Johnson today and PMQs! ⁉️

If Johnson stands up and apologises, he is admitting culpability.

Pre-Christmas he denied that he attended such parties in parliament.

An apology won’t cut it.

Lying in parliament is a resigning offence.

No question.

I assumed that the drinkers in the garden worked at no.10 so were in the building already (not arriving at the door with their bottles), the memo reads that way. Cctv in the garden may have been switched off. But what were 100 people doing there, when the rest of the country was told to work from home zooming away?

Seems clear that there was a general culture of after work socialising at no.10, knowingly condoned by the PM who now averts his eyes and pretends it didn't happen.

Are there records as to how many people became infected within the no.10 'workplace'.

As to this afternoon, surely if the sub judice argument is to hold good the Speaker should require that the question is withdrawn?

Yes, I do think 'there is something wrong with him' basically.

Well Cummings knows where the bodies are buried and he’s no fan of Carrie.

This popped up on my memory board on FB today- and I listened again. And it made me think, who is he talking about? Could it be 'our' guy?

fb.watch/autp4sPqTz/

Maizie I do keep thinking that something about drink and / or drugs will come out at some point

Urmstongran

Hetty58

MaizieD, yeah, right - but never went on a ventilator!

Fair comment but you’d have to agree he looked rough standing at the door of No. 10 the evening HM The Queen addressed the public. His eyes were like the proverbial.

Same effect as excess alcohol, then?

FannyCornforth

Hetty58

MaizieD, yeah, right - but never went on a ventilator!

Didn’t he?
My DH didn’t either when he was in Critical Care; but the use of them declined as the year progressed as they weren’t as effective as previously thought (I believe)

Yeah, but he was supposedly dying in April 2020 when ventilators were in common use and the government was running its 'Ventilator Challenge' to try to source even more from their mate Dyson

Re the garden party. The Met secured the garden, so officers knew about it. Plus CCTV footage will identify what went on, surely?

Looking back now, I think that Johnson actually made a quick recovery.
He hardly had any time off work did he? It’s surprising to me that he carried on being PM

Hetty58

MaizieD, yeah, right - but never went on a ventilator!

Didn’t he?
My DH didn’t either when he was in Critical Care; but the use of them declined as the year progressed as they weren’t as effective as previously thought (I believe)

Hetty58

MaizieD, yeah, right - but never went on a ventilator!

Fair comment but you’d have to agree he looked rough standing at the door of No. 10 the evening HM The Queen addressed the public. His eyes were like the proverbial.

FannyCornforth

According to one attendee at the party, Johnson was ‘wandering around gladhandling guests’

What does that mean?

He will just say he was walking in his garden and kept an arm’s length distance by shaking hands with the people that came towards him.

MaizieD, yeah, right - but never went on a ventilator!

Why weren’t they as scared as we were? I don’t understand it.

Especially as their boss had supposedly almost died from it only a few weeks before...

I didn’t word that well. Apologies.
It just seems that staffers in No. 10 were quite blasé about Covid at a time (May 2020) the public were scared to death, vaccines were only a dot on the horizon and our own daughter caught Covid that summer and then long-Covid until Christmas 2020.

Why weren’t they as scared as we were? I don’t understand it.

Urmstongran

What also bothers me is this thought.... The main thing it reveals is that they knew that Covid wasn't the danger to society that they were claiming. The 'risks" weren't as risky as they were saying on TV.

I didn't start keeping the figures until June 2020. All through that months covid deaths were running at about 1,000 a day.

Not a danger to society? Tell that to the 1,000+ families who were losing their loved ones every day...

Thank you Jacky and lemon
I won’t be gladhanding a squab any day soon…

I don’t agree with that Urms
I think that they were just being selfish, stupid and irresponsible; just like the hoi poloi who acted in the same way (like my bloody neighbour…)

Interesting and very apt editorial in the ~Times .
"This is a crisis for Mr Johnson because it evinces an attitude rather than a discreet error. It is forgivable for a prime minister to find the responsibilities of of office hard. It is culpable for him to treat them with contempt. In a way that would be impossible to imagine in the case of, say,Theresa May, Mr Johnson has shown that he is a stranger to civic duty. His only option is to show contrition, yet his instinct as ever is to engage in casuistry. It is a shameful spectacle from a prime minister whose reputation is now very badly tarnished."
I dont think that Johnson can get it back no matter what he does. He will forever be known as a liar, as irresponsible, not to be trusted and one of the biggest mistakes ever made by those who put him in power,

What also bothers me is this thought.... The main thing it reveals is that they knew that Covid wasn't the danger to society that they were claiming. The 'risks" weren't as risky as they were saying on TV.

I’m a Tory voter but never wanted Boris as PM. He’s a good salesman - getting the votes in - but woefully incapable of doing the job or, it seems, getting trustworthy staff. I’d like to see the back of him but I think the police are stretched enough without spending time investigating the lockdown parties.

The photo of The Queen, sitting alone at her husband's funeral- keeps coming to my mind.

This is really bad optics for Boris isn’t it? A case of ‘do as I say not as I do’.

“Comrades!’ he cried. ‘You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm

All those who organised/attended this garden party should be heavily fined. Mind you Cressida Dick’s force provide 24/7 security in Downing Street so officers will have witnessed/known about this event. And did nothing. Meanwhile in the rest of the country, drones were circling overhead looking to see what Joe Public was doing.

Gladhanding Fanny ...... shaking hands and being a very genial host/ guest.