Christmas party at Downing Street last year

lemongrove

So nobody on here mixed with any family, friends or work colleagues last December ( sound of legs being pulled and bells ringing.)

Some of us did actually follow the rules. Are you saying you didn't? I suppose that would explain your excuses for Johnson.

I don't approve of anyone breaking the rules but the person who made the rules breaking them when expecting everyone else to do as they're told is something else.

As for the criticism of Starmer, do you know what the opposition is there for? Just in case you don't they are there to hold the govt to account for their actions. It's part of democracy.

lemongrove

You have all forgotten what the rules were last Christmas.
We could see family members for meals etc and friends too.
Nobody had to drop presents outside the door.
It was all down to numbers, being changed at the last moment.

Oh yes silly me, of course my sick son could have driven 300 miles home for a meal. Then 300 miles back. Of course if he hadn't got covid he'd have been on the ward on Boxing Day.

You do realise that not all families live close to each other? Totally impractical for some of us to meet up for the day and of course some people, like my DIL a doctor on a covid ward, have to work.

We aren't all the same, don't know if you realise.

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No, I don’t think we’d forgotten the rules at all. No travel was allowed to and from Scotland which was where my nieces were. My memory isn’t that short, I doubt others are either, it was too painful to forget.

Household bubbles were permitted on Christmas Day, but not parties or friends indoors unless part of your bubble.

That doesnt make it right.

Similar in what way? And when?

Seem to recall Jeremy Corbin doing something similar

Up until then you could form a bubble, couldn't you?
Johnson and co must have had a ruddy great big bubble in that case.

The change certainly was very last minute.

You have all forgotten what the rules were last Christmas.
We could see family members for meals etc and friends too.
Nobody had to drop presents outside the door.
It was all down to numbers, being changed at the last moment.

I didn’t and neither did my friends and family.
We stuck to the rules and didn’t interpret them to suit ourselves. Obviously others did just as they wanted.

What do you think the role of the leader of the opposition is then lemongrove? To call the government to account….

And no, we certainly didn’t break the rules in my house - my poor nieces who were due to come to us from university up north had to spend it on their own which we all felt dreadful about. I think most people were equally law abiding, and that it’s a poor show to imply they weren’t after seeing the misery some experienced last Christmas as expressed on Gransnet.

We obeyed the rules. We were on our own over Xmas except that one of our daughters drove a long distance to give us presents on Dec 22nd. She was wearing a mask and gloves, put the presents in our porch rang the doorbell and stood well back. She would not come in. It was very cold so we just chatted for five minutes. We did not hug, but kept 2m away, which was very hard, but that's what we did.

We have been fortunate not to loose any of our nearest and dearest to covid. I can only imagine how disgusted these bereaved families are with the behaviour of the people who were making the rules. Some of their loved ones died alone while otheres were partying in Downing Street.

Me neither.

I can't speak for others. But no. I didn't. I saw none of my family or friends.

So nobody on here mixed with any family, friends or work colleagues last December ( sound of legs being pulled and bells ringing.)

Dereliction of his duty....?love it!

Because I don’t disapprove.
Although I do disapprove of all the very many weddings of more than 400 people that took place covertly in Birmingham, London, Bradford and other venues, even under strict lockdown measures.
Work colleagues were in a bubble in any case.
It’s just potty mouth Rayner trying to gain attention for herself, Starmer too.

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.

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.

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

What was it if it wasn't a disgrace?

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

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

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

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