Third year History student Alex Satchwell created a petition against discounted food in the House of Lords which has received over 150,000 signatures, so far! Because it’s reached over 100,000 signatures it has to be reviewed, but not necessarily debated, so get signing!
Why did you choose to create a petition about this?
The Government estimates that the House of Lords’ food is subsidised by £1.3 million a year, yet when the new budget plan came out, showing that they were going to cut billions of pounds from public sectors, it got me thinking about the inequality surrounding such a base issue as food. Especially as many representatives in the House of Lords aren’t even elected. They vote for austerity but they enjoy the finer things in life on the back of the tax payers. So I chose this because I thought it was an issue that was neglected but important.
Also at the time there was the Lord Sewell scandal, where he did a load of drugs with some prostitutes in a hotel. The point is if someone else did that they would have been sacked, and had criminal charges filed against them. But he was allowed to temporarily resign and that was that.
What was the response to it?
Lots of people said we should just get rid of catering subsidies, there was a lot of widespread dislike for it.
What party do you support?
I don’t really support any. I voted for the Greens in the election but I registered for the labour leadership election to vote for Jeremy Corbyn. But I don’t really identify with Westminster politics that much.
Thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn?
I love him! I want to hug him. I want to just sit on this sofa with him and listen to him. He’s got a great beard. He just seems like a very decent guy: vegetarian, rides a bike around, doesn’t use his expenses much. He seems an all-round beautiful man! Also, he wouldn’t press the button for a nuclear weapon, and kill tens of thousands of people, but for some reason got slated for that. I mean you either press it first, and start the war, or press it second and then it clearly didn’t work as a deterrent.
Is politics a possible future career for you?
Yes and no. I don’t think the system works at the moment. What I might do is go into certain policies, maybe drugs policies. The system itself seems pretty toxic.
David Cameron and his piggy friend?
To be honest it seems to be a manifestation of everything I don’t like about politics. He was in the Bullingdon club and is a hypocrite on his drug use policies. But the attacks aren’t necessary, they weren’t exactly helpful. So even though I don’t like him, or what he stands for, I don’t think there’s a place for anything like that in politics. If you just attack someone on the basis of their past, it just comes across as desperate.
Any cheeky initiations that might rival David Cameron’s?
I’ve not had any to be honest. I’ve not got to the pig level.
Sources:
https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/ad_181915467.jpg?w=748&h=547&crop=1