As illustrated by my four-part series (here, here, here, and here) and as captured in this Star Wars meme, I view politicians with disdain.
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Though I don’t have a firm opinion of the debate between those who think bad people are drawn to politics and those who think good people get corrupted once they enter politics.
I suspect that answer is a bit of both.
What I do know, however, is that there are lots of despicable politicians. So when I nominate one of Politician of the Year, that requires something really special.
Here are the two candidates for 2025.
- Like the Icelandic politician who was appointed “Minister for Children,” only to then reveal she got knocked up by a 16-year old.
- Like the Connecticut politician who voted to ban plastic grocery bags and then blamed his shoplifting arrest on a lack of plastic bags.
Now we have a third option in this contest.
Here are some excerpts from a report by Jon Craig for Sky News.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house and then hiked the rent. A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go… In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really?
She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants. She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said her government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”. The now former minister was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000 – a rent increase of more than 20%. …In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
I have no objection to Rushanara Ali for trying to get the most money possible. If I owned rental properties, I’d do the same thing.
It’s her staggering hypocrisy that bothers me. As noted in the article, she condemns other landlords for doing exactly what she did.
Very much like all the wealthy leftists who criticize tax havens but also invest in hedge funds based in places like the Cayman Islands.
Repulsive people.
P.S. One of the 2024 nominees for Politician of the Year in 2024 is well known when the other was an obscure official from Texas.
P.P.S. Shifting to public policy, housing tends to be very expensive when politicians impose bad policies like zoning restrictions and rent control.
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