PM breaking the law creates a constitutional crisis

An excellent thread with such a comprehensive OP Ramblingrose. Thanks for the thoughtful posts from others too.

In some ways, the Downing Street Parties do seem trivial. They were trivial. The breaking of the laws by the policy makers who made them was not.

Accountability is the main point here. Who, if not the leader of those who made the law, can be more accountable. No one should be above the law. The Prime Minister is our equal and a servant of the country and the Queen. The Prime Minister should not expect to be treated as above the law. It is the law that stops such people from becoming dictators.

Nixon said of Watergate "It's going to be forgotten.". Just as then it will be the unravelling of the cover-up that does the damage. People don't expect their elected leaders to be saints but they do expect them not to treat them and the law as fools.

Good post luckygirl.

On May 20th 2020, the rules, laid down by Johnson and co. were:

'13 May 2020: leaving or being outside one’s home without a reasonable excuse continues to be prohibited Some restrictions are relaxed to allow meetings outdoors for exercise or recreation with one person from another household. Guidance encourages those who cannot work from home to go back to work.

At work, social distancing advice applies with workplaces required “to avoid crowding and minimise opportunities for the virus to spread by maintaining a distance of at least 2 metres (3 steps) between individuals wherever possible. No socialising is permitted."

We were threatened with legal action if we in any way broke these rules,

On that date, I received a phone call from the nursing home my elderly dad was in, and they told me thought he only had about an hour or so to live.

I hadn't been able to visit him for 10 weeks (the laws and rules), and I pleaded with them to just let me go up and have a minute with him. I offered to purchase any PPE they needed me to wear.

They were very upset, but told me it was against the law for them to allow that. The matron and a carer sat with him, while the GP watched him die over FaceTime.

I then had to notify the family, and sort out a funeral. It was 10 people maximum, no funeral cars (inadequate screening), and sitting socially distanced in a chapel. Everything had to be organised by phone or email. I couldn't visit him at The chapel of rest, and my son couldn't come over from America.

No gathering afterwards, indoors or out, straight home.

The professionals involved were lovely, but the whole thing was awful. However, I accepted all this because it was thought it was the right thing to do.

What was Johnson and his wife, plus others at Downing Street, doing that very same day?

They were holding a garden drinks party, sitting in groups, complete with cases of wine, a running buffet and even a photographer. It did happen, the photos have been produced, so there's no arguing with it.

It is one of those party/events where a fine is likely to be issued to Johnson and wife.

So, do I think all this is trivia and not worth getting stressed about? It's just good 'ol Boris?

No, I don't.?

I don’t think the parties were trivial either. The population was required by law to minimise contact with others. To work from home whereever possible. Only to shop in person for essential items. Only to exercise for an hour a day. Businesses and services deemed non-essential were forced to close. Socialising was prohibited. And so on. We all know what the rules were. And yet here were staff in Downing Street throwing regular parties on the slightest pretext. All of the twelve parties under investigation took place before the vaccine roll out had reached the majority of the population.

The Prime Minister described his behaviour on the day for which he has been fined. He said he attending several meetings and then called in at the party. Plenty of scope there to transmit the virus. Considering he had been hospitalised only weeks before this season of parties began, he cannot have failed to understand how serious Covid was. By 20 May 2020, the date of the first party under investigation, over 43,000 people had died from the virus. The people who attended these parties were not existing in a bubble where they did not come into contact with others. Presumably they all went home from these parties using public transport, potentially spreading the virus far and wide.

We already knew that certain staff were cavalier about the rules. We know, for example, that in March, soon after Johnson had posted a video that he had Covid, Dominic Cummings dashed home to see his sick wife but returned to Downing Street without isolating. We know that he then drove to Durham and the next day had Covid symptoms.

Johnson is Prime Minister. He sets the standard for behaviour in Downing Street and what a low bar we now know that be. I have no doubt that when the House returns his week he will seek to trivialise the matter. Sources suggest he will talk about getting things in perspective. He will no doubt mention the war on Ukraine and suggest that going to a few parties is nothing compared to what is happening there. Covid is every bit as deadly as war. Morever, it killed may people who had no means of escape. Johnson and his staff have behaved with gross negligence. Not trivial at all.

I can't get my head around the fact that when these parties were held, despite very strict rules being in place regarding distancing and contact, the people attending the parties were not worried about the transfer of covid. If whilst I was out and someone came a little too close to me, I quickly moved away and worried about it for the rest of the day. Even my son, in his 30s and with quite a cavalier in attitude to life, stood at the bottom of our drive after delivering some shopping, and insisted I put gloves on to unpack it all. The people who attended these parties (which in no way were social distancing) obviously didn't think or were worried about the consequences of spreading the virus. Were they thick or just plain naive?

DiamondLily, your sad story illustrates just why most sensible people get so angry when these events are dismissed as "trivial fluff" and "just a piece of cake". This administration must be held to account for this, the sneering disregard of what people such as you were going through is unforgivable and I cannot understand the mindset of some on here who still think this is about "boris bashing" by crazy lefties.

GillT57

DiamondLily, your sad story illustrates just why most sensible people get so angry when these events are dismissed as "trivial fluff" and "just a piece of cake". This administration must be held to account for this, the sneering disregard of what people such as you were going through is unforgivable and I cannot understand the mindset of some on here who still think this is about "boris bashing" by crazy lefties.

Well, it suits the Tories and their acolytes to say this.?

However, I think the majority of people are appalled at ending up with a law breaking PM, who just breezes on regardless, thinking he's The Special One who doesn't have to abide by his own laws and rules.

I expect the majority of the HofC will support him tomorrow in the debate, but the public can have their say in May.