22nd March, the Commons Privileges Comittee investigation into Partygate

So @Janiie may I then assume that you are also perfectly OK with Sir Keir and his beer, and that you were outraged when the conservatives really pushed that investigation? I mean, if there was a (very very unwritten) exemption for work dos then it has to apply to everyone, doesn't it?

Actually Jannie ay be partially correct. I know of bank staff leaving who took.in cakes for colleagues and had them in the staff room. But the were eaten in their individual shortened lunch breaks. The unch breaks had to be short so they could be taken by 1 person at a time all alone. In bigger branches that meant they could only be in the staff room for 15 minutes. The only people who could be together were the 2 people on the tills but they couldn't go together and leave the counters unmanned. Some people went into a room to cover telephone banking or bereavement work etc and stayed there sll day except for the loo. They may have had a cake left outside to collect.
So yeah, just like Downing Street.

All this talk of staff rooms is nonsense. Many ITU staff didn’t leave the unit for their entire shift because of the PPE shortage, once they’d entered a “dirty” area they couldn’t return without a complete change of PPE. I’d have thought these oh so knowledgeable pals would have known that but perhaps not since they were still using staff rooms.

@Janiie I think you may have missed my post asking you why you think it acceptable for a 56 year old to have a birthday party whilst denying that opportunity to millions of children?

And how many is many?

You have said far worse to me than 'jog on' !!

A leaving do with booze and food is not working. And is not essential.

That's it really.

I will still vote for him because he got Brexit done, showed it to those foreigners, knows what a woman is and most importantly of all is not But Jeremy Corbyn.

'So just jog on with the 'they were working' nonsense'

jog on and nonsense

I'll try these terms you one day Rousette and see how much you like it. I predict not a lot

'so you know this of every single staff room in the NHS? Rightio!'

Hmm not sure I said every single staff room I did however say 'many'.

@Janiie were there suitcases of wine in the staffrooms of your oh so many NHS friends, who covered every staffroom in the NHS, as well?

Strangely enough I also know lots of people (clinical) who work in the NHS and nope, no cakes and sarnies in their staffrooms.

He should have obviously been stricter and in hindsight he obviously regrets it but I absolutely agree workplaces were different to attending funerals and visiting family

Answer me this, Janiie.

Do you agree with him that leaving dos, that weren't socially distanced, were completely essential for morale to steady the ship?

Because that is complete and utter bollocks. And you know it. He never let the country know they could party when someone left. And he couldn't answer Sir Bernard coherently when asked what he would say if someone asked if they could have a leaving do

No, he does NOT regret it. Any of it. Did you listen to the Hearing? He would not correct the record. He stood by it all. Right up till the end when asked by Harriet Harman
So NO.

I talk to people

We all talk to people. I talk to people. You hear different than others. Funny that.

Cakes and sarnies were present in nhs staff rooms

So you know this of every single staff room in the NHS? Rightio!

'And you know this because?'

Well because I talk to people, I have family and friends, lots in the nhs. Of course folk wfh did Teams leaving dos but I guarantee if people were at work then a cake and sandwiches would have been present in many staff rooms. No congas or raves obviously, but BJ wasn't actually clubbing you know. Nhs staff reading this will know this but won't dare stick their heads over the parapet. Cakes and sarnies were present in nhs staff rooms.

He should have obviously been stricter and in hindsight he obviously regrets it but I absolutely agree workplaces were different to attending funerals and visiting family.

It doesn't quite work like that though does it Janiie? Seeing as they were the most fined premises in the whole of the UK.

So just jog on with the 'they were working' nonsense. Essential work yes. Leaving dos to 'steady the ship' - not essential and it is an absolute insult to those working their arses of to say that.

@Notonthestairs - my experience was that having achieved power he did not know what do with it. He was a king, not a PM. PMs need guile and drive to achieve their aims. Johnson did not have these things because he was an aim in itself.

Once King, he unraveled likes cheap jumper. Erudition cannot conceal a void. He is an empty character

@Janiie my work (NHS, non clinical) had two leaving dos in lockdown. Both were held on Teams. In the case of one (very senior and well liked) there was a collection done via PayPal and a gift was bought online and shipped.

So why couldn't your darling Boris have done that?

We knew the rules. And we weren't even running the country!

"Useless fool - majority that he threw away."

I do find it interesting how this all unravelled. Maybe that majority was the beginning of the end because it fed in to his idea he was unassailable.

Anyway his career as a politician is on the way out - pretending those leaving parties were work & everyone else could have had them (it's your own fault if you weren't getting pissed at work) won't do any good now.

@Janiie Any chance you could explain why you think it was acceptable for a 56 year old to have a birthday party whilst denying that opportunity to millions of children?

@AdamRyan fairly Johnson must be sanctioned for what he did, but Tanya Gold in Politico and Martin Kettle in the Guardian make related points.

Imagine of course this Boris sized gap in the constitution when Labour get in with a big majority. They will use it - any political party will.

Why is it that you think work "rites of passage" should be prioritised over other human rites of passage? Because that's basically the argument.

Every workplace I'm aware of did leaving dos via Zoom. This idea that somehow a work leaving do is more important than a funeral is absolutely repugnant.

Also I think its illegal as the guidance said face to face events should only happen if not possible remotely and leaving drinks are definitely possible remotely.

Anyway we'll see what the committee decides.

@Janiie - he is a politically friendless weirdo who couldn't argue his point properly - and done in by his own party.

Politics is about competence. Johnson is irresponsible and incompetent. 72 per cent of British people think he lied.

Useless fool - majority that he threw away.

If he is a narcissist then "knowingly misleading parliament" will be something he cannot comprehend. Because lying will be so normalised to him he won't know he's doing it.
And this will all seem very unfair to him as he can't comprehend that others won't behave how he does. In his mind, his,way is the only way so everyone must be doing it.

It's a shit way to judge a crime, whether someone "knew" they were committing it.

I kind of wish he had been in front of a jury as I bet they wouldn't stand for this total hogwash.

I'm also quite interested that none of the political commentators I've read have picked up on the impact to democracy if he doesn't get sanctioned. I've only seen it discussed on here and as far as I'm concerned it's the prime aspect of this. We can't have a situation where a PM lies with impunity, even if they are a narcissist and don't recognise that's what they are doing.

'How fucking dare he. Funerals were on the list of non essential, yet a leaving bash with drinks and food was essential.'

There were at work. Is there any footage of BJ attending a large funeral of 50 people when no one else could, any footage of him visiting people in care homes when no one else could? Or perhaps he was allowed to visit a loved one in hospital? Nope because it didn't happen. They were at work and had all worked with each other for days if not months. As I keep saying staff rooms up and down the country had sarnies on the table.

Context matters. Not to Harmen obviously but most folk can spot the difference between been at work or going to a funeral

@Crikeyalmighty - the reason for that response by City people is that Johnson didn't serve their interests. It is not in the financial interests of the UK or the City to look corrupt explicitly or engage in fraud. People like putting their money and assets here because of the stability and respect of the law.

If that appears unstable then the UK will not get the investment or money from outside. We need to look credible.

The idiots who supported Johnson are people who have never had to be credible to others. Instead, they liked his cowboy style - but money and investors do not like that.

Johnson had a good go at ruining the Tory Party and drove out a lot of people who he decided were not loyal. If you run a political party in England like Stalin then you will make a lot of enemies if you don't deliver.

So the guy is friendless and back with the weirdo contingent, Dorries, Mogg, Patel, Bone, Duncan Smith etc. People who are weird even in the Conservative. The loser crowd

@Janiie Any chance while you are here you could explain why you think it was acceptable for a 56 year old to have a birthday party whilst denying that opportunity to millions of children?

We paid for his defence, and that was the best they could come up with. "No on told me that having parties was against the rules that I was responsible for".

Either his lawyer isn't up to all that much, ro there really isn't anything to defend.