22nd March, the Commons Privileges Comittee investigation into Partygate

It's already been explained that the committee asked for additional information from Johnson and he will need time to prepare that.

By which stage we'll be in pre election purdah.

Both the Government & Johnson have repeatedly dragged their heels producing evidence - they were asked last July/August and didn't respond until very late 2022. If anyone is responsible for delays it's them.

If they hurry along the process then Johnson will complain even more then he has already.

I think we'd all like decisions to be made earlier. But if it were made before the May elections there would be an outcry because maybe you and others would be saying it affects polling.

Calling it a 'kangaroo court' is so wrong. In fact it's disturbing. Yesterday's committee members hold a tory majority, it is staffed by impartial officials and advised by a senior judge. Parliament is there to hold the government to account. Do you not want our Government answerable to anyone?

It's very very telling that Johnson more or less said he would agree that it's wrong to question the validity of the Committee, but only if he is found innocent of misleading the House.
That tells us all we need to know.

@borntobequiet I'm not saying the process is wrong. Johnson must be held to account. But it simply doesn't have to take months. It's amazing how things can take a long time when other people's money is being spent. They need to justify why it will take so long.

If they can't make up their minds based on what Johnson said yesterday then what was the point of it?

The reason the conclusion won’t be published until the summer is so it doesn’t affect voting in the local elections in May. Since the voting public has already concluded Johnson’s guilty as sin it does seem a bit pointless.

Why not abolish our pesky kangaroo Parliament, its pesky kangaroo committees and all its other pesky kangaroo processes then, and leave it all to you in your front room with your TV set then? It would save a lot of money that could be put into the NHS, which of course you would have to run as well.

@Nimbostratus100 of course I'm real. They have the Sue Grey report. They've seen Johnson's account of himself. Debating it for hours doesn't change the outcome. They can review the transcripts of yesterday and make a decision. It doesn't have to take months and multiple meetings.

If they were running their own business they would just get on with it.

they wont spend months on it. They will spend an hour or two here and there, they have other evidence to view, other interviews to conduct etc and for the other 99.9% of their time, they have other parliamentary work to do.

And this is working for their constituents.

are you real?

Haha good one! I love these parody accounts that slip in here, you nearly had me there!

It's ridiculous that it will take until the summer to come to a conclusion. They should be able to decide today. It's a kangaroo court made up of pompous MPs who should be out working for their constituents. They shouldn't be allowed to spend months navel gazing and pontificating on this. If they were there yesterday and heard what Johnson had to say then they should meet and make their decision today. I know i can make mine after watching his ridiculous performance on tv yesterday. Why can't they? A complete waste of time and money.

JRM appears to have confused the British constitution with an episode of Big Brother. Easy mistake to make.

my OP on anther thread about Johnson's lies

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0014rmb
www.bbc.co.uk/news/60245483
On at least 9 occasions, Boris Johnson stood up in Parliament and claimed there were more people employed in 2021than before the pandemic. The truth was that the employment numbers were at least 600 000 lower, and had suffered the largest fall in over 30 years
Will Moy, Chief executive of the independent fact checking organisations "Full Fact" personally informed him at least 6 times that he was misleading parliament, and the normal procedure would be to expect the MP who had "inadvertently" given false information to correct it at the first possible opportunity, but Boris Johnson repeated the lie, knowingly, again, and again and again.
24/11/21,then 15/12/11,then 5/1/22/ then 12/1/22/then19/1/22 etc.
Similarly, the independent Office for statistics regulation informed Boris Johnson that his oft repeated statement that crime was down 14 % was wrong, it was in fact UP 14%
I am writing to my MP to ask why only one lies is being investigated, when there is proof of constant, deliberate lying in parliament.
It might be a couple of years ago now, but I don't think we can afford to allow people like this to treat the whole parliamentary system with such contempt and get away with it.

I think I heard Lord Finkelstein, Conservative peer, say on the PM programme something very like “if he (Johnson) isn’t the definition of a liar, who is?”.

Hasn’t Johnson already been sacked twice for lying? Also he regularly lied to his second wife about the numerous affairs he was having. He lied about Brexit numerous times during the vote, he lied, on camera, to people who live in N Ireland, saying they’d never have to fill in a form to trade with the rest of the Uk. And these are just the lies I can remember, why would anyone believe a word he says?

😂

Summaries much appreciated thank you!

That's hilarious and very telling. Even his barrister despairs.
JRM saying that BJ has won the public vote 🙄another deluded idiot.

He thought the noise was consistent with normal office noise (given the amount of gatherings with booze they had, he's probably correct).

That genuinely made me laugh L1ttledrummergirl 😁

Although other people were given fpns for gatherings he attended, because they broke the law and he didn't, no laws were broken in Downing Street.

He had no idea that 40 people had gathered in an antichamber at the bottom of the stairs leading to his flat, with alcohol, and were not socially distanced. He thought the noise was consistent with normal office noise (given the amount of gatherings with booze they had, he's probably correct). Although his diary was empty at that time, he doesn't know where he was, or what he was doing, but was probably working hard saving us all). He would have had full view of the gathering on his way home.

The gathering for his birthday cake was a work event despite his wife and interior designer being in attendance.

He accepts that many staff received fpns for breaking rules on social distancing but still says no rules were broken.

When informing parliament that no rules were broken he took advice from his press team rather than government lawyers or civil servants. He was advised by them that they probably couldn't use that as a line of defence but did it anyway. The committee had whatsapp messages confirming they were concerned about this approach. He said he was talking about a specific gathering on a specific date so it didn't mislead parliament. He seems to think the enquiry is about 1 event, rather than the overall picture of what went on.

Exactly. My stepdaughter is beyond furious tonight. She wants to know where the morale boost was for her and her colleagues when they were pulling 13 hour shifts with no break.

Just to say I'm loving the terms "absolute shoeing" and "wazzock"

He'll only respect the Committee's findings if they agree with him.

That pretty much covers it 😁

Oh. And:
● it was everyone else's fault.
● he still thinks the "events" were perfectly within the rules/guidance. And thinks it strange the police gave them all FPNs

What I don't understand is, since he was in charge, if the building was so unsuitable, why was he not making arrangements to move somewhere more suitable?