So ... no more fines for Boris!

Allsorts

He has paid his fines, what about Keir? He seems to think he’s untouchable for doing exactly the same, could it be he knows the ways if the law inside out and the right people.

What I just cannot for the life of me understand is why you, or anyone at all, are defending this putrid excuse for a human being.

What extraordinarily special quality does he have which completely excuses the lying, the laziness, the freeloading, the sexual incontinence and the law breaking (to name but a few)? What quality of Johnson's overrides the stench of corruption which surrounds him?
What makes you happy with a PM who is leading a government that is becoming the most repressive we have ever known?

This is a genuine question.

Rubbish, Allsorts. Johnson has received and paid one fine, not fines. Starmer has not been fined (yet) and if he is he has said he will resign.

In this latest round of fines, perhaps you can answer why Johnson has not been fined for gatherings he is known to have attended while other people who attended the same events have been fined?

Plenty of legal commentary in today’s newspapers - lawyers saying this defies logic. One explanation offered is that no-one was interviewed. This has been a paper-based investigation.

One lawyer said that as people were not arrested and not questioned under caution there was no obligation to complete the forms. They posit that those fined are the people who were open about what happened while others may have been economical with the truth.

“If someone was sent one of those questionnaires and they went to me, I’d say: don’t answer it,” [a] criminal lawyer said. “You’ve got no obligation to fill it in. You’re not under arrest. You’ve not even been cautioned. If you tell the truth, you might be fined, and if you lie, you’re potentially committing another offence. So why risk it?”

So be very careful about labelling Starmer alone as knowing the law and the right people.

Loyalty to Johnson, accepting that he is not accountable and above the law is tantamount to supporting a dictator.

It was a different time of year, and electoral campaigns were exempt from a lot of the rules.

Durham Police will make the decision, but at least Starmer has had the integrity to say he will resign, if fined.

Unlike the sleazebag in Number 10.

"Probably with the active instigation of his young wife". Yes, let's blame the females again. Nothing to do with him.

Hmm- I'm not sure that the Leader of the Opposition did " exactly the same ", Allsorts.
No beer fridges, no entertaining of wallpaper selector etc.
I think it's a little blinkered to compare one event with many.

vegansrock

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!

I know the feeling - I laughed and sent them up when my American friends and relatives got Trump.

The shoe's on the other foot now - they laugh at me that we've ended up with Johnson - our Pound Shop Trump.?

But, Johnson doesn't understand normal, decent boundaries - and one day he will push it that bit too far, and he will be gone.

If he was staggeringly successful at running the country, then he might get away with it all. But, he's not, he's just hopeless, as are his cabinet.?

He has paid his fines, what about Keir? He seems to think he’s untouchable for doing exactly the same, could it be he knows the ways if the law inside out and the right people.

Callistemon21 Perhaps it was how well she performed to Dancing Queen?

More likely Pole Dancing Queen.

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.

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!

As someone said

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

An utter farce.

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.?

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.

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…..

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

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?

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undisciplined

Good description!

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.

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.

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)

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.

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

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

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