Christmas party at Downing Street last year

It was a year ago, scraped from the bottom of the barrel by Labour. I really couldn’t care less after all this time. Don’t we have rather more immediate concerns?

It was last year not 50 years ago. We frequently in here discuss things that happened eons ago.

What a gloomy and miserable forum GN has become. NOW desperately dragging up last years news to continue their Boris bashing.

Ironically I’ve just been hauled over the coals for not realizing a thread about gallstones was an older one. All the information was still relevant to me but the GN gestapo still waded in with their bullying and attempts at intimidation.

Peace, goodwill and kindness seems to have evaporated on this forum.

I think it was at the time when you could have large gatherings if it was a business meeting rather than just a social one. At the time I recall a number of stories about people hiring rooms in hotels and restaurants for “business meetings” at Christmas and thinking they were just twisting the rules. I reckon that was the excuse used at the time by BJ, it was a networking meeting or they were discussing vital things.

It does seem nitpicking for the gathering to be raised now but BJ should still explain his justification I guess.

I agree GSM rather pathetic of KS IMO.

There's already a thread about this on News & Politics

What a gloomy and miserable forum GN has become. NOW desperately dragging up last years news to continue their Boris bashing.

If you were a defendant or a witness in a criminal trial you'd probably have to dredge up stuff from 3 or 4 years ago (or longer) in the actual trial. Doesn't make it any less relevant.

I still wonder what it will take for people to be disgusted by Johnson's behaviour...

Germanshepherdsmum

It was a year ago, scraped from the bottom of the barrel by Labour. I really couldn’t care less after all this time. Don’t we have rather more immediate concerns?

Where did you get that information from, Gsm? What proof do you have that it was leaked by Labour?

Germanshepherdsmum

It was a year ago, scraped from the bottom of the barrel by Labour. I really couldn’t care less after all this time. Don’t we have rather more immediate concerns?

I hope you’ll remember this when others complain or comment on things that happened more than a year ago

Germanshepherdsmum

It was a year ago, scraped from the bottom of the barrel by Labour. I really couldn’t care less after all this time. Don’t we have rather more immediate concerns?

I care. I have 4 children and 6 grandchildren. I saw one of them the day Christmas was cancelled. We met on a motorway service area, stood and had McDonalds and swapped presents.

One of my kids is a nurse, they worked their socks off for months, doing even more hours as sickness rates decimated the staffing on the wards. They spent Christmas with Covid.

I don't see it as scraping the bottom of the barrel, I see it as holding the PM, the govt and the people who work at No 10 to account.

How can we have any confidence in them now if we let them just get away with their appalling behaviour.

Did you watch PMQs this week Maizie? That’s when it was brought up. I didn’t say leaked.

Thanks Smileless.

Teacheranne

I think it was at the time when you could have large gatherings if it was a business meeting rather than just a social one. At the time I recall a number of stories about people hiring rooms in hotels and restaurants for “business meetings” at Christmas and thinking they were just twisting the rules. I reckon that was the excuse used at the time by BJ, it was a networking meeting or they were discussing vital things.

It does seem nitpicking for the gathering to be raised now but BJ should still explain his justification I guess.

I heard one commentator saying there seems to be a disagreement about whether it was a party where lots of alcohol was drunk or a working meeting where alot of alcohol was drunk. Neither good, one was breaking the rules and the other was the people running the country drinking heavily at work.

Hard to say which is the worst interpretation.

I think the leak was from within the Tory party, they are starting to turn on Johnson. How can he say all rules were obeyed if he wasn't there? I really do wonder just what it will take for the rose tinted glasses to come off, some on here are desperate in their support of this dreadful cheat and liar, some of us can see him for what he is, irrespective of our party affiliations.

Of course it is still of concern and newsworthy!

No. 10 still has the same occupants, and they are still making pronouncements on what the rest of us should or shouldn't do.

That simple fact is why this revelation is every bit as relevant now as it would have been if we had learnt of it last Christmas.

Ever since Dominic Cummings was allowed top get away with saying he had driven from London to Durham during lockdown because he would not be able to find childcare in London, then drove to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight, ever since then this appalling government has arrogantly assumed that the rules do not apply to them.

Why are they able to get away with it again and again?

People who support the Conservatives don’t necessarily support the leader. They just don’t want the alternative.

Because they don't care, and neither do many of the public (until it affects them personally)
It's a disgrace!

Hardly ‘ a disgrace’ !
It happened on the 18th December ( so I read) after the official Christmas Party had been cancelled, the staff decided on a smaller unofficial one and it was held after business hours.
Two days later more draconian measures were introduced.
They people involved ( Johnson didn’t attend) all knew each other.
If this is the best Starmer can come up with then he is doomed.

Tier 3 regs were in place then.
No indoor mixing.
A disgrace.

What was it if it wasn't a disgrace?

A minor infringement?
A mistake?
An error in judgement?

lemongrove

Hardly ‘ a disgrace’ !
It happened on the 18th December ( so I read) after the official Christmas Party had been cancelled, the staff decided on a smaller unofficial one and it was held after business hours.
Two days later more draconian measures were introduced.
They people involved ( Johnson didn’t attend) all knew each other.
If this is the best Starmer can come up with then he is doomed.

and along comes Johnson's chief cheerleader....... . Honestly Lemon, you can say you don't approve, the sky won't fall in and I don't suppose Johnson will care, anymore than he cares about anything you, me or anyone else thinks! Go on, give yourself a treat and disapprove

lemongrove you are wrong in believing that people who know each other can't spread the virus to each other.
Did you get that idea from Rees-Mogg?

Those niggling about how this party might have been 'technically' allowable at the time are ignoring the point that countless thousands of people were terrified and were making sacrifices, on the instructions of the UK government, to try to avoid becoming infected or infecting others.
Yet Government employees could make merry in this reckless way.

The selfish, unprincipled behaviour of this Government is disgusting and this is just one more example of it.

The party went ahead two days after the government moved London into Tier 3 restrictions, banning all indoor mixing outside household bubbles. It was the national lockdown that was announced the following day.
It would have been a dereliction of his duty for Starmer not to raise this at PMQ once he found out about it - I do agree with you GillT57 that the leak came from within the Tory Party, there’s no way Labour would have sat on the story for a year if they had known sooner.