# Could a British PM get Away With This, Today?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-british-pm-get-away-with-this-today/449857>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 19, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-british-pm-get-away-with-this-today/449857 "2008-05-19T16:19:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-british-pm-get-away-with-this-today/449857/1 "2008-05-19T16:19:57Z")

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…and not be pilloried? I am thinking about Benjamin Disraeli, who saw the tremendous importance of the Suez canal 9to the British Empire)…and bought shares (for the British governmrnt), paying for them out of his own pocket? It is hard to see that such an action would be seen as patriotism, today. most likely a modern PM doing this would be viciously assailed.  
What do you think?

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**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-british-pm-get-away-with-this-today/449857/2 "2008-05-19T23:52:23Z")

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Did Disraeli use his own money? I thought he borrowed it from Barings or someone like that.

But I agree with you. I don’t see it happening today. I doubt that a PM would want, or be able to, make such a significant financial transaction. And there are all sorts of rules around disclosure of private financial interests, conflicts etc. A roughly analagous Australian political scandal in 1975, the [Khemlani Loans Affair](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loans_Affair), which involved unauthorised borrowing by a government Minister, supposedly for infrastructure investments, caused a huge scandal and was one of the final nails in the coffin for the Whitlam Labor government.

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**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-british-pm-get-away-with-this-today/449857/3 "2008-05-20T02:58:51Z")

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Disraeli did not pay for the shares out of his own pocket, he borrowed the money from the Rothschilds. His justification was that Parlaiment was not in session when the shares owned by the Egyptian Khedive suddenly became available, and he had to act quickly to secure them before the French did. And it was not uncontroversial at the time – Gladstone and the Liberals hammered him for it.

For those interested, Disraeli’s speech defending his actions can be found [here.](http://www.victorianweb.org/history/polspeech/suez.html)

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-british-pm-get-away-with-this-today/449857/4 "2008-05-20T03:01:59Z")

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Disraeli didn’t buy the Suez Canal shares out of his own pocket. He borrowed the money from the Rothschilds, bought the shares, and then asked Parliament to pay off the loan. He was deservedly chastised for having effectively spent governments funds without prior parliamentary approval.