BYOB important in the context of this party, because usually the Downing Street caterers would supply the plonk. Of course they couldn’t ask the caterers because it was a gathering against the guidelines and they knew it. Collecting fines and missing funerals, stuff for other folk.
The lockdown implemented was totally over the top measure, the idea that a couple walking on Derbyshire moors would be arrested and fined was beyond any level of common sense policing, down here in the west country we had frankly ridiculous police activity shoo-ing people off of beaches when walking their dogs... but... those are the rules Boris and pals implemented and then ignored themselves. This has to be the end for him.
Exactly this. It doesn't matter what anyone's personal opinion is on the effectiveness of lockdowns, the law was clear that such social gatherings were banned and this should be the end for Johnson. I agree that the interpretation and enforcement by certain constabularies was plain stupid at times though.
Probably bad news for Starmer and any Labour supporter, gives the Conservative's two years for Brextit failures, party-gate etc to be forgotten.
That’s a shame. You’d think the PM lying again and again to the public would be some sort of big deal.
It’s all very well Tory MPs venting their ire today. They are fully aware Johnson lies and they have backed him all the way. Lies on Brexit, Parties, Donations, Redecorating, Standards etc etc. They are angry now because they think it will backfire on them, that they could lose seats. That’s it. No real contrition, anymore than on Northern Ireland or Owen Paterson or sewage.
I think this piece sums things up nicely https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-unfathomable-inadequacy-of-boris-johnson
Sorry, it's behind a paywall. Here you go... It's written by Alex Massie There is no room for wriggling here and not just because multiple witnesses put Boris Johnson and his wife at the scene of the stupidity. If Boris Johnson had not been aware that 100 people who work in the same building as him had been invited to a post-work BYOB shindig, even he might have noticed a crowd of 30 to 40 gathering in his garden. And he might then have popped a prime ministerial head out of the window and asked what the bloody hell the partygoers thought they were doing. But of course nothing like that happened because the Prime Minister must surely have known about it all along. The invitation, after all, came from his principal private secretary, not some rogue Downing Street employee. But, once again, even if by some heroic act of ignorance the Prime Minister did not know about the party in advance he certainly knew about it when he attended it. At which point – as at any moment in this saga of intergalactic idiocy – it was within the Prime Minister’s power to note the manner in which this gathering contravened his own regulations in a dozen different ways and, you know, shut it down, sending everyone home with a thunderous cry of ‘What were you thinking, you fools?’ Instead the Prime Minister and his wife attended the party. It was apparent long before he entered Downing Street that Boris Johnson would be a pub league prime minister but even his detractors can be forgiven for underestimating the depths of his inadequacy. No prime minister would have sailed through the Covid emergency unchallenged or unscathed but to a man and woman Johnson’s predecessors would at least have appreciated you can’t have ministers appearing on television reminding people they can’t meet friends in the park and then – an hour later! – host a staff jolly in the Downing Street garden. Whatever one might think of Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, John Major or Margaret Thatcher it is simply impossible to imagine them sanctioning a social event of this sort at a time when, across the country, thousands and thousands of people were prevented from attending the funerals of family members and friends. I am confident every one of those prime ministers would have considered a party in those circumstances grotesquely inappropriate (which is the true standard here, not whatever the law might say). Only this prime minister is different. Only he stands alone. For he is Boris Johnson and restrictions which apply to other people cannot be expected to apply to him. We do not always ask too much from our political leaders. The bar for acceptability is not so very high: a measure of application, a plausible sense of where they might like to take the country, a sufficient lick of probity and so on. That might not be enough to make a prime minister loved, it is usually sufficient for them to be afforded a grudging measure of respect. Like ‘em or not, at least they’re doing their best. Not very good, perhaps, but those are the breaks. No one, however, can say what Boris Johnson’s best might look like for it is an alien concept of a kind even a fertile imagination can scarcely contemplate. It is an idea beyond our feeble understanding and must be left to some future civilisation to investigate. If these were times of sunshine and laughter and easy prosperity the Prime Minister’s inadequacies might not matter so very much. His government would still, even in those propitious circumstances, deliver less than it might promise but it would not be a ghastly or shaming blunder. As soon as Covid washed up here, however, it was apparent Johnson was ill-matched for both the office he holds and the time in which he occupies it. Not much has changed in the intervening two years. So it now falls to the Tory party to do something about this. If the Conservative party had anything about it these days its senior representatives would hand the Prime Minister the black spot. For neither the party, nor the government, nor – and more importantly – the country can go on like this. Nor should it be expected to.
And that’s fine and well argued, but this is the Spectator, the same publication that has been indulging Johnson’s lies and culture war throughout, because it suited them, amused them even, by enraging lefties and remoaners.
Here’s Charles Moore defending Cummings Barnard Castle jaunt, when everyone else knew it was wrong. It’s not journalism, just batting for the team. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-ferocious-bias-against-dominic-cummings
I can't spend all day on here sticking up for the Spectator - I've actually got some work to do before Escape to the Country starts
Bunter to face PMQs today. He’s going to adopt one of his two childhood personas, either, Mr Speaker! The rules were followed, I, I, I, Fwah, fwah, fwah! While party opposite shirks and smirks, we get on with the job! Ask Starmer about his parties! It was him Mr Speaker! Or, I’ve been a bad boy Miss. Please feel sorry for me. Is it no cocoa and supper for Boris tonight? Poor Bowis.
My betting is on the former. I reckon he'll try and deflect and then drop a massive dead cat distraction later today or tomorrow (some major announcement or triggering Article 16 or something like that). He will then hope the investigation and controversy are quietly forgotten. The problem he has if he admits going to the party is he will also be admitting he misled parliament and would also leave himself open to criminal charges. The other option is to claim the gathering was work related as he did for the drinks & cheese event on the 15th May. The formal invite makes that difficult for him though. I personally think he's toast whatever happens now but I don't think he'll go without a fight.
The government's use of a VIP lane for PPE contracts ruled unlawful by the High Court. More bad news for Johnson and his cabinet.
It’s contrite Boris version 2. I wish things had been done differently, but look what a good chap I am. Extraordinary language wish things had been done differently when you were only allowed to meet one person outdoors and not travel for unnecessary reasons. Darling, I do finally admit I shagged your sister and I wish things had been done differently. Opposition parties demanding his resignation Tories asking questions about nothing to distract.
Yes, and the ridiculous "I didn't realise it was a party" defence. I genuinely think that not even @zztop would be able to defend him now. Still anticipating a dead cat later today now.
Sycophantic Tory MPs showing what side they view truth from by question after question simply saying how great they. Like fluffers on a porn set.
I think you would be surprised. He defended Cummings, Williamson, equally as obvious, in fact he’s never conceded a wrong doing of any significance whatsoever. Come back Topsy!
I've never seen a PMQs like that in 40 odd years of following politics. I lost count of the number of questions asking when he's going to resign only for de Pfeffel to lamely attempt to parry them away by bleating about waiting for the results of Sue Grey's enquiry... https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-labour-coronavirus-latest-updates-covid-live I thought that it would be a piss-up in a garden will do for him: not the 150k+ covid deaths, not the shagging, not the Russian money, not the pay-offs to mistresses, not the Brexit lies, not the rampant corruption but a piss-up.
The fact that Johnson kept saying "wait for the results of the inquiry" with such confidence makes me suspicious. I wonder if a draft has already been prepared exonerating him personally while giving a couple of scapegoats (suitably rewarded with knighthoods/peerages later)? Will the voting public be swayed by such an inquiry report? I imagine Johnson's only hope is that it at least it gets the Tory core back on side....which is all he needs.
Tories taking the line ‘he’s apologised and most people will accept that. This is the opposition playing politics’. None of them will touch the fact that this has been more than a year of lies about the conduct of the Government since Cummings.
Yep. Something smells over this already. Gray’s got a bit of a reputation for backing the Government and pushing secrecy from commentators I’ve seen. He seemed very very confident in this route for some reason.
One of my favourite parts was the ‘the role of fresh air in stopping the virus’ comment he made in relation to the garden. At the same time that people were being hunted down by police for driving 10 miles to go for a walk in the moors.
Is it? Just because those in the shires are willing to tolerate it, doesn't mean that those in 'Red Wall' seats will. I still think he will go sooner rather than later.
I think his confidence is probably based on the hope (possibly expectation) that the report won't reveal anything new. In which case he'll throw a couple of his lackies under the bus and refer everyone to his previous apologies when asked if he's going to resign.
