Partygate

I give up. You will go to any lengths to justify what is clearly and obviously, to everyone else, persistent and systematic law-breaking at the heart of government. These were regular Friday afternoon post work piss-ups which Johnson not only knew about but encouraged, to allow his staff to 'let off steam'. It's not just whether he was always there that matters, it's the fact that he positively encouraged a culture of persistent illegality, knowing full well that such socialising was against the law that he himself was preaching to the rest of us.

But we now know that he also participated for twenty minutes in a gathering where the (non-socially distanced) room was so packed that some people had to sit on others laps to fit them all in. And there's photographic evidence of him doing it. This was clearly and obviously (except to you, apparently) against the law.

There was nothing whatsoever 'essential for work purposes' about any of this - it was socialising, pure and simple, while the rest of the country was prevented from doing so. It's beyond me that you don't understand this and constantly seek to minimise it.

Equating the meal in Durham with months of routine law-breaking is perverse and absurd

 

Well you may not have to wait long. It sounds like the report has dropped, when we get to see it who knows.

This shitshow forced his hand into not applying any further restrictions when it first emerged, it sounds like it is forcing his hands regarding the cost of living crisis with a possible announcement tomorrow, so at least it is having some good.

Drakeford and Sturgeon under no political pressure decimated local business with daft rules back at Christmas, who knows if there were no party gate if the PM would have done the same.

 

I just think you're being deliberately perverse and contrarian.
We now have reports from people who were there saying that there was a packed room with people sitting on laps; that Johnson was there, leading the drinking for at least 20 minutes; that post work drinking sessions were frequent, to the extent that people would often come into work to find bottles and other debris left from the night before; that Johnson not only knew about this culture right under his nose, but actively encouraged it.

The photos clearly show him leading a toast at a social occasion. I don't know how much more proof you need, unless you're going to say that boozing in the office is a normal part of everyday work. There are obviously some forms of employment (journalism, sales etc) where drinking is seen as an accepted part of normal work. But I can assure you that in all forms of public service that has been very far from the case for many years - drinking on the premises, or even off it during work hours, is usually a disciplinary offence.
NB Ive just seen that the Gray report has been published. I wrote the above before but from a quick look can't see that it changes anything - merely confirms what we already knew.

 

Youre not an etonian are you? so what went wrong in your life?

 

It doesn't have to be a party. The rules specified a 'gathering' not reasonably necessary for work purposes. At a time when social gathering rules were being interpreted extremely tightly for the general population you appear to be arguing for a much more liberal interpretation to be applied to those who made the rules.
A leaving do is a social gathering, not a necessary work event, therefore if Johnson was present for a significant period of time, which we know he was, then he broke the law.

 

Damning evidence.....

 

Johnson really doesn't help himself if he wants this to go away.

Making an apology then claiming everything that happened did so when he left the room and claiming he didn't know what was going on is not the best look.

It took him about 2min to go from apology mode to making jokes about "Sir Beer Korma" which doesn't paint a picture of someone who has learnt anything through all this.

He's not going to resign, he never was.

Clearly his next focus is trying to convince everyone he didn't mislead parliment by claiming he knew nothing of it though he seemed to regularly wonder through the place to and from his flat regardless of taking part in any of it.

As 9 pictures have been included in this report, no doubt the media will be falling over themselves to obtain the other 490 odd of them known to exist.

I doubt this is going away anytime soon.

 

That's simply not true. Most public sector workplaces were working to incredibly strict procedures at that time. Socially distanced, mask wearing, absolutely essential meetings only. What we've seen and heard described, including the cake and leaving do's, were totally atypical of what was going on in civil service and local government offices at the time.
They are also atypical of what previously went on in No 10 under previous PMs. It's Johnson who has transformed Downing Street into an extension of the Bullingdon Club. As Gray's report says,
"The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture."

 

Arguably it could have been, given the incredible pressures they were under most of the time, althoughTBH I think they were ill advised. But, in any case, I wasn't talking about nurses working frontline, facing the daily possibility of contracting a disease that could have killed them, often without proper PPE, pre-vaccinations. There's far more of an excuse for them.
I was talking about office-based civil servants and local government workers - ie analogous to those working at No 10 - who were sticking rigidly to the rules.

You'll say there's no difference, in your usual incredibly pedantic way. But most people would appreciate the difference between life saving doctors and nurses blowing off steam and office based politicians and staff holding boozy social gatherings at a time of national emergency measures.

 

I was being somewhat tongue in cheek there. As I said, I think the dance videos were ill advised. The point I was making is that there is far more excuse for people who were daily risking their lives to save others than there was for office based politicians and workers at No 10. Surely even you can make that distinction.

We need to stop this now. You think that holding birthday celebrations and leaving do's, with or without booze, during strict lockdown regulations, was ok. I don't. Let's leave it there.

 

How about our unwritten constitution? how do you think knowingly lying to parliament impacts the democratic process in the UK?