So ... no more fines for Boris!

Mhairi

She is a wonder, and they hate her. Scottish lesbian who won't shut up and isn't overawed by the men in suits. I just watched the speech, she is spot on. The f-word. Thanks TopsyIrene06.

Just adding a link for that volver. Fantastic speech but terrifying that it needs to be said.

twitter.com/MhairiBlack/status/1526999103615401984

DiamondLily

*OK*...oh yes, I forgot the pole dancer lover...?

I sometimes have to remind myself of the things he has done. There are so many I lose track. Grant Schapps just played another government ploy on Sky News. When the cost of the partygate investigations was mentioned he turned it round to imply that the interviewer was criticising the police for spending so much. Just as, when the government were criticised for their handling of the pandemic, they twisted it round to make it sound as if the NHS were being blamed. So many dirty tricks. And it all starts at the top.

That would be Transport Minister Grant Shapps, the man who said, during a 5:00 daily briefing, that he saw Covid lockdown as an opportunity to have the potholes on the A66 repaired. Not unlike Elsie's poverty and Johnson's callous remark about bus passes. The hubris of these men.

The f word. Very scary but as Mhairi says it is creeping in subtly.

Poliical scientist Dr Lawrence Britt's Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism.

Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html

A tick list for all that is happening here under Johnson.

I'm not surprised that there were no more fines for Boris Johnson. I believe it's been arranged that way but open and transparent we are not so we will never know exactly how the investigation was conducted; how many text messages and emails had been deleted before it started.

I will never understand how some people can still defend Boris Johnson and make excuses for his appalling behaviour.

So, even if he escaped a fine for the party in his flat how come his wife, who organised the party, has also got away with it. Didn’t a student somewhere not only get fined but got thrown off his course? And yet the PM, who presided over the events both in Downing Street and in his flat, escapes justice. What on earth is happening in this country.

We can but guess what on earth is happening in this country and has been happening for the last seven or eight years.

See all of the above, especially Mhairi Black's speech. Steady creep towards fascism.

Hardly a creep towards a totalitarian dictatorship - more of a gallop.

Agreed varian. I meant it more as an insidious creep in the sense of Black's words that it doesn't (necessarily) come with the introduction of leather jackboots. It's coming with soft Gucci shoes and business suits but it's coming. Like Mhairi, I find it very frightening.

No point emailing my MP who’s one of his whips and newly promoted. So I’m emailing the decent ( I use that word loosely) MP’s that are left in the party…..( that won’t take long)

I’ll just leave this here:

“Interesting how badly the PM's most fanatical supporters have misread today's events. Celebrating. Suggests have little understanding of how deep this has sunk in public opinion. Or when combined with the cost of living catastrophe, getting worse by the week, what it means.”

Ian Martin, columnist for The Times, and a Conservative.

Boris was unquestionably careless and undisciplined (probably with the active instigation of his young wife) in not ensuring No 10 was ‘whiter than white’ as far as the Covid restrictions were concerned with the civil servants and SPADs. (The ones who got all the fines!) but what has transpired is undoubtedly a witch-hunt.

The only reason for the Boris’ resignation that I can accept is if it is conclusively proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he lied to Parliament and this is far from being proved in any case.

If it isn't, then he should issue an unreserved and heart felt apology for not ensuring his staff operated in a managed, disciplined and focused manner while the restrictions were in force and he should then be allowed to get on with the job of governing the country in these troubled times.

undisciplined

Good description!

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The Metropolitan Police appear to have concluded that Johnson somehow legally attended what they, the police, have judged to be illegal gatherings, and that while Johnson didn't break the law for attending those illegal gatherings, junior civil servants did.

Can someone please explain this to me?

Maybe it will all come out in the wash ...

“Sue Gray is demanding that key players in the partygate scandal are named in her report, after the Metropolitan Police closed its investigation without revealing who had been fined.

Ms Gray, the senior civil servant tasked with looking into claims of lockdown-breaking gatherings in Downing Street, is set to publish her full report next week.

She is expected to issue scathing criticism of senior political and Civil Service figures, calling into question why illegal social gatherings were allowed to take place.

With her report now being finalised, Ms Gray is in discussion with Civil Service human resources and legal teams, as well as trade unions, to determine how explicitly she can point the finger.”

Source: The Telegraph 19/05/22

OakDryad

The Metropolitan Police appear to have concluded that Johnson somehow legally attended what they, the police, have judged to be illegal gatherings, and that while Johnson didn't break the law for attending those illegal gatherings, junior civil servants did.

Can someone please explain this to me?

Loopholes. The finding of…..

Johnson said in the HoC that the people found guilty of lockdown breaches would be disciplined so I guess this is how the cull of civil servants begins ... if they aren't already writing their resignation letters disgusted at being hung out to dry by Johnson, Case et al.

Former aide Samuel Kasumu is already speaking out about the way the investigation has been handled suggesting that non-white non-Oxbridge staff were investigated first while senior staff were protected. The phrase thrown under a bus is being used a lot.

As Dennis Skinner once said: "When the posh boys are in trouble, they sack the servants".

The thing that might prove interesting here is that the "servants" are not very happy, as they feel they've been thrown under the FPN bus to save Johnson's neck, and they might just decide to bite back. ?

The Met have spent a shedload of money and it's ended up producing a whitewash.?

As someone said

“Johnson the person who attended 5 illegal parties …..legally”

An utter farce.

He was a terrible London mayor - closing down police and fire stations when he said he wouldn’t, spending afternoons when he was supposed to be working round at his lovers flat getting “technology lessons”, and getting his underlings to cover/ lie for him. He definitely is teflon man now, I’m just looking forward to the day when the shit finally sticks. My Italian relatives laugh at us now saying - well we had Berlusconi - now you’ve got someone worse!

It seems to me that the Tories are losing the plot, not by a Big Bang but death by a thousand cuts.

Day after day another story emerges of sleaze or incompetence or law breaking.

People can hardly be bothered to raise an eyebrow now it has got so normal.

At one stage, each one of the things you hear would have made headlines and kept GN busy for days, but there are so many now, one loses count and it would be ridiculous to account for each one.

I fervently hope that just like Trump’s tenure, people will breath a huge sigh of relief to have got rid of such a disastrous government when the election comes.