Will the Nation accept an apology? Will you?

Not Bas Javid though, Commissioner in the Met in charge of Covid safety! Yes, his brother.

varian

As a civil servant Sue Gray does not have the power needed to get answers and impose penalties.

This investigation should be carried out by a judge, and / or senior police officer.

They need to be investigated by the police.

There were parties. Johnson has admitted there were parties, some of which he went to. The parties broke covid regulations.

What is there for any other body to 'investigate' ?

As a civil servant Sue Gray does not have the power needed to get answers and impose penalties.

This investigation should be carried out by a judge, and / or senior police officer.

Whitewavemark2

Times is reporting that Gray is concerned that officials are hiding the truth from her investigation.

In which case she should refuse to produce the report.

But Gray is known to be a dab hand at advising civil servants to get rid of evidence and how best to do it...

The biter bitten...

Whitewavemark2

Times is reporting that Gray is concerned that officials are hiding the truth from her investigation.

In which case she should refuse to produce the report.

Indeed, and to explain clearly, why.

I'm not so concerned about people who work together meeting up and talking as I am about the excessive use of alcohol. If it's true they were bringing in suitcases of alcohol and this was part of the culture then that's completely wrong. I don't care whether people who work together stand inside or outside to discuss work matters. But drinking excessive amounts of alcohol in the workplace is unacceptable.

Times is reporting that Gray is concerned that officials are hiding the truth from her investigation.

In which case she should refuse to produce the report.

One thing that I would be happy to show the world is that we had more sense than USA and removed our narcissistic pound shop Trump pdq as soon as we saw how useless and divisive he is.

This made me laugh. A flash mob of 100 gathered outside No 10 yesterday wearing Boris masks and wigs, playing music, drinking beer and crying ‘it’s a work event’!

MayBee70 Boris Johnson's ideology is quite clear. It is the Boris Johnson ideology: Me, Me, Me, I am climbing a greasy pole and I am determined to get to the top of it and I do not care a toss how I get there. I will lie and cheat and turn my coat whenever I find it expedient to achieve my goal. Once there I do not give a toss about the job and other people, as long as I can continue to do whatever I want to do, whenever i want to do it.

Sounds as though he’s planning to sack people and scrap Plan B to make the public like him. I was only thinking tonight: has Johnson ever spoken about his political ideology? Does he have one? Even Farage has one, albeit an odious one. What does he stand for?

Good post Monica

HolySox

*Pammie1*. So does 'other parties' mean the government were running around irresponsibly at a time we were told to behave?
I don't know the inner workings of high office work but I suspect the cabinet meeting by Zoom then emailing instructions probably is not how it works. More likely there is 'wheeling and dealing' to get things done face to face. A need for human interaction. That's what they did.
We (well the media) demanded information, PPE, more hospitals (Nightingale), vaccines, more testing, compensation for loss of earnings, etc. I imagine the government did this in the most efficient manner they know in the way they have always worked to our benefit. Now there is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel the vultures are gathering.
Die-hard Tories don't want lockdowns affecting business (recent revolt on COVID passes to nightclubs) - BREXIT is done so no need for Boris.
Labour will likely have locked us all in, bankrupted the country and left us last in the queue for vaccines.
I think Boris was the right man so we hit the middle ground, thankfully.

You’re trying to excuse the inexcusable. The government set the rules, they should have abided by them. They asked the people of this country to make sacrifices - how many families lost loved ones in the most tragic of circumstances ? Loved ones who died alone in hospitals and nursing homes, because people were following lockdown rules thinking they were doing the right thing. Now we find that as always with the Tories, it’s one rule for us and another for them. It’s completely unacceptable and they should all be ashamed of themselves. The buck stops with Boris, he should accept responsibility and go.

Holysox Stop making excuses. No 10 and those who worked and lived there set the rules. They should have been the people obeying them most rigidly, not playing silly games saying 'Well, the garden is part of the office'.

They should have been saying that we set the rules and anyone who disobeys them is 'out, bag and baggage.

Will I accept an apology, absolutely not and the polls today suggest the nation will not either.

The behaviour of an organisation is decided by its leader/manager/ call them what you will. In my working life I worked for a number of managers and you quickly learnt what each manager would or would not accept on everything from what we were called and called each other. In the 60s, I had one that insisted on us all being Miss/Mrs/Mr and surname at every level, even though elsewhere christian names were common.

Boris Johnson was the manager of the No 10 organisation and he set the tone. Everyone knew that he held all the rules in contempt and did not think they applied to him and that as far as he was concerned they could do what they like, providing they were not found out. Once they were found out, out they went: Dominic Cummings, Neil Ferguson and other high profile figures, but like everything else when Boris is found out, the rules do not apply to him, so he stays (for the time being)

If I had a pound for every time I’d heard ‘Sue Gray’ or ‘vaccines roll out’ I’d be rich. I think any MP’s that end up being interviewed on tv are advised to mention vaccines roll out.

Anti labour prejudice at a guess? Regular reading of august publications such as The Mail and The Sun? Read it on the other side of the bus promising £350m a week to the NHS?

Labour will likely have locked us all in, bankrupted the country and left us last in the queue for vaccines

What do you base this on ?

BJ is just an Eton educated Trump. He should be sacked if he doesn’t resign.

Pammie1. So does 'other parties' mean the government were running around irresponsibly at a time we were told to behave?
I don't know the inner workings of high office work but I suspect the cabinet meeting by Zoom then emailing instructions probably is not how it works. More likely there is 'wheeling and dealing' to get things done face to face. A need for human interaction. That's what they did.
We (well the media) demanded information, PPE, more hospitals (Nightingale), vaccines, more testing, compensation for loss of earnings, etc. I imagine the government did this in the most efficient manner they know in the way they have always worked to our benefit. Now there is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel the vultures are gathering.
Die-hard Tories don't want lockdowns affecting business (recent revolt on COVID passes to nightclubs) - BREXIT is done so no need for Boris.
Labour will likely have locked us all in, bankrupted the country and left us last in the queue for vaccines.
I think Boris was the right man so we hit the middle ground, thankfully.

No, No No. Apology not sincere.Everyone is allowed one mistake, maybe even two, but he's the PM and made mistake after mistake while only admitting it when he got found out. Not good enough.

Sajid is my older brother but, as I like to remind him, I was the leader of the gang and by far the most street-smart. It’s fashionable to criticise the police these days, but to anyone considering it as a career I’d say: do it. There’s no other job like it. It’s hard but it’s satisfying. We believe in the oath we take, to serve the Queen ‘with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality’. Above all, we’re a family.

---

One of my jobs is ‘executive lead’ for frontline policing on Covid, trying to work out how to handle this strange and unsettling situation. The difficulty is finding the right balance. We don’t want to alienate the public but we need to uphold the law, and we must find our way without being too distracted by the media — and by critics who say we’re too hard one minute and the next that we’re not enforcing the regulations enough. The truth is that anyone who’s looking for certainty about how the virus will behave, or how we will respond, will be disappointed. But isn’t it better to be careful? Remember: most disaster movies start with the government ignoring a scientist…

I’m also often asked why I stay. The answer to that is that despite all the challenges I’d rather be here, playing my part in making my country that little bit safer, than anywhere else.

Bas Javid is a commander in the Metropolitan Police. ''

HolySox

It seems the garden of No 10 is part of the working space. It is not a public open space nor Boris's private back garden. I imagine staff saw they were attending a work event and certainly not going to a 'party' - and not breaking tge law. As for taking their own booze ... may well be a work cultural thing. Staff may have expected booze to be provided so were being told to bring their own. Don't know. Never worked in these circles but appreciate some work cultures involve alchohol.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=vnbSKo7IGJc

But do other ‘work cultures’ include dancing until the early hours of the morning and sending colleagues out with brief cases to the local off licence for more booze ? The party on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral supposedly took place in the basement. If there’s a dance floor and music it’s most definitely not to be confused with a ‘work event’.

It seems the garden of No 10 is part of the working space. It is not a public open space nor Boris's private back garden. I imagine staff saw they were attending a work event and certainly not going to a 'party' - and not breaking tge law. As for taking their own booze ... may well be a work cultural thing. Staff may have expected booze to be provided so were being told to bring their own. Don't know. Never worked in these circles but appreciate some work cultures involve alchohol.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=vnbSKo7IGJc

I can see folk songs being written about Sue Gray in the future. Already several poems appearing.

Sue Gray ? Here