Joan's Half Million

A single lady never married ex nurse recently died in Bristol leaving £520k in her will “to the government” the Tories decided that mean £420k for them and £100k to Lib Dems. After predictable up roar that government didn’t mean political party Lib Dems have given their money back. Labour have started a campaign as to what to do withJoans Half Million

So what’s the view here as to what to do with the money ?

Mine is simple, she had been living in a 3 bed council house for most of her life so that £500k should go to providing more council houses for people that actually need them. What I cannot fathom is how you get to live in subsidised council housing and have 520k to leave in your will. We have all this outrage at “bed room tax” when we have single pensioners with £500k living in 3 bed council houses

ex nurse with half a million, probably inherited it herself, maybe quite late in life. I don’t think nursing has ever been a career for amassing a fortune in itself.

It should be spent on bonuses for senior Whitehall staff, definitely.

They all do a simply superb job, involving selfless sacrifice, only expecting in return the warm glow that comes from their own fiercely held Public Service ethos, and a modest salary

Spend it on bullets and a big gun.
Set up big gun outside parlimant…
I think you can guess the rest.

party funding stinks

personally Id like it spent on a trap door/lie detector system so that any time a politician lies in the house they fall into a death pit, complete with Rancor monster

What I cannot fathom is how you get to live in subsidised council housing and have 520k to leave in your will

These things happen:

Apparently she may have amassed it through a bit of nifty share dealing.

Showing off the best side of all three major parties – reptilian greed and utterly cynical opportunism.

It’s just been on the radio that according to the solicitors who wrote and were executing the will the donation was for the political party in power at the time and not the government so it appears that they weren’t in the wrong in accepting the money.

Sad story,I hope her cats will be ok.

Why would anyone voluntarily give their money to the government? it’s beyond belief. You pay all your life and then when you die you agree to gift it to them as well? What’s she suffering from some mental health issues?

I’d rather the money went to someone who would do something useful and valuable with it.

Like me.

by the way. Do not, under any circumstances, search for ‘luckiest guy in the world’ at work on google images with safe search turned off.

There’s an image of the will itself in the Torygraph. It says ‘government’, not ‘party’.

It seems the Tories and Nick have announced they’re handing it back to the Treasury…

fasthaggis – Member
Sad story,I hope her cats will be ok.

Not if they encounter some of the drivers on here!! 😯

Not if they encounter some of the drivers on here!!

At least it would spare me the potential danger of having to face the owner.

@martinhutch – another perfect example, £100k a year in salary from the union and council / subsidised housing. A good friend of mine went to school with him, said he was thoroughly unpleasant

Why would anyone voluntarily give their money to the government? it’s beyond belief.

completely agree. With her being a nurse I can only presume she meant for it to be invested into the National Health with the naive assumption that it would fund improvements.

@msp I think that’s quite possible but at the point you inherit £500k you should give your council house back and rent or buy something at commercial non-subsidised rates

Will Dave not argue that he is the face of the government and therefore it should go to him.

Did the terms of the will not say it should go to whoever was IN government?

There is no doubt that Labour would have taken the money if it was waved under their noses.

At least the Conservatives/Labour can give the money back instead of just sending back a note saying “there’s no money left, we already spent it”.

‘for whichever government is in office’

It quite plainly says government rather than party

caught thieving again, probably already been used on a special duck house at tory party HQ

They’ll have accepted funds from the Executors having been told it was a bequest without necessarily seeing the will. Will seen, funds handed to Treasury. Storm in teacup over execution over poorly worded will over.

Pretty much a non story.

somebody photoshop that to say ‘all the people on the stw forum for spending on bike bits’

Do not, under any circumstances, search for ‘luckiest guy in the world’ at work on google images with safe search turned off.

<Peter Griffin> Must not go to Google…</Peter Griffin>

Pretty much a non story

apparently the will had been seen by the treasury solicitors and the attorney generals office

besides which youd think that upon receiving half a million quid someone might think to check that it was all above board

I think the fact they chose to distribute amongst themselves for party political gains tells you everything youo need to know about our current government.

Its a pity we haven’t got any worthy opposition we can believe in to vote for. As far as I’m concerned we are ruled by our own apathy (and Europe).

apparently the will had been seen by the treasury solicitors and the attorney generals office

besides which youd think that upon receiving half a million quid someone might think to check that it was all above board

That sounds like they did check and took it after that guidance. That they felt the need to do that rather than take the ambiguity as a signal to pass it straight to the Treasury is the grubby part.

“Well if there’s any ambiguity about the situation, then I’ll err in my favour and trouser the lot. **** the voters”

Pretty much a continuation of the expenses scandal then? Good to see things have changed 🙄

I find it hard to believe that any of our grubby politicians would let money out of their grasp under any circumstances at all.

Great big media s**t storm really. It was the executors of the said estate who contacted the government to let them know the money was on its way.

The government found this surprising and did check it out with the executors who said this was definitely ok and they’d send the money on.

The press get hold of it and make out this old lady was being robbed etc…

Not one to defend the ConDems usually but in this case I can’t really see what they did wrong…

You do understand the difference between the government and a political party?

they only gave the money back so the wouldn’t have to award a posthumous peerage.

@scotroutes – I do but regardless of the semantics they still didn’t steal the money in quite the manner the press made out…

You do understand the difference between the government and a political party?

The solicitor acting on behalf of the lady concerned said on the Beeb today said that they checked with the lady before she died, and were quite clear that she intended the money to go to whichever party was in power, not ‘the government.’
Of course, the Daily Wail really made a meal of it.
And I wonder what Labour would have done if they’d been the party of government …