@ukboomers The donkey sanctuary is the third richest charity in the UK. They make more money than most others. Can’t you leave it to a children’s charity or the Blue Cross?
Crazy that we hear about Train Drivers who get £60,000 a year for driving a train.
But we never hear about the boss of Tesco who gets £30,000 a day and doesn't even pay tax in the UK.
Or the £250m a day that the likes of Amazon, Vodafone, BP and Shell don't pay in tax.
This morning, I took an early stroll and found myself thinking about Lee Anderson.
And something doesn’t add up.
Because Lee likes to present himself as the man of the people (and that is why Nigel is tolerating him)
The bloke who says what others are supposedly too afraid to say.
The voice from the street.
The pint.
The bacon bap.
The no-nonsense routine.
Bacon Bob, doing politics with a microphone and a facial expression that says Britain went wrong when sandwiches got too complicated.
But then you look a little closer.
And what do you actually see?
A man who has worn three political badges in a very short political life.
Conservative.
Independent.
Reform.
That is not exactly a working-class revolution. That is a lanyard collection.
At this rate, he is not a politician. He is a loyalty card with opinions.
"Collect four parties and get the fifth one free".
And this is why the “man of the people” routine starts to fall apart.
Because it starts to look a bit odd when the man of the people films himself on the way to Westminster, talking about homeless people as if poverty is a useful backdrop for content.
People struggling on the street are not scenery. They are not props. They are not evidence that a politician is “real.” They are human beings.
And if you want to be the man of the people, the first rule should be simple:
Do not use people’s hardship as political wallpaper.
It also looks a bit odd when the “man of the people” stands shoulder to shoulder with men worth many millions more than the people they claim to represent.
Property millionaires. Media politicians. Big donors. People with money, platforms and power.
And then somehow ordinary working people are asked to believe this is a grassroots revolt from the street.
Is it?
Or is it another well-funded political machine, dressed up in a flat cap and sent out to sell anger to the people who have already been let down?
That is the question Lee Anderson should answer.
Because plain-speaking will not protect him forever.
Not when the act begins to look less like service and more like extraction.
Taking people’s anger. Taking people’s hardship. Taking people’s fear. Taking people’s sense of being ignored.
Then turning it all into content, slogans, clips and applause.
That is not standing with working people.
That is feeding off their frustration while offering them very little in return.
But Reform does what Reform always does.
Find a serious problem.
Strip out the complexity.
Add "cold rage". Call it courage.
Lee Anderson wants to sound like the man of the people.
Fine.
Then speak to people properly.
Lee Anderson may call it “A Scandal" when Richard Tice tells him to do.
But the real scandal is pretending slogans are solutions.
I may be wrong, but that is how I see it. What do you think?