What is wrong with John Lewis?

No 10 may look unprepossessing from the outside but it's not too shabby on the inside, with large rooms for entertaining.
www.businessinsider.com/inside-10-downing-street-2015-11?r=US&IR=T#number-10-also-has-a-well-kept-garden-which-is-often-used-to-host-events-23

It's fine to campaign for a better house for the PM if it really concerns you however that doesnt distract from the fact that rules with regard to the use of public money are there for a reason and cant just be ignored. If it is democratically decided that Johnson can live in Buckingham palace that's fine, there would still he questions to answer about the spending on the flat.

Aveline

The French Prime Ministers residence. Location in Central Paris.
Surely we can do as well.

I wish I believed you were joking ????

suziewoozie

There is nothing wrong with John Lewis. On the other hand, there is a great deal wrong with Carrie Antoinette as evidenced firstly by her taste in men.

This matched my exact thoughts. So ditto, ditto.

I do not think the French have as compact a political quarter as we do. There are superb public rooms in the Foreign and Commonwealth Building, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, The Houses of Parliament themselves.

The British PM can entertain in as grand a style as any French PM - and I suspect that only a small part of those magnificent official residentces the French and German PM's have are actual used by them. They probably just have a private flat on the third floor.

France and Germany don’t have a monarchy with all their trappings on top.

I thought we were comparing Prime Ministerial residences?

France has a President with all the trappings on top.
The Elysée Palace is hardly shabby.
Not to mention the upkeep of the Summer Palace, including €34,000 for a swimming pool for the Macrons even though it has a private beach
Fort de Brégançon is beautiful, secluded and a perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of Paris. It’s also been a pain in the derrière for French president after French president.

It’s also old and needs a lot of maintenance — according to a 2018 report in Le Point, annual running costs could be as high as €700,000
Mind you, €34,000 seems a bargain considering some of Macron’s other expenditures — including as much as €500,000 replacing the tableware at the Elysée presidential palace

I'm sure Frau Merkel is more frugal though.

I think the re-vamp looks like a very tacky film set.

What really annoys me is the thought of someone spending £58,000 on refurnishing (and it is rumoured that far more than that was spent). Two reports on the ITV News have shown people living in the most horrendous conditions - their walls black with mold and damp everywhere. One woman living in these circumstances was dying with cancer. It was very sad to think that her last months would be spent in such appalling conditions. Apparently ITV has had hundreds of letters and photos showing tenants living in similar conditions.

I am sure May's taste would be more traditional than a younger person might like, but this is, I believe, a house that comes rent free. If the furnishings and decor aren't to the new occupants' taste then they should foot the bill for changing them.

I detect a note of snobbery in Carrie Simmonds' comment since John Lewis's market is probably more aligned with the aspiring middle classes than the seriously wealthy. She sounds like a nightmare but then I find it hard to believe that a nice person would be attracted to Johnson.

I remember reading that Theresa May did not redecorate the flat when she became PM, and when you think about it, she was not there long enough to do it anyway. The JL decor Symonds was so rude about was down to Samantha Cameron.

I ve never been to a John Lewis shop

..

As with any married quarter new occupants could decorate the place how they wanted to if they were daft enough. (Most people I knew would go mad and slap individuality on the fire place wall with chocolate brown paint (70s) or a roll of wallpaper). Obviously the quarter had to be returned to its original decor before outmuster and at your own expense of course.

In HK we were in government flats. We all had the same furniture but had to buy our sofa/chair covers and curtains, rugs etc so there was a bit of indivuality.
We used to feel a little superior to the forces. There was a block of flats we used to pass and they all had the same curtains?
Somehow we survived.

Macron is not the French Prime Minister. He is the The head of State, like the Queen so comparing his house with that of the PM is not comparing like with like.

What sticks in my throat in all this ostentatious, pricy and rather vulgar redecoration, is that Ms Symonds is vaunted as a 'passionate' environmentalist and I just cannot balance this with her reckless expenditure on new furnishings. What is the environmental cost of this massive refit?

As a 'passionate' environmentalist. what a mark CS could have made by using recycled furniture etc. She has the great auction houses in central London nearby where she could buy the most beautiful and expensive antique furniture, or she could have gone for mid-century modern, all Ercol and G Plan or High modern Italian style from the 1960s/70s.

An opportunity lost for them both to have made an environmental statement about their own personal commitment to climate change.

Macron is president and Head of state like Biden who has the White House.
That our Prime Minister's flat is under discussion is an embarrassment. Time a proper residence is found for him.

A Elaine, can you explain why Downing Street isn’t a proper residence for the PM

Aveline

Macron is president and Head of state like Biden who has the White House.
That our Prime Minister's flat is under discussion is an embarrassment. Time a proper residence is found for him.

Why are you so bothered about this? Our PM has always had Downing Street and chequers plus there’s all the royal palaces as well.

And it's nothing to do with the subject in hand.

I love John Lewis. It’s not boring or bland and there are enough different styles and designs available there to cater for different tastes. As for the Lulu Lytle interior - cluttered, mithering, clashing colours, but interesting. I couldn’t live with that styling myself, but I can appreciate it. It’s rather womb-like IMHO.

As with any married quarter new occupants could decorate the place how they wanted to if they were daft enough.

Well, with a married quarter you could re-decorate but you would have to put it back to exactly as it was when you moved in, ie magnolia, scratched and shabby.

You said that Alima

read the whole post!

what a mark CS could have made by using recycled furniture etc.

M0nica I did read somewhere that Carrie has been busy upcycling furniture during the last year.
I believe everything I read

Casdon not competing in any way with France Germany etc I was just trying to illustrate that our PM should have better than a 'perfectly adequate' flat! The decor is irrelevent to me.

The French Prime minster lives in Hôtel de Matignon which I very much doubt that any Prime Minster would have any say on redecoration.
Someone in the family did live in several government houses/flats. When they move in they were sometimes allowed to choose and exchange furniture from a huge governmental warehouse.