Sue Gray report and photos to be released today.

GrannyGravy13

As a lifelong Conservative voter, I desperately want him to go as soon as possible.

He needs to be dismissed through a vote of no confidence, leave the post of PM in disgrace, not when he decides…

Johnson won’t resign-he has a strong sense of privilege and entitlement combined with no morality. Unfortunately most of the Tory MPs have the same characteristics and feather their nest by supporting him. They’ll only turn when their own future is under threat so my only hope is the voters in the two upcoming bi elections show the Tory party the door making the self serving Johnson backers finally realise the ‘greasy pig’ needs to squeal. At least they’d be able to give him a legal goodbye party!

You can judge a persons character by the way he treats the cleaners.

Rory Stewart: "They won't make basic decisions... as the whole of Downing Street is about one thing, which is the survival of Johnson, they are sacrificing everything... to try to keep this monstrous ego floating around in No.10.. our country feels like Berlusconi's Italy"

I don't think that parts of the Red Wall are particularly enchanted with him any more. My local paper this morning

Time to move on

I agree but the only way to move on is for those involved to go, a clean sweep and to get past all his, not keep trying to brush it under the carpet as if it's irrelevant.
It is not.

If Johnson has no control over his staff how can he run the country responsibly?
He doesn't even have much control over himself.

DiamondLily

I think part of the problem is that although they only need 54 letters to trigger a leadership contest, they then need 180 to say they have no confidence, (51%), so that it's thrown open for others to put themselves forward.

If they fail, they cannot touch him for a year.?

Well I reckon that they ought at least to try to get shot of him. If it doesn’t work, well we are simply still at status quo and will get rid of him at the election.

Unless he does a Trump and tries a coup.

Peter Brookes today

I think part of the problem is that although they only need 54 letters to trigger a leadership contest, they then need 180 to say they have no confidence, (51%), so that it's thrown open for others to put themselves forward.

If they fail, they cannot touch him for a year.?

growstuff

But, according to YouGov polls, it's the youngest cohort which disapproves of Johnson the most. Approval rises with age. The over 60s group is the only one which has consistently approved of Johnson.

I find that last sentence very hard to believe, especially after reading comments on Gransnet.

I think the thing that stands out most for me is that Johnson thought it was his "duty" to say goodbye to members of staff who were leaving.

He doesn't seem to understand that so many were unable to say goodbye, not to members of staff but to family members who were dying.

I imagine he thought people would be impressed by his sense of "duty". This only goes to show how manufactured it is.

This piece by Sonia Khan describes the drinking culture in Downing Street. It has been going on for a long time.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/16/from-prosecco-tuesdays-to-thank-you-tipples-no-10-has-a-serious-drink-problem

The issue under Johson's administration is that it was happening in flagrant excess during a national crisis when others made extraordinary personal sacrifices and suffered heartbreaking bereavement.

As one Twitter commentator wrote:

Singing together was prohibited. Not just choral singing, which brings joy and comfort to so many, but singing at tens of thousands of funerals. And they had a f***ing karaoke party.

MaizieD

The Good Law Project is onto the Abba party. They've fired off a letter to the Met asking for an explanation for why they failed to investigate it. If none is forthcoming it'll be off to Judicial Review.

Yes I read that. Good. There is an opinion that the Met has been nobbled, and looking at the way they have conducted themselves over lockdown, that certainly has traction.

The Good Law Project is onto the Abba party. They've fired off a letter to the Met asking for an explanation for why they failed to investigate it. If none is forthcoming it'll be off to Judicial Review.

Petera

...and meanwhile a generation of young people are learning that you can behave as you want and just lie about it afterwards with no consequence.

While disagreeing with them, I hope I always understood that most people who supported him broadly did so for good reason.

But from this point on they are all just enablers. There are some decent Tory MPs, there just doesn't seem to be 54 decent Tory MPs out of 359.

Petera, your last sentence took the words right out of my mouth, and deserves repeating:

" But from this point on they are all just enablers. There are some decent Tory MPs, there just doesn't seem to be 54 decent Tory MPs out of 359. "

I actually emailed my local Tory MP yesterday, asking if Johnson still has her full support.
My intention, if/when she confirms that she does (as I think she will), is to stress that very point, and to make it clear that I will never again vote for her or any other Conservative party member who so clearly puts career and Party before the good of the country and its people by continuing to defend and keep in power such a wholly unsuitable, self-serving, lying and incompetent person as Johnson has shown himself to be. I could easily add a lot more adjectives there, but will try to avoid over-kill - it's hard to stop when it comes to describing Johnson!

Unfortunately, this is a very safe, rural, Tory seat.
Even the combined votes of the two other main parties usually total less than the Tory vote, so she can afford to ignore people like me.
Even so, I really feel the need to register my anger, and I hope that enough people will do that to at least make her reflect for a moment. It's both the least and the most I can do!

Urmstongran

Apparently this started under Cameron then continued under May. Time to call ‘Time’ on it methinks.

Do you have a source for this assertion?

He is part of the so called elite who has fooled those he despises - that he is “one of them”.

But, according to YouGov polls, it's the youngest cohort which disapproves of Johnson the most. Approval rises with age. The over 60s group is the only one which has consistently approved of Johnson.

Urmstongran

In my opinion most young people aren’t political animals. Well I never was (much). Busy bringing up a family, working full time, after school activities for the girls, left little ‘me’ time and I either read or watched say ‘Brookside’ soap opera. More leisure time in retirement meant I tuned into politics more!

This is not about being a political animal; it does not matter whether we have a PM from the Church of the Militant Elvis party or the Wessex regionalists.

What they see is the person at the top, regardless of their political persuasion, behaving like a self-entitled moron, lying, and benefitting from it.

Whitewavemark2

It’s the Bullingdon Club imported to No 10 isn’t it, right down to sneering at the less privileged, like burning money in front of the homeless.

Could you find a more awful example of snobbery?

He won’t resign and for now, the tories won’t push him out. That doesn’t mean damage hasn’t been done to him or those who support him.
The silence on the ABBA gathering stinks doesn’t it.

Rule Britannia! Britannia waives the rules!

In my opinion most young people aren’t political animals. Well I never was (much). Busy bringing up a family, working full time, after school activities for the girls, left little ‘me’ time and I either read or watched say ‘Brookside’ soap opera. More leisure time in retirement meant I tuned into politics more!

I read that senior Tories are suspecting a cover up over the “abba” party.

I suspect that is one of the things Johnson talked about to Sue Grey about a month ago.

This will come out.

The Tories would like us to move on, but when you see lies and injustice just like Brexit how can we move on?

We will only be able to move on as a unified country when we have a competent trustworthy government of integrity.

...and meanwhile a generation of young people are learning that you can behave as you want and just lie about it afterwards with no consequence.

While disagreeing with them, I hope I always understood that most people who supported him broadly did so for good reason.

But from this point on they are all just enablers. There are some decent Tory MPs, there just doesn't seem to be 54 decent Tory MPs out of 359.

Apparently this started under Cameron then continued under May. Time to call ‘Time’ on it methinks.

An ex Tory minister, who served under Thatcher and Major, made the point, on TV this morning, that this would never have happened in their day.

In fact, he said the place was "cathedral like" under Thatcher - people working quietly, showing respect to each other, cleaners and everyone else, and not bringing the place into disrepute,

Staff were politely thanked, at Christmas or if leaving, given a small gift, and they celebrated in their own time, away from Downing Street.

I can't see it would have happened under Theresa May either.?

Still, if you put a self serving oaf in charge, you get yobbo-ish behaviour.?

The fish rots from the head down.