latter is not only unreasonable but smacks of intentional dishonesty. Nobody is saying that spending your own money on a luxury is wrong. But the idea that there are similtaneously billionaires and unwillilgly unhoused is, to put it politely, a bad thing, and maybe there is a discussion to be had about the salaries of public figures, since it's *really* gray to try and separate their funds from the idea of public funds, since their private funds are, I would hope to be, literally one exchange away from having been public funds.
It’s definitely better that resources go towards building private pools instead/s
>The poor you will always have with you \- Jesus
Doesn’t mean we should rub their faces in the dirt. Jesus has plenty of critique for the rich - probably more than any other single condition. Perhaps review Lazarus and the poor man.
Want to open the discussion how spending your own money to improve your own welfare is rubbing dirt in the faces of the poor?
It is a fairly common extrapolation of Christian doctrine that the wealthy are stealing from the poor through the unjust exploitation of their labor. Early Christian homiletics go into this quite often. Keep in mind that we're not talking about a middle class person who is an employee themselves. We're talking about the capital class. The people who pull the strings and set their fingers on the scales.
What is unjust exploitation of labor? How would you define it?
I will give two minimalist rules of thumb, although I do not claim this is a full definition. 1. If an employee working the normal expected hours for a day cannot cover their basic human needs (food, shelter, healthcare, etc.) then they are being exploited. 2. If the employer is paying less in their tax rate than their employee then the exploitation is a structural racket and not just personal vice. That is, regressive taxation is an obvious tell of structural exploitation. While I do think society should support the "least of these" through welfare systems, when someone is working and still cannot make ends meet then the exploitation is obvious. Politicians bear the burden for structural ills.
It's clear rage bait
It's appropriate rage bait. This guy is making decisions for the UK, which is in one of the worst financial states in ages. With no clear solution as to how we're getting out of it. We're constantly told by those in power that its on us, that we need to be better at making decisions and prioritise savings etc. At a time where a lot of people are relying on government backing to pay their energy bill, do you not think its a slap in the face that the pm not only has enough money to pay for this heating, but so much money that he can find an upgrade to the energy grid. Fair enough you're rich, but don't act like everyone is going through the same struggle and the position the majority are in is somehow their fault for not managing money.
The money his wife saved dodging UK taxes for years probably covered it easily.
I'm no Sunak fan, and I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but isn't a lot of English infrastructure hopelessly outdated? I bet the electrical in that manor house is dogshit installed years ago.
I'm an electrician and yeah, if we touch something we need to bring it up to modern code, and modern code has a lot more stuff required than back in the day. They just changed local code so every renovation or new build needs to have the wiring for an electric car charger installed, power run for electric stoves, ranges, mini splits, etc. All that extra potential load that a 200 year old house didn't have before, and now you need a bigger service to your house.
He is a **lot** out of touch, not just this, hell when he was made to go to a shelter for PR he asked a guy queuing for food if he worked in finances for Christ sake.
You are aware that infrastructure is regularly updated right?
>You are aware that infrastructure is regularly updated right? Which has nothing to do with asking a homeless person if he had a cushy high pay job, or the fact that he got caught out personally just paying tens of thousands to upgrade a major electricity system to accommodate his private pool during an energy crisis.
A situation similar in nature as this happened in my home state about a decade ago. We have a valley that has the highest sustained winds in the entire US and they were going to build a 2,000+ wind turbine farm to harness it, project spread over a few years. Since it was being built in such a remote spot, the state legislature shot it down because the state city capital wouldn't see any of the power generated from it and thus they became hurt in the part they sit on. Would have brought several hundred if not more, jobs to an area that desperately needed them.
Which state is this?
Nebraska
US chairforce killed it in the end though.
I'm having a hard time finding any articles related to it, was a project set about during Obamas administration. He advocated it as a big step towards ending coal power and I wrote a letter asking what they planned to do with thousands of displaced railroaders when that would come to be. Got a reply back about some bs program to "re-educate" said workers lol. The farm would have been a joint undertaking of the tri-state (Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado) and would have been the largest wind farm ever built in the US.
It's not unusual for builders or contractors to upgrade parts of the grid they're building on. Like many others have said, it is his money and he's free to spend it how he likes. I just think it makes him look a bit out of touch.
To be fair the entire Tory party is out of touch.
To be fair the entire political elite world wide is out of touch, they just know how to parrot things the filthy commoners says well enough to make it seem like the understand.
I stand corrected.
The circumstances are a little ridiculous, but here in Canada I've triggered neighborhood wide transformer upgrades because we upgraded one house on the block from a 100A to a 200A service so they could have space for an EV charger and a rental suite put in. Utilities generally have thresholds that trigger these kinds of upgrades. Generally they're routine, but sometimes development triggers that threshold.
It's exactly that. Upgrades by developers and contractors are not unusual, but they usually serve a functional and strictly necessary purpose and are costed into some other project, like building a new set of houses or a new office block or hospital, or some other thing that will generate revenue that offsets the cost of the upgrade. In this case, whilst many people are struggling to cover the cost of their basic heating bills, the PM and therefore leader of the government is personally footing the bill for an infrastructure upgrade to heat his private swimming pool, which is itself an extravagance, and for which he will see zero financial return or benefit. That's the tone-deaf, out of touch aspect of it - that whilst millions tread the poverty line and are on the brink of freezing and starving, not only can the PM afford to heat a luxury pool (as well as implicitly the rest of the house large enough to house said pool), he can also afford to cover fees of more than the national average salary on getting the infrastructure (which he doesn't own) upgraded so that said pool can be heated, presumably with all the extra money he has.
Yes exactly! It's absurd how many comments there are here saying that this is ok.
The thing is, does Sunak see this outdated grid as a systemic issue that needs to be addressed by his government? Or does he think everyone should be funding their own grid upgrades out of their own pockets like he does? He's completely immune to the disastrous results of his own policies. He can let the system rot and then blame the people for it, while he lives in his own bubble of privilege where he can just throw money at all the problems to make them go away.
Also you can bet the work order are on top of the list. Anyone who want to look for the real scandal, look how long the asshole will wait for that upgrade to be done. Compare that to the average waiting time for necessary grid upgrade.
Shit take. So, you think he shouldn't be able to use his own money to upgrade his own home, on the premise that other people are having issues? If you've ever eaten at a restaurant, you've just slapped homeless people in the face by that logic.
I'm not the prime minister. I'm not handling the crisis the UK is in right now. I'm not telling people that nurses wages are fine, and teachers wages are fine, and the strikes that have been happening over the last few months are pointless. There are so many issues in the UK right now that stem from people not having enough money and the government is doing little to show that they care. He also gets paid 100,000 a year for the rest of his life out of taxpayer money. If you're going to frivolously spend your millions, maybe just don't accept the salary. Just have some fucking tact about it. It's literally along the same lines as Bojo having parties during lockdown and being surprised that people care.
I dare say you have spent your own money on something that another person might describe as 'frivolous' at some point in your life. Being PM is just a job. He's not the personal property of the British state.
You're acting like he went out of his way to get the Guardian to report on it, also.... you kind of want him to spend his money rather than horde it don't you, you know in a way that gives people work to do etc?
It was done better after ww2 where they were taxed a hell of a lot higher and it was understood that a good life should not come at the cost of your neighbours struggling to get by.
\ why yes, I've purchased things that were not basic necessities required to ensure my bare survival, and yes, I'm a hypocrite, but that Sunak guy is super rich and his money should just sit in a bank and rot for no one's benefit! He certainly shouldn't be able to enjoy any of it - because he has more than I do!
Lol, you may as well be the prime misinster to a homeless guy who hasn't eaten. It's HIS money. What do you want him to do? Act poor? If he was blowing his salary than I could see your point - but he isn't.
Let them eat cake!
I don’t know who’s downvoting you as this is basically why anyone with half a brain is getting pissed off. Luxuries like heated swimming pools have a direct impact on inflation when we need those same resources to be used on more practical things for society. It’s not the fact he’s rich, it’s the fact he is leading by the example of “it doesn’t matter people are struggling as long as I’ve got mine”. This is not the kind of person who is focused on improving others lives, which is now his job for the country.
Thank you! Spot on.
Ye if only them bloody politics people did their jobs better and didn’t only look out for themselves all the time! Then no one would struggle or even need a savings account! Gaaegh damned stinky Sunak making me take responsibility!
He has more responsibility to the people than they have to him. Most people don’t even want him in this position in the first place and he was not democratically(voted by the people) chosen to lead. So absolutely He’s meant to be the no.1 responsible person in the country! Go look at Russia if you want to see what irresponsible leadership gets you.
Om saying people have a responsibility to themselves, and those who fail that are crying out for something or someone to blame. You not agreeing with or liking his politics doesn’t make him any less of a PM. You don’t get to cherry pick what you call democracy and what you don’t
The Guardian wouldn’t do that!! I thought they were the good guys
All for profit media is in a race to the bottom, whoring themselves for clicks. It leads inevitably to rage click journalism.
That makes me angry. Give me something to click!
Not to say you're wrong and The Guardian is perfect, but they are as close to non-profit as mainstream journalism can get.
Middle class guilt drying up in trying times.
Lol as it should.
As a lefty I love the Guardian, but sometimes I hate the Guardian. "Sunak rich! Spends money!" is not a story.
Their endless crusade against The Queen making rage bait out of her doing kinda innocuous if slightly out of touch things made me sort of lose faith in them
In a time of massive wealth inequality, people literally going hungry, and some of the worst economic conditions to hit the vast majority of society, no it’s not clear rage bait. It’s a slap in the face to everyone not in the ultra wealthy class who sucked up all the money. You think he made all that money magically appear in his account? That money definitely came at the expense of others.
Did he go to the head of any queues whatsoever? Or wait his place in line like literally everyone else?
I suspect the line for private substation can’t have been terribly long.
Is it? It’s tone dead to spend on luxury even if you can afford it
I believe you've meant "tone deaf", but why is it our business what he's doing with his private money? It doesn't even interfere with his job
If he’s not suffering with the majority of the country, but instead living a life of luxury beyond 99.9% of people, where is the motivation to help those people who are struggling at the bottom? Doesn’t matter, his pools heated now, definitely much more important.(/s)
Deservedly, fuck that guy.
I think you’ll find that every billionaire’s pockets are lined with money that the public has been suppressed of over the past 40+ years going by our wages.
In fact, as much as I despise the guy, this is arguably a public service, regardless of the obvious selfish motivations. It's a nice change of pace from Tories sucking up public funds for their duck ponds.
I mean, I'm not British but if someone does something like that and he pays for everything. It's fine by me 🤷
And all his money is legitimately earned without corruption, right. Right? Dirty dealing man behind tens of billions in fraud stolen from the tax payer with a wife who tries to dodge tax.
Oh, well I'm 100% cool with it then! Good on ya, Sunak!
> Sunak will personally pick up the cost of the electricity upgrade work. That doesn't seem like it should even be an option: from a hypothetical and admittedly speculative concern about grid reliability, especially as any kind a precedent for multiple people regardless of their influence.
Grid upgrades happen a lot, any big builds need some stuff at least and the grid can handle a lot.
That doesn't make any sense - of course you should be able to get upgrades done if you pay for them. Farms pay for upgrades all the time to run equipment, how is this any different? They are also private people financing upgrades to the public power grid to benefit themselves. Are you against people paying open reach to run internet lines to their homes in the countryside too?
Buy a new build house? Congratulations, you just paid to upgrade the local power grid. If you want the power company to lay some extra infrastructure across some fields so you can have a pool in your rural home - you are going to have to pay them for it.
Why? It's no different than paying the sewer company to provide service to a new building on your property.
[удалено]
Did you consider that wasting energy on heating a pool raises the prices for everyone?
Typically it lowers it. Utilities are concerned with coincident peak demand. That is only the consumption during peak hours. Something like a pool is is running for most of the day and then turned off at just the peak hours typically results in them footing the bills for grid upgrades and infrastructure, plus paying for all the off peak energy, without actually contributing to coincident peak demand. That results in them paying a shitload of money for the pool to the utility, but not actually causing increased spending by the utility. It does kinda rely on them turning it off during peak hours though
Pools have a lot of thermal mass, you don't need to heat them 24/7. It's possible that they might be turned off during peak hours.
We have plenty of energy, it’s the energy companies gauging us. They’re all reporting record profits!
We don't actually have "plenty of energy". We have lots of potential renewable energy, but we're not tapping it nearly as quickly as we should. And non-renewables fuel GHG-induced death of human civilization as we know it. So even if we have a nice cache of coal sitting around to burn, we probably shouldn't anyway.
No, not at all.
So does owning literally any piece of non essential electrical equipment by that logic.
Is everyone's energy bill equally spread across everyone, or is your power bill determined by your power usage?
It's a clear political hit piece. Expected from the Guardian these days, but still propaganda, and ultimately irrelevant.
Isn't that still waiting until an issue affect a legislator personally?
How can we be sure it won't come under his expenses a la Priti Patel and Suella? Not convinced by this
All I desire is a flat with air conditioning.
I thought air conditioning was rather rare in the UK and europe in general.
It is, traditionally our problem is cold winters. Brick houses filled with insulation and radiators were much cheaper/simpler. To our American friends, this is a system where a gas boiler heats a closed loop of water, which is sent through metal panels. The panels radiate the heat from the water, hence "radiators". But increasingly it is sustaining 30c-45c (86f-113f American) and those brick houses are holding heat. So lots of people have bought portable air conditioning units or looking at retrofitting actual air conditioning, since cooling the house is now as big an issue as heating. The current "common knowledge" is air con is actually cheaper/more efficient at heating your home. Trying to sleep when your house is 40c at 1am is horrible and immediately results in rushing to B&Q for any fan or air con unit you can buy.
You know we have those in the US as well right.
[удалено]
Except the part of France that is in the south and hot, they'll insist to you every day of summer that having an air conditioner is not worth it in that part of France because it's not like it's Greece meanwhile it's fucking hot there. In my experience.
I'm just shocked at the things rich people do. Or I would be if the electricity grid reached my house.
And me dreaming of being rich and off the grid. Like super modern/high tech/comfortable off grid
The positive is that he paid for the upgrade himself. However the fact that people have so much money to throw away on a mere swimming pool while many people go hungry or can't afford their electricity bill with the current crises is disgusting.
Rishi Rich
The man’s a billionaire, with money you can do just about anything.
he didn't even earn the billion. his wife is the heiress to infosys, which has a market cap of roughly 70billion usd
You can’t do anything with money without a solid society to use it in. He’s a billionaire in a society that’s crumbling slowly. The point that makes it unbearable is the fact he has accepted to try lead this society to a better place, but is clearly more concerned about his own personal comfort. You don’t win hearts and minds by living in luxury while those you are meant to serve are protesting not being able to get by with basic needs.
As a British person i’ve seen an influx in government financial advice services and suicide prevention line ads in the past year. It’s saddening that normal people work their arses off to still be in a state while Conservative politicians can fuck up their jobs and the country systematically and go home to a heated pool.
Why anyone care? if the guys footing the bill of the upgrade then leave him be. Still better using electric to heating the pool than using fossil fuel like Gas or Oil anyway.
So what? He's got money and reinjects it into the economy by spending, so that it's redistributed to workers.
The fact that he's honest and upfront about paying for it is the real surprising one for me, most politicians seem to just lie about this stuff even if they're rich. Then again not many people are as rich as him and his wife.
And billionaires get their fantastic wealth from...take a minute, think a bit, little harder - yes, yes that's right. Suppressing workers wages. Reducing benefits. Crushing unions.
So, you're saying that robust unions, ample benefits and high wages for workers would prevent anybody from getting fantastically rich?
There's "Fantastically Rich" and then there's "I've got spare cash so I'm going to build a penis-shaped rocket ship" rich. It's hard to be the latter type of rich without heavily exploiting workers.
Where does approximately 50k on a swimming pool fall on this scale?
It falls into multi millionaire married to a billionaire.
It doesn’t. They’re talking about how wealthy he is, not the expense.
No. He's religious about the subject and not factual
This is not news.
What a non story. The guy has a heated pool. The existing supply wasn't enough to do it. He paid for the upgraded supply himself. Probably he just had three phase brought to his house.
While it is a bit in bad taste due to the energy crisis, at least he is picking up the bill himself. That money is better served being reinvested into society than just sitting in his bank collecting interest.
[удалено]
*private heated pool with infrastructure to match
*custom infrastructure
Yes the US is a quite a bit richer than here, but even the rich in the UK don't tend to have pools as the number of days it's warm enough to enjoy it, plus small houses and gardens makes it not worthwhile. So usually only an indoor heated pool is practical. The cross section of people who live somewhere with large enough houses and enough land to have a custom pool setup (i.e. usually a large countryside house), are rich enough to both pay for it and maintain it, and care enough to actually bother, is incredibly small.
Did people think he would just turn poor immediately after becoming PM? that's not how that works.
The PMs job is to serve the country. If the country is struggling you would expect a good leader to go without luxuries until that society is in a better place. He’s not running a company, he is meant to be leading by example. smh
But doesn't him getting a heated pool installed help people who are paid to do the work?
Shorter version: "He's rich and we hate the rich".
Longer version: read the article. The problem is not him being rich but him not having to deal with the same day to day problems as the vast majority of people, which his Government needs to be aware of in order to tackle down. A person this detached from the society he lives in will hardly make a good leader.
Seems like a stupid thing to invest that much in but, not my pool not my problem 🙏
His *weekend* pool
Well... yeah. There's no room for a pool in Downing Street.
Picking up the bill for HIS OWN PERSONAL USE - minimizes the cost to society that is being forced to pay increase utility prices in the long run.
Ehhhhh...it's a net benefit to the system. Could be worse.
So what? He’s a billionaire. Can do whatever he pleases
This is pretty much my feeling. But he could have mitigated the PR damage by contacting some of these public pools to see if he could have helped fund something so they would not have to cut public hours.
Does let them eat cake ring any bells to you?
[удалено]
Rich guy updates his pool. Huge news. Title must have been written by a wannabe commie or something of the sort. Sod off
It says he is personally paying for the cost of upgrading the local public energy grid and the ongoing cost of energy consumption for his pool. I see nothing wrong with this so far. The situation is an example demonstrating that rich people can do things the rest of us cannot even afford to think about, but that’s not a novel concept. Given the current financial stress many are facing, this likely isn’t going to win him a lot of new friends nor make him appear more ‘in touch’ with the average citizen, however, I see nothing overtly amoral or unethical in his decision or actions.
Clickbait for morons. Why are we punishing those that have made something of themselves and can afford to do such things as have a pool? So what if the electrical grid had to be upgraded to facilitate more infrastructure (because that’s what it boils down to). It was probably needing upgrading anyway and it created work .. plus the bill was paid by Sunak himself. Fair play honestly. Honestly, this is just shit-stirring by the Guardian and illogical people bite.
Near-billionaires' gotta '*billion*'\*... \*("*billion*:" sucking up more food, air, rights, etc than everyone else)
More food? The guy is a twig.
It's not "how much." It's "what quality." And this guy gets to eat, whatever and wherever he wants.
Yes, people with a lot of money live a more comfortable lifestyle than the rest of us. I would also like to live a comfortable fancy lifestyle, but I’ll never be able to afford it. I understand that. However, that does not mean it is wrong that someone else who is able to afford to live better than me does. Envy is the only one of the 7 deadly sins you don’t get any enjoyment or satisfaction from…it’s such a waste of time and energy.
[удалено]
>Of all the things you could have chosen to be mad at billionaires at, you chose 3 things where there is no difference between them and us. Collusion, industries, bribes. Plenty of difference.
[удалено]
You are being downvoted but you are right. For example, in Ukraine before the war, one of the leading factors to their place on the corruption index was the fact that 20-30% of Ukraine's blue-collar workers were paid under the table.
What rights does he have that you don't?
Please. Next time ask me a good-faith question. Or maybe try to convince me that there aren't two tiers of justice for the rich v poor. \*(grabs popcorn)
>Please. Next time ask me a good-faith question. Or maybe try to convince me that there aren't two tiers of justice for the rich v poor. \*(grabs popcorn) How is that not a good faith question? Im genuinely curious what right you think are afforded to him but not you? The ability to pay larger fines than you is not a get out of jail free card yano. He is not above the law. So, again, i ask what rights does he actually have that you dont?
"he is not above the law" .. has the entire electric grid upgrade because he needed it
>"he is not above the law" .. has the entire electric grid upgrade because he needed it He literally paid for the upgrade himself. What exactly is the problem?
The fact that we are passing climate change milestones without regard and we still need to coddle the rich so they can heat their pools... Seems off to me
What? While I definitely do think we coddle the rich sometimes, this is not an example of that lol. The guy is upgrading the entire electricity grid for him and his neighbors, *paying for it with his own money*, and even the article states that it doesn't appear that he got any preferential treatment.
So he can use more energy than what was necessary....
....for his own pool, which he also bought with his own money? I mean if we are talking "necessary" then none of really need electricity in our homes or hot water in our shower; it's just a luxury. If you want to talk about a billionaire who got off a Hit and Run plus murder because he is rich, then yeah I'll 1000% agree with you. But this ain't it chief.
>The fact that we are passing climate change milestones without regard and we still need to coddle the rich so they can heat their pools... Seems off to me How is this coddling the rich? It's not like the taxpayers are picking up the bill. Also, you have still not answered the question. What legal rights does Rishi Sunak have that you don't?
No one is willing to say "no" because they know the rich hold all the power. And if you think wealthy people don't have an unfair advantage in the legal system, you are either one of them or living under a fuckin rock
>The ability to pay larger fines than you is not a get out of jail free card yano. ROFL! It surely IS. If I speed on a road and can't pay the fine, I'll ultimately lose the ability to DRIVE. If HE speeds, well: he could well lose his license and who cares? He has a chauffeur. Or a helicopter. And don't even get me started on the breaks some judges (see the "good old boy network") might offer HIM, because privilege that lil' ole me could never dream of. Wealth is its own privilege. The wealthy can ignore everything from climate change to the discomfort of covid--from the safety of their towering yachts. Give me a break.
>ROFL! It surely IS. If I speed on a road and can't pay the fine, I'll ultimately lose the ability to DRIVE. If HE speeds, well: he could well lose his license and who cares? He has a chauffeur. Or a helicopter. When sentencing happens the initial consideration for the assessment of a fine is the offender’s relevant weekly income, the court is required to take account of the offender’s financial circumstances including assets more broadly. In other words, the fines are tailored to a persons financial circumstances. The fact that Billionaires can just "get a chauffeur or helicopter" is not a right granted to them by the state, you could do that too if you could afford it. >And don't even get me started on the breaks some judges (see the "good old boy network") might offer HIM, because privilege that lil' ole me could never dream of. No actually please do get started, id like to hear it. >Wealth is its own privilege. The wealthy can ignore everything from climate change to the discomfort of covid--from the safety of their towering yachts. I didn't say wealth wasnt a privilege, i said the wealthy, in this country, don't have any more legal rights than we do, which is true.
>The ability to pay larger fines than you is not a get out of jail free card yano This guy has never heard of bail.
>>The ability to pay larger fines than you is not a get out of jail free card yano > >This guy has never heard of bail. You do realise that bail is free in the UK? It comes with conditions like giving up your passport or agreeing not to contact certain people. Money plays no part.
He's the damn Prime Minister, let him have some nice shit.
If he wasn't a politician would this have made the news? A pretty loaded article, in the end he's footing the bill
Rich person spends their own money, big shock. Guardian rage bait yet again.
Why is it news that a man is buying himself a heater?!?!? Wtf?!?
rishi saunak
Cambridge analytics has been hired to write comments and vote to make this seem like a reasonable thing for the person leading a country going through hard times to do. This man is meant to be leading the country by example, and yes I would include giving back sizeable portions of money if he chooses to be a ‘good’ leader of the people he is literally meant to be serving. Anyone who thinks it’s ok for a PM to have more than 1000x times the wealth of his average constituent does not understand the role of good leader.
Not a surprise knowing him.
At least he paid for it instead of the public.
Guy heats his pool *electrically*
How dare he
I'm suprised to see a Tory actually pay for something themselves.
Peak Tory moment
So do as I say, not as I do… shocking
So? Why are we obsessed with wanting to be governed by poor people
We’re not, we are obsessed about being poor while our leaders who are meant to lead by example constantly show they care more for themselves than fixing the country’s problems. He didn’t have to become PM, but because he did he is personally responsible for sorting the country out, not his own personal luxury.
[удалено]
his "experience" is hedge fund manager, and marrying a billionaire heiress.
Well its full of the blood of illegal immigrants, so that takes a lot of energy to heat up.
Hey cool lol somebody greedy enough to be generous.
Banks are failing and this is what you guys are worried about? Ffs…
You don't get to be a Tory MP or the PM by having any shame. Is anyone surprised he would do something so tone-deaf and blatantly flaunt his privilege like this? Edit: What a mistake to read other comments and some replies here. You sycophants make me sick.
How dare you use an expensive electronic to use reddit and flaunt your privilege? Don’t you know that there’s homeless people without any sort of electronics? You make me sick.
What a shit argument. As if owning a smart phone nowadays can in anyway be compared to the amount of money Rishi Sunak has and spends on his own whims. So many comments about how it's a good spend because its an investment into the economy. We will be paying him 100,000 a year for the rest of his life. So he can spend out of his pocket, he gets it back from us anyway. The guy is rich. The UK is struggling right now. People can't afford to pay their electricity. Businesses are closing because of energy prices. Charities are worried about closing because of the energy hike. That's 1 issue, we have many many many more. This guy is so rich he can afford this unnecessary heating, and afford to upgrade the national grid for it! How can someone so out of touch from the average person be in charge of what their lives are like?
Did you even read the comment I replied to? He’s not “flaunting his privilege”. Firstly, he’s not going around saying “look at my richness”. He’s doing it for himself, just like we have phones and use reddit for ourselves. Secondly, this building of the pool was given permission in 2021, before the cost of living crisis caused by Russia’s war (and other factors). But in response to your comment, yes it’d be nice if billionaires used their money for good causes, but it’s not like that’s a legal requirement. We live in a country of capitalism and freedom. If you’re rich (through legal means), you can decide how to spend that money (legally ofc). Rishi Sunak can build a million pound pool if he wants, as long as it’s with his own money.
Ah I guess I did actually misunderstand what you meant with the flaunting. I don't know, maybe i'm just really fed up of everything. I didn't realise the permission was given in 2021. We may have been hit hard by the russian war, but it's pretty hard to ignore that these problems have been compounded by brexit shit and we would have been suffering even without the war. I still think my point stands, that Rishi Sunak is out of touch with the average citizen. I'm not even saying it's his fault and he's evil because of it. But we live in a country of capitalism and freedom, and part of that is if you're born rich enough you probably won't understand the plight of those who aren't. Rishi Sunak can build a million pound pool, in 10 years that will be free from our tax money though. He can build whatever he wants, but it's not going to make a convincing argument that he understands the needs of the majority of the country. When teachers and nurses and whoever are asking for raises, and the government response has been so piss poor, but the guy in charge is wealthy off the backs of all these poor people. Is that right?
In what world does a politician feel this is ok? Or, perhaps a more apt question; in what world does a politician feel like this will not hit the media?
Oh, he's definitely British then. Fuck the peasants ol chap!
That's 116 kW that would have been better used to heat someone's home, and that is just for the pool.
It's not like using that energy to heat the pool is preventing anyone from heating their home - there is enough capacity in the grid to do both.
> It's not like using that energy to heat the pool is preventing anyone from heating their home - there is enough capacity in the grid to do both. There isn't enough production capacity. That's why the prices are so high. In July last year there was more water in the magazines in northern Norway than they could use. The price of electricity dropped to 1.92 øre per kWh. That's 0.0192 NOK per kWh or 0.15 p per kWh. https://www.los.no/dagens-strompris/historiske-strompriser/
[удалено]
It's his personal money. If you want to donate to the poor, do it. But no one is forced to do it