Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

In what must be difficult days and nights for him, I need to give Old Boy some credit. :)

Whilst MPs have termed the inquiry independent, Old Boy hasn't stooped that low.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

traffic warden sounds more plausible

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Takes on a whole new meaning...

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I think your personality is better suited to that role…

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Some sensible advice to Conservative MPs from the FT. Will Redwood et al listen?
From The game is up for Boris Johnson
https://www.ft.com/content/105eb6d6-...d-8484198270b5

---------- Post added at 10:28 ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 ----------

After reading about the regular trundling of alcohol from the Co-op to No. 10 in suitcases, and doubtless other supermarkets, these CBEs make perfect sense. :D
https://www.business-live.co.uk/ente...nised-22617671

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Love the sweating going on with Prince Andrew. :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

To be fair, I don't think I ever excused or defended Boris.

I was just pointing out that I'm sure many that are, are doing it from a hypocritical stance.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Not even No. 10 is following the line to wait until the report is out!

https://news.sky.com/story/boris-joh...neral-12515732

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Wonder why No. 10 didn't wait for the outcome of the Sue Gray Enquiry?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59997364

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

It's the done thing now isn't it.
The slightest hint at naughty things being uncovered means you need to get the profound and sincere apologies in early.

I think it's a rule, mandate, directive, decree or sumfink :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

The first stage is usually the 'sorry if you were offended / upset / insert deflection emotion here' non-apology.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Or….

It’s a crazy idea, but, perhaps not do the naughty things, especially if you’re the people creating the laws that say "don’t do naughty things", and are punishing others for doing the naughty things?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Hard to disagree with this.

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...1&d=1642168490

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

From Sky News

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavir...#liveblog-body

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...2&d=1642168869

They’ve apologised, but perhaps they are waiting for the findings of the Sue Grey Enquiry before they tell us what they are apologising for, as they don’t want to pre-judge?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Yes and no. The indiscretions had to occur to be reported on. What this will be looked back at is how a government with a record majority managed to destroy itself.

Just when I think, nah Boris will ride this out, low behold another party, followed by another party.

Personally it doesn't bother me, and there's a lot of hypocrisy and faux outrage.

But I don't see how Boris gets out of this unless he comes out of hiding and just fronts it out.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Yup, just as we think things have quietened down, another party is reported. And then another!

If it wasn't for the leaks campaign against him, Johnson would be talking up coming out of the pandemic and not talking up the multi-party investigation.

We simply would have been none the wiser and any party rumours would be blamed on Remainer envy.

I think you misjudge the mood of the nation with the term "faux outrage".

This is cutting through more than a donor paying for a refurb of No. 10.

The outrage is entirely genuine.

I think it's gone too far for him to apologise.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

He's failed to announce that he has sent a letter to the 1922 Committee. If the great man announced this, lesser MPs would follow his lead and Johnson would be yesterday's man and the Conservatives would stand a better chance of retaining power in 2024.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I bet that one wasn’t an I’m sorry you felt that way.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Sorry Seph, but I don't think JR is going to be PM, no matter how hard you try ;)

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Ex-Covid taskforce head apologises for leaving drinks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-60001927

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I have no doubt Old Boy is writing to everyone who has apologised this afternoon to tell them how wrong they are and that they should have waited for the outcome of the inquiry.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I think we need to stage an intervention at this point. It seems Whitehall is smashed all the time.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

You surely didn’t think this was the behaviour of people who are normally sober?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I just assumed they were all on cocaine.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

:D :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Photo emerges of Sir Keir Starmer drinking a beer with staff last year when Covid rules were still in place


Party on

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...party-row.html

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Yes but that was a work event.:erm:

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Come on Max. Who would have a beer with Keith if it wasn’t work?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Is that why they look down their nose at us? :)

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

One of the more plausible defences I've heard! :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Equally as wrong.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Do we think that’s a bottle of the old wife beater? Seems more apt for a politician the neighbours phone the police on. Although not since he got new neighbours.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

But that is fair enough. It is the facts we need to know. And if it’s as bad as it looks, we all know how that will end.

---------- Post added at 18:45 ---------- Previous post was at 18:40 ----------

You go around in circles, jfman, that was answered ages ago. Boris clarified that he wrote two articles to clarify in his mind which was the better of the two options, and that’s when he realised that Brexit would be best for Britain.

Boris’s popularity has taken a nosedive, but he will bounce back again. He always does.

---------- Post added at 18:54 ---------- Previous post was at 18:45 ----------

Sounds reasonable. Boris is truly mystified at what is being alleged and what he has done wrong. :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Probably on "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!"

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I should think so too. She should have downed the lot - what a waste of good booze. :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

People have asked why none of the officers policing Downing Street noticed/reported any of these "work meetings with suitcases of wine"?

Who will ever know?

On a totally unrelated note, here is an article from the October 2020 edition of the Spectator, about a Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner who was "the ‘executive lead’ for frontline policing on Covid".

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/...ned-the-police

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Read the room …

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Another one: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politi...idays-25951853

Now I am actually going to go a bit OLD_BOY here and say, in isolation, I don't think this one is that bad.

Yes, it may be technically against the rules but if staff who are already there have a drink at their desks on a Friday then I don't care. I also don't think others would care as much if this was the full extent of it. Obviously it's not good taking into account all the other stories because more than anything you do wonder just much time they're drinking at No 10.

But it is not a specially organised party that people are invited to attend. The Garden Party was so absurd because it was a mass e-mail, you have a bring a bottle, and people had a literal bloody party.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

A true Old Boy reply would be to let's wait until Sue Gray's report is released.

What might that report say:

• Just publish the facts and let the politicians fight it out.
• Clear No 10 and severely damage the public's trust in British democracy.
• A halfway house leading to both above outcomes arising.
• Find Boris guilty and annoy the person who's commissioned the report.

Think writing the report is not going to be a career-enhancing move for her.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Wouldn't be surprised if she's drunk the best part of a suitcase full of wine tonight and is probably regretting not accepting the invites she had to the Downing Street parties last [insert any date you like]. She must be wondering who she pissed off to get this gig.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

How is she allowed to actually carry out this investigation, she's Gove's secretary, so Boris is basically her boss.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I don't think she is going to a whitewash but, as a civil servant, I think she'll also be careful not to make any direct assertions about politicians. She'll condemn culture, practices and structures but decide that the exact culpability of a politician is beyond her scope.

Johnson will use that to claim some kind of vindication 'the independent report found no rules were broken by the PM', fire some staff and promise to 'clamp down on boozy culture' as if it were a force of nature he had no control over and attempt to move on.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Waits for OB to suggest it wasn’t a drinks fridge, it was a work related chilled filing cabinet... :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Exactly. In her shoes, luckier people would be booking their annual leave and saying they must have missed that email!

---------- Post added at 00:14 ---------- Previous post was at 00:11 ----------

Welcome to what the UK has come to.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

You are reading too much into it. Publish the facts, I agree with.

---------- Post added at 02:16 ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 ----------

Yes, except that you are just too interested in the facts, are you, Andrew?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I am.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Well, because there are so many work-related meetings to investigate, the expected delivery date of the report has been put back a week - who would have thought, that once it was made obvious the "workers" were going to be made scapegoats, the same people would start letting more revelations out…

On a related note…

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/j...eral-x3pfdb6hr

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

:tu:

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

plus she will not have jeopardised her prospects of being made a Baroness

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

She might still if Sta…

Never mind.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

And if he clings on Labour's poll lead will continue to increase. I feel for loyal Tories, I really do ;)

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

And that might continue for a couple of weeks.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Seems Starmer has been photographed in a undistanced situation, indoors, beer inhand, during the lockdown.

Link

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Or a few years. Lots of lovely tax rises, energy bills doubling and inflation crippling peoples quality of life. Plus Boris..... The Tories are in power aren't they?

I can understand why no one wants to be leader atm and take over the inherited shambles. Maybe a new leader would wait till an election loss rather than lose the next election themselves.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

They're recycling their own stories - they reported that last year and it didn't really go anywhere at the time

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/148264...oor-gathering/

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I think Boris should definitely stay.

Westminster voting intention:

LAB 41% (+3)
CON: 27% (-3)
LDEM: 11% (+1)
GRN: 8% (-2)
REFUK: 5% (-2)

via
@FindoutnowUK
, 13 Jan
Chgs. w/ 15 Dec
11:35 am · 15 Jan 2022

https://twitter.com/BritainElects/st...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

It will be a brave person who applies for this job (just advertised)…

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...5&d=1642253827

From the job ad

https://www.civilservicejobs.service...4&vxvac=179747 I wonder how many of those will still be in post when the interviews start?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

all this wine fridge business just shows the people who drink wine are prone to law breaking.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Anyone who keeps it in a fridge and not a brown paper bag under their desk is a wrong un.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Bringing a bottle to the interview would help prospective applicants?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

He could of had pole dancers and strippers, still Labour won’t make it work come election time

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

That’s probably next week’s story, along with Bolivian Nose Candy, now he’s dumping on the staff… ;)

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Boris is taking his party downhill, He is only giving the SNP a great boost, He must go and give the conservative a chance with a new leader to get rid of the SNP or we will be stuck with Nicola for ever,

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

She's entrenched your only hope is a revolution.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

It's not all bad then...

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

It’d be hilarious (although I concede extremely unlikely) if the Scottish Conservatives were the first of the unionist parties to split from their London masters.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

There seem to be few peoplehttps://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/sta...971844/photo/1illing to defend Johnson over the now infamous "work" party. I've scoured readers' comments on newspaper websites and have finally found someone sticking up for him.

'ParticipantObserver' in the Guardian noted "...to be fair, when a clown turns up at a party, he is at work" :D

---------- Post added at 14:34 ---------- Previous post was at 13:03 ----------

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/sta...971844/photo/1
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/l...pint-dh0dqzftl

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

It was quite normal for Civil Service admin staffers who worked closely together to have a "wind-down" drink at the end of the week. P.O.E.T.S day. Sometimes in the office, sometimes in local bars.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

They're certainly gearing up to fire some staffers and have Johnson 'clean up this mess'. Not sure it's going to work, the public aren't idiots.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I'd like to see a poll on that one :D

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Well...

---------- Post added at 15:51 ---------- Previous post was at 15:47 ----------

The thing is the heads that roll would have to be sufficiently high, which in turn will sour the relationship (probably already strained) between Senior Civil Servants and Ministers.

Fundamentally Ministers are setting a precedent where - no matter what goes wrong - officials take the fall.

The idea that these happened, Johnson, Raab and presumably others attended such events sincerely believing them to be work related, is entirely fanciful.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

And the net result is the most talented in the civil service will avoid working for No. 10 or price walking the plank for their boss's mistakes into their salary expectations.

---------- Post added at 20:09 ---------- Previous post was at 20:05 ----------

Some of the public didn't know what Johnson was like when they voted Conservative in 2019; they saw him as an upbeat, likeable and humorous guy. They're not laughing anymore.

I'm not sure even a fulsome apology will work at this late stage, given the many cover-ups to date.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Starmer refuses to apologise for boozy pizza party

He travelled hundreds of miles for boozy pizza night during lockdown.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...inks-work.html

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

No, he didn't travel for a pizza night.

He was already there working and they were having food and drink for dinner before doing more work. As I posted this earlier when The Sun reported at the time.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

:rofl: oh come on you can do better than that.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Why do I need to? It's what the situation was. How would you expect them to have dinner when they were working?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

He doesn't need to :rolleyes:

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

if he doesn't want to fair enough that's his choice, defending the indefensible isn't an easy job.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Bojo has turned it into an art form.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Well, you and OB have tried your best… ;)

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

These parties were all ages ago.


Whilst I still find it an absolute disgrace that they did it, and at a time when the country was under restrictions, they did it, and pulling up parties from the woodwork isn't going to change anything really.



In reality we just need a full and frank apology, detailing exactly when they did have parties which weren't in the spirit of the guidance/restrictions, apologise for them all and then say they will hand over the details to the Met Police for them to decide what course of action to take. And that they will not influence this outcome and will accept it.


Since we're unlikely to be in this situation again, any claim they have "learned from it" which may apply to something in the future, isn't going to be relevant to further accusations of parties.


If Johnson has indeed facilitated this or been one of the key instigators, then as anyone else in this situation he obviously should resign.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

So what's your answer to my question?

If he was away from home for work (which was legal at the time if not able to work from home for that) and was taking a break for food and drink during that working period (which was legal) what is indefensible about it?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

pizza party with beer, in a confined space, ignoring covid regulations, , didn't even bother to take it outside to mitigate the risk of spreading covid .

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I'm sure Labour would love Johnson to stay in power until the next election.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

If we are going after lawbreakers why not go after them all, no point giving the hypocrites a free ride.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Yes, it's such a difficult concept isn't it? Innocent until proven guilty. :rolleyes:

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

They would, but he won’t. However there are still difficult days ahead and Tory strategists will now want as much of that muck to stick to Boris as possible rather than clinging on to his successor come election time.

I still think he will be gone this year but they will move heaven and earth to delay it as long as they can.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

That runs the risk of the damage seeping into the wider Tory Party rather than just Johnson though. After all they are saying he deserves to stay.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Dont you mean "innocent until whitewashed by an inquiry done by one of your subordinates that you get to decide whether to act on"?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Old Boy's right. We need to wait for Johnson to decide whether he's guilty of breaching any Covid laws. ;)

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

And i feel sure that once that decision is reached you'll finally be happy.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Does that go for Keith too?

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

It will be interesting to see how Johnson reacts. I can't see him playing the statesman and falling on his sword. Does he have a hold over any Ministers and MPs who turned up to the parties who he can cajole into supporting him? Would he try and bring them down with him?

---------- Post added at 18:46 ---------- Previous post was at 18:44 ----------

Who's Keith? :confused:

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

He's already found himself not guilty.

meanwhile bazza has been in full swing with the Chinese communist party;)