Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

If he'd not broken the rules in the first place it wouldn't even have an issue.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

That as well

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...en-in-may-2020

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...4&d=1639941498

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I fear only a period of reflection in Opposition will cleanse the Conservative Party.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

A swift boot up bojo's arse will sort it out.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Dominic Raab this morning ‘it wasn’t a social gathering as they were wearing suits’

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

So in any future lockdown we can have a garden party so long as we all wear suits. :rolleyes:

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

It's on a par with everything else that muppet has said.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Interestingly, they had a Labour politician on sky news this morning, who believes that the photo was taken from number 11

(Not sure who gets to go to no11 tbh)

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Isn't the PM's private flat above number 11?

Can't help wondering if Cummings is behind all this.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

This hasn't been confirmed anywhere but I though it looks like he is he the one sat on the left of the table in the foreground along with the Johnsons and (I think I've seen it mentioned) the PM's PPS?

I have no idea how his mind works, and don't really want to, but if I was lining up a 'gotcha', I wouldn't want to be part of it!

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

That's just his alibi! Where was his wife at the time? :D

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

If it such an important/controversial picture why has it taken 18 months for it to be released?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

revenge is a dish best served cold.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I think it's Cumming's advent calendar. A leak for every day. Christmas Eve should be a right cracker ! ;) Part 2 of the Allegra Stratton video that's rumoured to exist maybe...

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Please no to anything with her in it!¥

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Exactly.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Perhaps the owner thought Johnson might be vaguely competent so gave him time to demonstrate this. After 18 months, they gave up waiting!

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I think you're right.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

ITV has an e-mail of another party on May 20th 2020 when the country was in full lockdown and you couldn't meet more than one person outside: https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-10/...ht-of-lockdown

ITV also claims the PM was there meaning it's the first time he is directly implicated in breaking his own rules:

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Wow, that's pretty serious.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Well ITV don't have a photo of him there so he can still just deny it. Even if there was a photo I'll imagine he'll say he wasn't there.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Ha ha! You find this trivia serious?

Well, if this is the most serious issue you think this world faces, you really need to get a grip, Andrew.

These were work colleagues who were together because the government can’t just stop functioning. If they met for drinks afterwards, where is the harm?:shrug:

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Ask the people who made it illegal for others to do.

This was around the same time Neil Ferguson had to resigned for breaking the rules: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52553229

And he was only an advisor! Obviously different rules apply for the pleps than the Prime Minster though.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

It is serious for a UK Prime Minister to behave in such a manner. And I've not stated it is the most serious issue the world faces in my post.

Johnson banned everyone from meeting more than one other person outdoors and then attended a party himself for 40 people. The kind of party we would all have loved to have attended but instead we followed the rules.

It's a breach of trust between the public and government. Your fellow Berkshire resident gets it. I advise you to reflect on our words and reconsider your instinct to support everything that Johnson does.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Tell that to people that got prosecuted for similar gatherings.
'Bring you own booze' doesn't sound like any work meeting I've been to, mores the pity....

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

It sounds like a piss up to me.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

And knowing how tight Bozza is and how he likes to get others to pay for anthing he can, the bring your own booze line sounds right up his street.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Tick, tock BoJo.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

:D

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

You’re sounding a bit muffled…

Well, according to the Met Police on the same day

https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/stat...961442304?s=21
https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...6&d=1641851083

And according to the (then) Culture Secretary earlier that day, when he gave the Downing Street coronavirus briefing - he told us all: "You can meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor, public place provided that you stay two metres apart."

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I reckon most people don’t give a shit.

The twitterati and other Social Media platforms will no doubt melt down,

But, I think most normal people (although not being happy about it or condoning it and being a pissed off about it) want to move on, open up society and move on with life.

---------- Post added at 22:29 ---------- Previous post was at 22:26 ----------

Yes and he no longer had any influence on policy, he disappeared into obscurity and no one paid any attention to him ever again.

---------- Post added at 22:31 ---------- Previous post was at 22:29 ----------

Anyone prosecuted for illegal gatherings should be exonerated and be reimbursed for any fines.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Two wrongs don’t make a right. But anyone who was lockdown-busting at no. 10 should receive the same treatment as everyone else.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Looks like Downing Street is throwing Martin Reynolds under the bus in an attempt to save Johnson.

https://news.sky.com/story/partygate...ssure-12513335

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I certainly don’t support everything Boris does - he’s often embarrassing to watch and his behaviour is sometimes open to question.

However, I don’t judge Prime Ministers by such trivia, I judge them by results, as will most of the electorate when the election comes around.

By the way, it was the scientists that pushed Boris into the lockdown rules. His heart was never really in it, was it?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

you mean Johnson via the Downing Street office throwing Martin Reynolds under the bus in attempt to save himself?

Shouldn't make Johnson a passive actor in all of this as it excuses his behaviour.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Maybe not. My point is, this will not matter at the next election. The electorate will be focussed on more important things, like who do they trust to run the economy.

If the opposition are hoping that all this fake surprise and gasping is going to prove more important than having a believable manifesto with Starmer in charge, they are in for a much bigger shock down the road.

By the way isn’t No 10 owned by the Crown and therefore exempt from these restrictions?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

That's what a leader does though. To take advice from experts and base decisions on all available information, even if that means going against a personal view or feeling.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Do you need any polish for that tin ear of yours? Because it sounds to me like you’re trying to justify egregious breaches of emergency legislation at a time of national crisis, on a technicality that only a very few of the most privileged in society could have hoped to enjoy.

One minor indiscretion passes with the news cycle. However this Chinese water torture is designed (I use the term deliberately) not to be so easily dismissed. Starmer probably won’t win the next election, but that will be in part due to his opponent not being Boris. The ground is being laid for a leadership challenge, which will occur the very moment it would no longer look like Tories obsessing over themselves during a continuing crisis. Some time this summer I suspect.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

People, esp on anti social media, always like to pretend to be outraged, they think that's what is expected.

People I know, who I have asked, are really just fed up of the endless mud slinging.
They expect rules to be bent (esp by politicians, which says a lot) they do it themselves.

I dont know anyone, at all, who has never broken a lockdown rule for the last two years.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

They aren't the ones who made the rules. If caught they could have been prosecuted and fined just as thousands actually were. One student was fined £10,000 for having a party: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-55362290.

Judging by the fall in Tory polling and the even steeper collapse in Johnson's own approval numbers people do not care. People do not like being taken for mugs and that at a time when people were banned from being with loved ones dying in hospitals the story that the Government were having parties is cutting through.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

My tin ear? [stands back in awe at the irony].

All I am pointing out here is that:

1. These ‘leaks’ are being given the light of day by Boris’s opponents who have no policies to put forward that are better than his. They see him as a popular figure who must be brought down, and so they resort to pettiness and smears.

2. All of this will matter not when the general election comes around. Anyone with a brain will understand that Sir Kier Starmer (AKA Mr Hindsight) has no chance of winning and Ed Davey a good deal less.

3. Boris is already off the hook with his decoration expenses and doesn’t seem to bothered about the party issue.

4. I don’t know a single person who hasn’t broken the lockdown rules in some way. You can say ‘but these are his rules’ as much as you like, but we all know he was pushed into making these rules by the same scientists you want us all locked down again. This time around, he has outmanoeuvred them. Starmer would have given in.

---------- Post added at 07:55 ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 ----------

It’s a storm in a teacup. It will pass. It’s a long time until the next General Election.

If Boris is guilty of an offence, I am sure he will be fined as well. Perhaps we should leave that to the police, eh, rather than being a judge and jury armchair army?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The problem I have with the apparently leaked email, the date of it has been totally obscured. We had nice weather in 2021 too. It’s just too convenient for the media to keep drip feeding these supposedly bombshell garden party stories.

I have to ever agree though, Boris’s time is spent, because true Conservatives, don’t feel the PM has been Conservative of late.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The blurring of the 'To' list is fun too. I note that the sounds have moved from denial to let's see what the investigation says, making it tomorrows problem. This suggests that senior and, more importantly, political people were aware of what was going on and straight up denial and being caught in a lie won't cut it any more

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

You mean the police who control all entry in No 10, and who have previously said they don't apparently investigate things due to 'lack of evidence' or 'it being in the past'

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...hristmas-party

Apparently though they're looking it again

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b1990406.html

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Some civil servant will probably get fired for not advising Boris it's against the rules.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Boris is done but I think there's more to come and they'll keep him until all the bad news is out then they will get rid. I'm not shocked or surprised by any of this boris has always believed he's above most of us because for much of his life he has been he's got away with thing's his whole life. The conservative party has a bigger problem though the boris antics have alienated so many of the public that the idea of another private school perceived toff isn't going to be acceptable.

Will this matter come the next election I think it will if the Tory candidate can be linked too strongly with boris Johnson this has and is doing a lot of damage despite what the Tory faithful might think.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I agree Johnson's days are numbered. But it was predicted at the time that he would be used by the Party to win the election, get Brexit over the line and then be replaced. The Brexit economic baggage could be left with Johnson ("not the fault of Brexit in itself, just a bad deal negotiated by Johnson") and a new leader would win the election for the Party in 2024.

But it's clearly not the media who are drip-feeding these stories to us as they don't possess a file of them in the first place! Instead, it's likely someone who was/is connected to government who is drip-feeding them to the media to undermine Johnson.

Mr K's suggestion that it is Cummings' advent calendar doesn't seem so far-fetched after all, does it?

This is a blue-on-blue fight, Old Boy.

The next election is two years away but Johnson won't be allowed to fight it. The Conservative Party is the most successful party in the UK if not the West in winning elections. One reason is that it displays little sentimentality towards its leaders. It would not have tolerated the electoral failings of a leader who polled like Corbyn. Its over-riding aim is to be in power, not in Opposition.

1. Why are you putting leaks in quotation marks? They are leaks, no ifs and buts. His opponents in the Party read the polls and see him as an unpopular figure who threatens their 2024 election chances. Breaking your own rules in such a significant manner is not a smear but a fact. This doesn't sit well with the general public who dislike one set of rules for the ruled and another set for the rulers.

2. The polls put Labour ahead so the Party has a good chance of winning if Johnson remains as PM. Which is why the Party will topple him.

3. He was bothered enough to throw Martin Reynolds to the wolves last night.

4. Not sure that an elected elite of scientists rule the country last time I checked my constitutional handbook! "...we all know he was pushed into making these rules by the same scientists you [sic] want us all locked down again" We don't, that's your unproven theory.
The PM can call upon the country's experts and then make an evidence-based decision in conjunction with his Cabinet colleagues.

5. It's no storm in a teacup, it's the dying spasms of Johnson's brief and turbulent leadership. He should do the honourable thing and resign although I am sure Labour supporters would love him to drag the show on to May 2024. You surely don't align yourself with them, Old Boy?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

@DavidSchneider

OLD BOY, if it's not an issue if he was at the party, why doesn't he admit it?

(and if he wasn't there, he should just say so).

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Wednesday should be a national holiday so we can all see Starmer tear Johnson to shreds at PMQs. (Assuming Starmer doesn't have to self-isolate again. ;) )

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

He might mention the party but i doubt he has the ability to do any damage to
bojo, might be better if Rayner does it.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The Government is waiting for the independent investigation to establish if Johnson was at the party

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Why don't they just ask him? Or many of the witnesses that witnessed him being there? Bet he didn't bring a bottle either.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

He thought BYOB meant "bring your own Boris"…

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

By the sounds of it, there were so many social events going on nobody could possibly remember them all and if they went to a particular party or not!

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Because the more he says, the more oxygen the story is given.

Hey, wouldn’t it be a good idea to wait for the result of the inquiry before passing judgement?

---------- Post added at 13:33 ---------- Previous post was at 13:32 ----------

That’s it! It was just a cardboard cutout! :D

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Hey, if he wasn’t there, why can’t he say he wasn’t there - it wouldn’t prejudice anything…

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The last defence of the guilty is very often "no comment".

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Solicitors will advise that if the person is believed to be not guilty as well.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Not in this case, he'd be falling over himself to let us know if he hadn't been there.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

He is waiting to see if there is a photo before he denies it.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Why?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

No, he plays games. The opposition get more and more confident as the allegations get wilder until at the end, Boris has the last laugh and they are made to look silly.

---------- Post added at 14:28 ---------- Previous post was at 14:26 ----------

Because the police twist everything. If they get nothing, they don’t pursue it. Easier all round.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

You are the Qanon Shaman and I claim my £5.

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...1&d=1641911576

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

They wouldn’t advise a client to not say "not guilty" if they were not guilty…

On the day Boris won’t say if he was, or wasn’t , at the booze-fest, we were standing outside my mother-in-law’s care home window, trying to communicate with a very elderly lady with Alzheimer’s & Senile Dementia; we were doing this, rather than face to face, because it was illegal for us to be with her.

Excuse me if I don’t have a lot of patience with someone who is defending Johnson allegedly breaking the law by stating it’s not very important and no one cares…

Are you Michael Fabricant?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

In fairness to Johnson, he received the party invitation through an email he got to his old phone. So he won't have been able to retrieve it to remember if he accepted or declined it.

(Thought I'd provide this "excuse" before anyone else does. :D)

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I hope they don't find out about all the military bases where service personnel are confined to camp, but still training, working and socialising.

And all the workplaces where the canteens are still open, and have always been open.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

That's a false equivalence.

Office canteens were allowed to be open but everyone in there still had to follow social distancing and mask rules. Those rules didn't include a 40 person or more BYOB piss up after work.

Oh and in 2020 the military were also following the applicable rules where they could with the same concerns we all had at the time, even where the rules there were given weren't great:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...racks-lockdown

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

How do you draw that conclusion? I am advocating waiting for the result of the inquiry before making a decision.

You lot have found him guilty before you have all the facts. But of course you are always right regardless, eh?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

What you mean is you're hoping he'll blag his way out one more time with a bit of pwiffle pwaffle and O level latin but hopefully this is it for him. Only Bojo would need an investigation to see if he attended a party in his own house :dunce:

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Ooft a poll. 100% condemnation to date. 1 vote :D

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

So if bojo said he wasn't at a party you would be satisfied with his answer?

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Remember that you can tell if a politician is lying if his lips move. :D

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I hope the spam filter is ready for OB registering a lot of new accounts.

OB1 to 100 all on to vote no.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

He should resign now. But he won’t. He will wait for the enquiry to report, and he still won’t resign unless there’s an unequivocal, strongly-worded condemnation of him personally (and even then I predict he’ll look for wriggle room). I strongly suspect it will take a leadership challenge late this spring or early summer to oust him.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The trouble is I know people who want BJ sacked, yet they are anti-maskers and anti-vaxers, and they said that they have zero intentions of following the rules and to question them was discrimination.


Mind you it could be worse a SKS could be in power, he himself was photographed mixing when he shouldn't have but the news seems to have ignored this.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

But that's not a problem. They didn't want restrictions but the law imposed them. They probably want him sacked because Johnson did choose to implement those laws and then appears to have broken them.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

We had AM,s drinking at a table during lockdown ,labour and torie .really didn't care then . Died a death in the media but most were labour . Really don't care now.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Exactly. It's the hypocrisy that matters. I had to attend my uncle's funeral (non-covid) via video link because of travel restrictions while these hypocrites were partying.

Sod parliamentary investigations the police should be investigating and pursuing prosecutions. They were so keen to oppress the proles.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

That i agree with.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The police don’t investigate the crimes of rich people in this country.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

best keep your head down then;)

The police don't want to investigate is more like it.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I "drew that conclusion" when you posted

btw, you never responded to my question - if he wasn’t there, why doesn’t just say so? He wouldn’t be prejudicing any Enquiry outcomes, and he would clear his own name.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Now ? No.
Atm, its an allegation, nothing more.

Last I checked, we are still innocent until proven guilty in the UK.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Yes, but why spoil the fun of seeing the disappointment on the benches opposite when/if he’s exonerated? He has a policy of not speaking about his personal activities.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

Stop OB, my sides are hurting from laughing.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

That doesn’t explain the Cliff Richard investigation, or many others that you will be well aware of. It simply isn’t true.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

How is this a personal activity when it involved his work office and staff??

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

I’m sure even in banana republics they throw a few to the lions to spare the great and the good. For every Cliff Richard there’s a Jimmy Saville.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The inquiry will clear him. Just as the inquiry about his expenses cleared him.

If he said he wasn’t at that party, would you believe him? It would only lead to further questions.

As I said before, why give these blowhards the oxygen they crave? It will be satisfying enough to see their deflated looks when the inquiry exonerates him. Assuming it does, of course. If it doesn’t, he will have to consider his position before others do it for him.

---------- Post added at 19:22 ---------- Previous post was at 19:19 ----------

You really think that? :no:

---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:22 ----------

It’s no business of the Labour Party’s.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

:erm:

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

100% corruption goes to the core of the British state. It wears both blue and red lapels. It holds high ranking positions in the police, the judiciary and the media. And it looks after it’s own.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

The Prime Minister (Johnson or anyone else) is not an absolute monarch or dictator (hopefully). They are supposed to be a public servant.

It's as much Labour's right to question the behaviour of our Prime Minister as it is mine, yours or anyone else's. That's true no matter which party is in power or who the current Prime Minister is.

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party
 

:D:D:D

Re: That No.10 Christmas Party