No 10 was breaking Christmas Lockdown rules last year.

Except it wasn't the Government which held the party it was the staff, ie Civil Servants.

Nobody knows all the details yet, so I'm not convinced you can say that with any certainty.

Instead of enjoying our Christmas dinner with our family my daughter delivered a three course meal to us with instructions for everything (beef wellington, etc etc). This year we will go unless someone is ill no matter what Boris Johnson has to say.

Amazing how they can say - and expect us to believe

a) there was NO party

b) all the rules were followed at the party

Pardon?

Tulpia

Except it wasn't the Government which held the party it was the staff, ie Civil Servants.

Oh well that's OK then.

It was only people working for the government, on government premises, with government knowledge.

www.gransnet.com/forums/coronavirus/1304084-Christmas-party-at-Downing-Street-last-year

Tulpia

Except it wasn't the Government which held the party it was the staff, ie Civil Servants.

Downing Street staff aren't all civil servants. Many are special advisors, who are appointed by government ministers.

If the parties didn't break any rules, why doesn't the government come clean and explain what happened?

Such desperation to find any stick with which to beat the Government. I wasn't aware this was a left wing enclave when I joined. I've got the message now.

It’s not a left wing enclave at all Tulpia, just people who want and expect the law to be followed by the Government that set it and their own officers.

Tulpia

Such desperation to find any stick with which to beat the Government. I wasn't aware this was a left wing enclave when I joined. I've got the message now.

Wow! It's hardly desperation to think that the country's leaders should be setting an example by the way they behave. After all, they have the power to write the rules. The least people can expect is that they live by them.

GN isn't a "left wing enclave". There are at least as many posters who seem to want to do anything to defend the government or shrug their shoulders and claim it doesn't matter.

Are you seriously claiming that only "left wing" posters expect high standards from the government?

Anyway, it seems Allegra Stratton has let the cat out of the bag.

www.itv.com/news/2021-12-07/no-10-staff-joke-in-leaked-recording-about-christmas-party-they-later-denied

Tulpia

Such desperation to find any stick with which to beat the Government. I wasn't aware this was a left wing enclave when I joined. I've got the message now.

^ I wasn't aware this was a left wing enclave...^

Because it really isn't.

There are posters on all spectrums of the political landscape.

And, on some issues - we sometimes even agree with each other.

Some posters comment more than others - and their comments might be added to by those who support their POV.

Your comment reminds me of those who insist the BBC is too left-wing, whilst the left-wing think it's too right wing in its reporting.

Read again - on various sites. You will see you are mistaken.

The video footage of Allegra Stratton sniggering about it was appalling. I don’t see how anybody can defend Johnson and his accomplices in bare-faced lies, the arrogance is breathtaking.

Tulpia

Such desperation to find any stick with which to beat the Government. I wasn't aware this was a left wing enclave when I joined. I've got the message now.

Not all who are so upset about not being able to see a sick or diying loved one, those who could not spend time with grandchildren after so many months of waiting, and so many more who had a miserable and lonely Christmas because of Government rules- are not all 'left wing' - whatever that means, Tulpia.

I hope the PM and front bench get given hell in PMQT tomorrow and for a long time to come.

Both BBC and ITV news, and even Laura Kuensberg- are 100% condemning what happened, condemning Johnson for yet another cover up and lie- and all say this is worse than the Cummings eye test jolly at Barnard Castle.

PMQT should be interesting tomorrow.

Tulpia

Such desperation to find any stick with which to beat the Government. I wasn't aware this was a left wing enclave when I joined. I've got the message now.

?????

We don't need to find a stick.
Self serving government present us with a forest full of sticks, logs, trees with which to bash 'em.
Having the brass neck to simper about it, too!!!

I’m really confused. I thought the Allegra Stratton thing was about a briefing held recently but I’m now beginning to realise that it was last year and they were talking about the party they were about to have and how they would describe it to the electorate if they had to.At a time when no one was allowed to have parties or visit loved ones in hospitals/care homes. Is that right?? And in the new room that we, the tax payer had paid a lot of money for (millions?).

Tulpia Absolutely not a left wing enclave.I have never voted for either of the two main parties in any election in over 50 years.

But now and again we have a politician whose behaviour passes the limit of anything acceptable. Jeremy Corbyn was one,with his refusal to give an outright and unqualified condemnation of antisemitism, but he was only a fool and stupidity is not a crime, although anti-semitism is

However Boris Johnson, almost makes him look a pattern of rectitude in comparison. An inveterate liar, a coarse loudmouth with the management skills of a three year old, and that is unfair to three year olds and a man with no care or concern for others, neither when he made stupid loudmouth comments that condemned Nazarin Zagarhi-Radcliffe to an indefinite time in prison on trumped up charges

Mainly, however he is a liar. he has lied and lied and lied. This current row about last years party. He has denied and denied, but now we have the evidence ina tape.

Then there is the shambles in Afghanistan. Just how many Afghanis have died because Johnson appointed and left in position too long a man so patently incompetent, that not only he, but it seemed the first four or five in the civil service managemwrong in all going on holiday at the same time during the Afghan crisis.

Just writing this has me almost spitting with anger - and I had only just stopped seething after listening to practically all of this afternoons session of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The civil service and the government seem to be competing to see who can be most incompetent

The briefing was on 22nd December Maybee70' here’s the timeline.
www.itv.com/news/2021-12-07/no-10-christmas-party-a-timeline-of-events-guidance-laws-and-denials
Allegra Stratton is a former National editor for ITV News, but it seems unlikely that she leaked this story to them.

I have discovered through various discussions with people that dissatisfaction with the government at the moment is most certainly not all coming from the Left.

I've spoken with a surprising number of individuals - traditional Tory voters - who said they will not vote for their party again until Johnson has gone.

MayBee70

I’m really confused. I thought the Allegra Stratton thing was about a briefing held recently but I’m now beginning to realise that it was last year and they were talking about the party they were about to have and how they would describe it to the electorate if they had to.At a time when no one was allowed to have parties or visit loved ones in hospitals/care homes. Is that right?? And in the new room that we, the tax payer had paid a lot of money for (millions?).

Yes, as Casdon said, it was 4 days after the party that they were sniggering about breaking the rules.
22nd December 2020 - a day when 691 people had died of Covid, probably without a loved one there to hold their hand.

When everyone else had to cancel family get togethers because the rules were changed the next day which Allegra Stratton must have known about:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-55056375

Callous arrogance.

Thank goodness the truth has a knack of coming out. PMQs will be interesting tomorrow.

But even if Johnson goes the majority of MP’s in the party have been happily voting for all of Johnson’s policies. They will still continue to destroy our democracy.