No 10 was breaking Christmas Lockdown rules last year.

I'll repost this here. I put it on the wrong thread...

If you subscribe to the Times the article linked in this tweet might be of interest

Christmas party row: Tories held ‘up to seven’ parties in lockdown | News | The Times

This says the 18th Dec Party was held just a few rooms down from where Johnson was working (& from where the Ministers meeting was held?).

The party started at 6pm.

twitter.com/fascinatorfun/status/1469224977018806272

No, no *Maizie8, we were all busy at our desks - drinking

Not a 'party' then, MOnica

Sloe gin is wickedly delicious!

Like all offices have a few bottles of wine lying about just waiting to be cracked open, preferably just before Christmas

Well, I have been known to take a bottle of wine into the office on an agreed date just before Christmas. In one office one of the managers used to bring in several bottles of his home made sloe gin on the day of the canteen Christmas lunch and after lunch instead of working we would all sit around drinking sloe gin from paper cups from the water fountain and getting quietly sozzled. itt was only when we stood up to go home we realised how potent his jollop was.

But no secret santa, they hadn't been invented.

MaizieD

^If the supposed partygoers were already at work in the office I can't see why them cracking open a few bottles of wine should be a problem.^

Like all offices have a few bottles of wine lying about just waiting to be cracked open, preferably just before Christmas tidyskatemum?

And Santa was there too (secretly)

When is a party not a party?
www.itv.com/news/2021-12-09/boris-johnsons-senior-aide-gave-awards-at-downing-street-christmas-party

If the supposed partygoers were already at work in the office I can't see why them cracking open a few bottles of wine should be a problem.

Like all offices have a few bottles of wine lying about just waiting to be cracked open, preferably just before Christmas tidyskatemum?

If the supposed partygoers were already at work in the office I can't see why them cracking open a few bottles of wine should be a problem. The blatant lying that it actually happened is obviously a completely different kettle of fish, I'd also be more critical of the reported "gatherings" in the no 10 flat, which must have involved outsiders coming in
One rule for some, another for us plebs.

It’s the lying to us and Parliament which is the most important issue here. How can the country trust a habitual lier. Max Hastings said he wouldn’t trust Boris Johnson to tell him the day of the week. As for the poor people who suffered untold misery as they were refused the right to comfort and be with their dying relatives and then to have the lasting hurt increased by the shenanigans in Downing Street, well all that is unforgivable.

Growstuff I agree, and I’d happily vote for PR elections, but the call needs to come from the party in power.
This argument came up when I was a child. It resurfaced in my recall when Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, James Callaghan, Gordon Brown, John Major et were in power.
The problem is that if the party in power think they’ll win with FPTP they won’t bring PR in during their term of office. It’s an immediate cry when the party in power loses.
Perhaps if we all write to Starmer now and ask him to make a promise to introduce PR immediately, if Labour get in next time it might happen. What do you think?

Politics should include integrity, honesty, a political and personal belief system.
Sadly lacking in Mr Johnson[s case

Starmer has one thing in his favour-he looks the part. Beyond that I don’t know that he’d be any better at running the country.
Politics is a world of accusations and counter accusations and full of hindsight which shows how you would have done it better, without ever having to prove it.

Dickens

^I note that there are still a few people on here that think this is not important.^

Perhaps to them it really isn't. What can you say? You can't make people care, if they don't.

The question that comes to my mind is - would they be equally unconcerned if it was the Opposition party that had allegedly broken the rules?

... and if it was the Tory party in Opposition - would they have challenged Labour if they'd been in power over such an issue?

As long as we have our adversarial system of politics - which is what people appear to want - then this 'politicking' will continue to be part of Westminster life. We don't want consensus government, inclusiveness and conflict resolution type government.

Both parties will try to outdo the other, and that means exploiting the weakness one party finds in the other. It's a question of how much you care about whatever it is that's being revealed. But it's hypocritical to accuse either party of 'point scoring' because it's in the very nature of our system of government.

You can't expect parties to 'work together'... that's government by consensus... and we don't seem to want that.

We will continue to endure this corrosive adversarial political system until the UK becomes a true democracy where no government can be elected without the support of the majority of electors.

There are only two remaining European countries which continue to use the undemocratic First Past The Post electoral system - The United Kingdom and Belarus.

Let's insist that our elections are run on a proportional representation system, like all true democracies, before Belarus beats us to it.

www.electoral-reform.org.uk/

And incompetence and more lies

Johnson accuses Starmer of ‘playing politics’. I think it’s obvious Johnson sees politics as a game whereas Starmer sees it as a serious business.
Starmer’ s party has supported the government on many issues during this pandemic. He can’t be criticised for challenging lies.

I note that there are still a few people on here that think this is not important.

Perhaps to them it really isn't. What can you say? You can't make people care, if they don't.

The question that comes to my mind is - would they be equally unconcerned if it was the Opposition party that had allegedly broken the rules?

... and if it was the Tory party in Opposition - would they have challenged Labour if they'd been in power over such an issue?

As long as we have our adversarial system of politics - which is what people appear to want - then this 'politicking' will continue to be part of Westminster life. We don't want consensus government, inclusiveness and conflict resolution type government.

Both parties will try to outdo the other, and that means exploiting the weakness one party finds in the other. It's a question of how much you care about whatever it is that's being revealed. But it's hypocritical to accuse either party of 'point scoring' because it's in the very nature of our system of government.

You can't expect parties to 'work together'... that's government by consensus... and we don't seem to want that.

I note that there are still a few people on here that think this is not important. 149,000 have died, many without being able to see their loved ones. Assuming that each one of those had at least 10 family and friends then that's 1,490,000 people affected by the regulations.

And it's not just covid sufferers. I heard one lady yesterday whose child was born by C section whose husband was able to be with her for 1 hour and then just had a glimpse of the baby. Another lady had twins but one died and she was alone in hospital. I'm aware that there a many on here bemoaning that they haven't been able to see their new GCs and I tend to think that they could wait but there must be hundreds of new mothers who needed their own mothers and couldn't see them.

Dinahmo
If there was no party, why were they practising their responses to possible questions?

Your guess is as good as mine!

I'm absolutely furious that the recording is not being used as the starting police for a proper inquiry. The whole think stinks.

This from PoliticsJoe on Twitter is quite good:

twitter.com/politicsjoe_uk/status/1468601234584080384?s=21

I’m still waiting for a reply from my MP where I asked her to categorically state that there was no party….If I don’t get a yes or no answer I shall continue to ask her in a Paxman like way…

They are politicians and adept at lying. Unless someone blows the whistle on them there will be no evidence as they will stick to saying they were having meetings.
Blaming the police for not investigating is just diluting the blame from those who were guilty of breaking rules.
They were not called out at the time as they were to other parties so only have what they have been told to go on.
The damage to the Tories has, however, been done as who would ever trust them again.

big joke

If there was no party, why were they practising their responses to possible questions?
I've been trying to work that one out, Dinahmo
Party, what party?

Even if there was no party and this was all one bit joke, it was in extremely poor taste being in mind the situation and the deaths at that time.

Oldnproud

Alegrias1

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/met-police-to-probe-leaked-footage-of-downing-street-aides-joking-about-christmas-party/ar-AARzxGS?ocid=uxbndlbing

They're looking at it now.

Call me sceptical but I doubt if there is anything in that recording that actually proves a party definitely took place. Jokes can be just that, jokes, and on their own prove nothing.

It would certainly be the starting point for further investigation if a more serious crime (assault, murder etc) was alleged, an investigation that involved identifying and questioning all those who were at the party/ non-party, but I have a feeling that the police will decide - or be persuaded, if you know what I mean - that this isn't serious enough to merit that level of investigation.

I hope I'm wrong though.

If there was no party, why were they practising their responses to possible questions?

GrannyGravy13

On the news this morning (sorry cannot recall if it was BBC or GMB, TVs in different rooms on different channels) they said that the Metropolitan Police are now going to investigate the party .

If it was found to be illegal (and I assume it will be) I do hope that the appropriate heads will roll. I am not sure if Mr.Johnson can survive this, surely the backbenchers should grow a backbone and voice their opinion’s ?

They announced this morning that they weren't going to investigate - lack of evidence.