Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Whataboutery is the last defence of the indefensible. If Starmer has broken the law he’ll get a fine, and then we can talk about his moral authority as leader of the opposition.

For now, Bozzer has been fined and his moral authority is compromised. You have been swerving that issue all afternoon - I suspect you know perfectly well that there’s a problem here which is why you’re avoiding the question rather than outright denying it.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

In this case, whataboutery is perfectly valid. If the PM gets a fine in similar circumstances to the Leader of the Opposition, who didn’t get a fine, how does that figure?

Both had a break from work amongst colleagues. Does a cake constitute a party but not a beer?

Well, you won’t agree with even the most logical argument on this subject, so we’ll have to agree to disagree. I have more important stuff to worry about than this nonsense.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

As I said … you’ve been desperate to avoid the issue all afternoon.

You know Boris Johnson’s moral authority has been tanked. But you’ve stood by him throughout, so admitting that is admitting you’re wrong. Which you seem ill-equipped to do.

Hence transparent deflections like the above.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

I think Peston nails the seriousness of things here. Even those who have voted Conservative all their lives must appreciate the likely weakening in British democracy if Johnson stays.
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1513874052242419722

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Both of your examples refer to wartime Governments (as if you didn't know) Asquith was replaced due to the shortage of munitions and we all know why the other idiot was replaced.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

You don't need to be an expert to know a scheme that lost 5 billion pounds to fraud isn't a right call, I'm sure all the other countries that paid through their equivalent of PAYE had some fraud to btw

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Sunak's Hansard entry in Hansard when he told the House that he did not attend any parties.https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/st...0KtvM6X00tYQJg

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

It seems the police have a cake investigation dep't but don't have a pizza n beer investigation dep't ,probably put too many resources into the kebab investigation team.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Plenty of people arguing that now is not the time to replace Johnson as the West is at war with Putin.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

So you don’t know either.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Yes, because they didn't regard a 9 minute presentation of a birthday cake by colleagues while at work a party. So no deliberate intention to mislead.

---------- Post added at 08:36 ---------- Previous post was at 08:30 ----------

I think the number of posts I have added to this thread since it was revealed that the PM had been fined shows clearly that I have not ducked the issue at all. I didn't think he would get fined, and I was wrong about that.

However, having heard what he was fined for, I believe that decision by the police to have been wrong. But to appeal would just drag the whole thing on even longer. I think the public will come to see this as the trivia it is over time. This may impact on the local elections as they are now imminent, but not the General Election.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

First it was 10 minutes, now it's 9 - by the time of the Local Elections, OLD BOY will be saying that it was a couple of seconds, and if we could all just wait for the Sue Gray report, that would confirm this...

(and when it doesn't, it will be a litany of cake/Starmer/fluff/trivia/get on with the job/whatever the latest line he gets from the Whips' WhatsApp feed)

Remember all those day/weeks/months ago when OLD BOY said we shouldn't make up our minds before we knew what the outcome of the Police investigation was, because he was keeping an open mind, and we should too - his comment above shows he was as economical with the actualite as Johnson was...

He was obviously keeping an "open mind" as long as the Police verdict agreed with his preconceived outcomes...

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

To much of the general public it always has been 'much ado about nothing', however it's been a nice little earner for clickbait article writers, a Godsend for political activists, and an ongoing filler item for news channels that couldn't be bothered to find other subjects for their 'experts' to discuss :p:

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

Have to disagree - I know lots of people who couldn't visit relatives in care homes, didn't visit friends/families because it was stressed how important it was to keep to the rules, and they are (mostly) pissed off that there seems to be one rule for selfish gits and other rules for everyone else.

Anyhoo, might just head out and break the law - not knowingly, of course, just for a few minutes - I mean, the laws are so stupid and there are so many of them, and they are so confusing.

Or, seeing as according to some on here and in the tabloid press, we shouldn't investigate "crimes that happened in the past", and we no longer need to worry about "crimes that didn't take long" and "crimes when there is armed conflict going on anywhere in the world" either, I might join the police - sounds like an easy life.

Re: All those No.10 lockdown parties
 

This isn't true though. You're assuming you represent the 'general public'.

Their polling fell since and hasn't recovered.

Yesterday's snap polling on the issue itself shows a majority of the public wants him to resign: https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1514108508236623872