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The Downing Street Party

220 replies

redpheasant · 07/12/2021 19:46

Sorry if there's another thread, couldn't see one.

ITV have a video scoop of Allegra Stratton laughing and joking about the party that never happened, but definitely did follow Covid rules despite not happening, filmed a few days after the party date.

How many more times does the PM and half the cabinet need to tell barefaced lies before we can get rid of this bunch of absolute arseholes?

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-12-07/no-10-staff-joke-in-leaked-recording-about-christmas-party-they-later-denied

OP posts:
shreddies · 08/12/2021 08:11

@EnidFrighten but it was her job. She agreed to be THIS Prime Minister's spokesperson. And on the basis of this video she was out of her depth. So no sympathy at all.

OhRexy · 08/12/2021 08:14

@MarbleQueen

It's not just about bending the rules/laws but about complete contempt for the public who voted them in and how it's all turned into a big laugh

It’s much more than that and I suspect we all know what it is.

These are the people who attended the cobra meetings, who instructed the nhs to cancel millions of operations and to ban visitors to care homes. They ordered the blanket Dnrs on our elderly folk and the news was filled with daily deaths and cases. We were repeatedly told we should be really afraid. Don’t kill granny.

And yet they were not afraid. Not afraid at all. Along with parties they were travelling to holiday homes and shagging their affair partners. A quick google of mps who broke the rules shows how just many of them weren’t afraid at all.

They clearly knew something we didn’t.

I’m done with it. Something is very very wrong and it needs acknowledging.

We need to talk about why they weren’t scared.

Well it's not the paranoid reasons you are thinking. The risks were there, the cases were very high but they still thought it didn't apply to them.

Their arrogance and belief that they were untouchable is why they had that party.
The rules don't apply to them and they won't suffer the same consequences that we would.

If they got covid and were very ill they wouldn't be waiting at home for an ambulance that won't arrive or not be able to get a bed.

They'll have private medical care, private GPs etc. They still get paid if they have to isolate. They're not going to be forced to go to work to pay their bills and feed their families.

PurpleDaisies · 08/12/2021 08:15

[quote shreddies]@EnidFrighten but it was her job. She agreed to be THIS Prime Minister's spokesperson. And on the basis of this video she was out of her depth. So no sympathy at all.
[/quote]
It was practice.

I’m not defending the party or all the lying or planning to try and fudge the questions, but having a go at someone for being a bit crap in a preparation session is unnecessary to me.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Politics
Roussette · 08/12/2021 08:16

It was a rehearsal for a press conference.
What I care about is the content... 4 days after a party, they are practising what to say if a journo asks about the party at the proper press conf.
Which means a party obviously took place.

And her laughing shows just what the powers that be think about the general public.

EnidFrighten · 08/12/2021 08:17

[quote shreddies]@EnidFrighten but it was her job. She agreed to be THIS Prime Minister's spokesperson. And on the basis of this video she was out of her depth. So no sympathy at all.
[/quote]
She might be awful in 57 ways, but the video was a clip of a rehearsal with her colleagues. They were chatting and joking together in an informal atmosphere. The point of those rehearsals is to find cogent answers to tricky questions. Not being able to answer one doesn't make her out of her depth.

It sounds a bit like you're saying a woman who laughs and doesn't always have an immediate answer to something must be incapable of doing her job, which sounds a touch misogynistic to me. She's an experienced journalist who fronted up Newsnight for years. The clip is wrong because they shouldn't have had a party or laughed about it, but it doesn't show her being incompetent.

Lifeisshortandbittersweet · 08/12/2021 08:17

Boils my piss this. In the care home where I work ,last December we had to face time residents relatives on our own phones ,so they could say goodbye to them while they were dying. Harrowing for all . Something many of us, staff and relatives , will be never truly get over.
Yet these vile lying beings stil had their jolly

OhRexy · 08/12/2021 08:19

@Cyrilgoggin

Voting Tory doesn't mean you voted for Johnson. I voted for my MP as I thought he was a good constituency MP, even though I thought Johnson was a knob.

Never again. I'm furious at these people and the way they have treated us. I spent Xmas away from family, and my only close family member remaining died this year. I wasn't able to see them. I've never hated anyone in my life but I'm coming pretty close with Johnson. I'm broken by what they've done and them laughing at us.

So you are only just furious enough with the tories to stop voting for them? All the other shit they've pulled didn't stop you?

Tory sleaze, the increases in child poverty, closing Children's centres, destroying the NHS, cut after cut to the public sector, the appalling way public sector workers are treated, complete disregard for ordinary people whilst looking after the interests of the rich and powerful.

But you've decided not to vote for them again now. Interesting.

SpookyScarySkeletons · 08/12/2021 08:20

@JockTamsonsBairns I agree 100%.

He definitely has more up his sleeve. And what better time to let this one explode than a few weeks before Christmas when we are potentially facing more restrictions and a lot of Christmas parties are being cancelled.

EnidFrighten · 08/12/2021 08:23

@ohrexy this is not the way to convert Tory voters! 'Oh, you've come round to my way of thinking have you - well, you should have done it earlier, you shit!'

requiredusername · 08/12/2021 08:25

@Bellafrenum

Why is it only being leaked now, a year later?
I thought this.
Cyrilgoggin · 08/12/2021 08:25

OhRexy that was a pretty cheap shot. I said that I voted for my local MP as he has proved to be a good constituency MP. I did what I thought was the right thing at the time and there has been no opportunity to vote since.

OhRexy · 08/12/2021 08:27

@MarshaBradyo

Cummings or someone who wants us to stop doing restrictions

Who would go along now

Me because it's not about them or what they do it's about keeping me and people around me safe.

I find it very childish when people announce they aren't going to be told what to do or they won't do it because the government didn't.

MarshaBradyo · 08/12/2021 08:29

Who knows OhRexy

Certainly lots of concern this morning from many speakers it has undermined public confidence.

Exhausteddog · 08/12/2021 08:30

Last year would have been our last Christmas with MIL. We stayed away because that's what the rules were. She was diagnosed with cancer in mid January and died 6 weeks later. Her funeral was the first time our family had been together for a year.

OhRexy · 08/12/2021 08:31

[quote EnidFrighten]@ohrexy this is not the way to convert Tory voters! 'Oh, you've come round to my way of thinking have you - well, you should have done it earlier, you shit!'[/quote]
I'm not here to 'convert' Tory voters. I find them a fundamentally self serving and morally bankrupt group so if they shift their allegiance it won't be for the greater good.

Bellafrenum · 08/12/2021 08:32

I think there will soon come a time when he stops turning up. He doesn't bother engaging with debate. Why should he? He will still win every election by a landslide. Look at what the public have chosen to accept so far, refusing to engage in debate won't be the tipping point. All they need to do to stay in power is not be Labour. Maybe they will stop bothering with elections too. Make a new law to say general elections happen every 50 years. Release some sleaze to the press to make sure everyone is looking the other way when it gets passed. Why not? Look what we have accepted already.

Bellafrenum · 08/12/2021 08:33

@Bellafrenum

I think there will soon come a time when he stops turning up. He doesn't bother engaging with debate. Why should he? He will still win every election by a landslide. Look at what the public have chosen to accept so far, refusing to engage in debate won't be the tipping point. All they need to do to stay in power is not be Labour. Maybe they will stop bothering with elections too. Make a new law to say general elections happen every 50 years. Release some sleaze to the press to make sure everyone is looking the other way when it gets passed. Why not? Look what we have accepted already.
That was in response to the question will he even turn up to PMQs
Bellafrenum · 08/12/2021 08:36

This is why the Tories are in power.

User135644 · 08/12/2021 08:41

@Bellafrenum

This is why the Tories are in power.
Because the Brits (or at least the English) like to know their place and let the Tories treat them like proles
user1471505356 · 08/12/2021 08:44

There is a by election next week, should be interesting.

EnidFrighten · 08/12/2021 08:52

@ohrexy if the Tories were voted out of power, it wouldn't be for the greater good?

There are lots of reasons why people vote Tory. Your average Brexit-motivated working class voter is different from a rural cattle farmer who is different again from a provincial business owner. I don't think you can lump them all in together.

Kendodd · 08/12/2021 08:52

There is a by election next week, should be interesting.
I bet they don't loss a single Tory voter, they'll crawl over hot coals to vote for this despicable lot.

Kendodd · 08/12/2021 08:54

Even fishermen in Cornwall being bankrupted by Tory brexit would still 100% vote for them and Brexit all over again.

the80sweregreat · 08/12/2021 08:58

@Kendodd

Even fishermen in Cornwall being bankrupted by Tory brexit would still 100% vote for them and Brexit all over again.
Yes :( Baffling , but true
Roussette · 08/12/2021 09:00

I think the Lib Dems will give them a fright up in Shropshire next week. I don't think they'll overturn the victory, BUT voters up there are pretty pis.sed off they've shipped in a candidate from Birmingham who doesn't live in or know the area.
It has been a Tory seat forever with a large majority but I think that will change, and Labour have subtly stepped back to allow the LDs to forge ahead.