"More than £28,000 was spent on painting and sanding floorboards alone"

[Fambo Number Mive]

I imagine 10 Downing Street is pretty big, but that still seems like a lot of money to spend on painting and sanding floorboards.

The party must be glad of people like Lord Brownlow, who reimbursed the party for a "bridging loan" it initially provided for some of the works. Brownlow reimbursed almost £53,000.

The rennovations cost up to £200,000. So his supporters are fine with that but when someone from XR uses a car it's HOW DARE THEY.

Prime ministers receive an annual public grant of £30,000 to spend on their Downing Street living quarters, which are publicly-owned.

Who is Lord Brownlow?

Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row in the royal county of Berkshire, who is ranked the 521st richest person in the UK with an estimated £271m fortune in the Sunday Times rich list...

He was invited for a private dinner with Theresa May at Chequers in November 2017 and handed a peerage by the former prime minister in her resignation honours' list in 2019.

He gave cash to May's own Maidenhead constituency office, donated £100,000 to the Stronger In campaign during the Brexit referendum and served as vice-chairman of the Conservative party between July 2017 and July 2020...

Brownlow is also one of the biggest investors in Cefinn, the fashion label founded by David Cameron's wife, Samantha, which sells trouser suits for £700 and dresses that start at about £250.

Former copper, recruitment consultant and founded a private equity firm. Has a charitable foundation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58331180

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/27/lord-david-brownlow-tory-donor-paid-no-10-refurbishment-boris-johnson

[touchingcloth]

I imagine 10 Downing Street is pretty big

It's actually not. No British Prime Minister or MP has been taller than 5 inches high, so things like Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament are actually far smaller than they appear on TV.

[Shit Good Nose]

Ignoring all the probable dodgy goings on and golden handshakes, it IS grade 1 listed, so it will have incredibly strict rules on the type of works that can be done and how they're done, and also the type of paint/varnish/whatever that can be used, and as a result any works in grade 1 listed buildings always cost a fucking fortune, and they would cost a fucking fortune if Corbyn was in there.

Whether these works NEEDED to be done is another question.

It's actually not. No British Prime Minister or MP has been taller than 5 inches high, so things like Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament are actually far smaller than they appear on TV.

You know what they say - the camera adds a few tonnes.

[idunnosomename]

you can actually look at quite a lot of No 10 via Google Maps streetview. not the living quarters of course. and a lot of PMs like Blair and Cameron with kids have lived in No 11 anyway because the living areas are bigger

[Fambo Number Mive]

Good point about it being Grade 1 listed, I hadn't thought of that.

[dissolute ocelot]

You don't need listed building consent if you're just repainting bits that are already painted. Particularly if Theresa May had them repainted 2 years before. Maybe if they were last painted in 1850 with a special type of lime, it's more complex, but if the last inhabitant used Dulux you can just buy another tin.

EDIT: You should be able to find the exact description of the listed parts of the building online somewhere.

[idunnosomename]

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1210759

[The Dog]

Only reason to spend so much on redecorating is to clean up the scene of a brutal murder.

[The Dog]

Just remembered it could also be a brutal manslaughter, or even just a brutal accident, but anyway we got a new kitchen out of it.

[Buelligan]

Ignoring all the probable dodgy goings on and golden handshakes, it IS grade 1 listed, so it will have incredibly strict rules on the type of works that can be done and how they're done, and also the type of paint/varnish/whatever that can be used, and as a result any works in grade 1 listed buildings always cost a fucking fortune, and they would cost a fucking fortune if Corbyn was in there.

Whether these works NEEDED to be done is another question.

That's it, isn't it?  Can anyone, even anyone who really fucking loathes Crobbo, actually convince themselves that he'd spend tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds on remodelling the interior of Downing Street for his own pleasure (or that of his wife)? 

And this going on whilst thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of people in the UK are living in substandard homes, think cladding - existential shit like that - think homeless.  Fuck me, I don't know why anyone even tolerates this utter shit.  If Britain's so great and its PM should have a super-duper home, it should be great enough not to fry kids in a tower block for cost reasons.

[Jittlebags]

Imagine the cat flap you could buy with that kind of money.

[falafel]

why would you paint them first

[Dex Sawash]

Small price to pay for solitude

[touchingcloth]

I'm not a fan of the passive voice in the thread title, by the way. Have you considered the more emphatic "cunts spent more than £28,000"?