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Original poster

Another Bloody Downing Street party

999 replies

JustJam4Tea · 10/01/2022 21:51

So hours after telling us to only meet one other person outside from a different household 100 invited to Downing Street BYO in the garden.

It was unlawful to mix outside. If my employer had invited 100 staff to a garden party we’d have all been arrested.

OP posts:
LumosSolem · 13/01/2022 08:31

As if Chope would understand anything about reasonable people.

Good point!

I was at the pub last night listening to idiots at the table next to me broadcasting loudly to everyone there that they 'understood that lots of people had a hard time but it wasn't Boris' fault they were suffering'. I think most other people there wanted to tell them to STFU

merrymouse · 13/01/2022 08:37

@LumosSolem

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but did anyone else see Christopher Chope commenting on politics live yesterday? His quote I've attached is from the bbc website.

His comment about 'reasonable people' accepting that arsehole's apology really pissed me off. How dare he suggested that people who suffered absolutely horrendously in May 2020 when they were holding garden parties at Downing Street are 'unreasonable' for thinking Boris and cronies are an absolutely disgrace and that pathetic excuse of an apology is acceptable.

If Boris is relying on Chope for support he is desperate.

It’s impossible to justify the party. Either:

  1. Nobody in Downing Street believed there was a real risk and they were just treating people like mugs and didn’t care about the awful circumstances forced on so many. (Why the Tory press is enraged).

  2. They believed there was risk, but that if exceptions should be made they should be made for Downing Street office parties, not funerals or at risk children.

  3. Everyone at Downing Street is monumentally stupid.

Chope’s argument just suggests that nobody else in the Tory party could do better.

jgw1 · 13/01/2022 08:37

@rrhuth

Katest poll has the Tories down to 28%. That is going to worry Tory MPs far more than any ethical concerns about lying!
Presumably the poll was taken before the latest episode of Partygate hit the headlines and certainly before the car crash that was PMQs yesterday.

What baffles me is there are many highly paid people who are apparently almost irreplaceable who work in Downing Street who are supposed to be media savvy and control the message to the media. Have they been on holiday in a fridge for months?

merrymouse · 13/01/2022 08:39

Have they been on holiday in a fridge for months?

From what we now understand about Downing Street working culture, maybe alcohol affected their judgement?

AdamRyan · 13/01/2022 08:54

@merrymouse

The Johnsons don't live at No.10. Behind the narrow entrance, No.10 Downing Street is basically an office block for some 200 civil servants.

The excuse for the Johnsons attending the cheese and wine do was that it was in their garden.

Hoisted by their own petard Grin At very very best this shows Boris Johnson is incapable of managing his party/staff, so they are totally happy to break the law on his watch because he won't notice Hmm I don't know why there is the desperate hunt to try to defend the indefensible. However I am really hoping someone turns Starmer's "he didn't realise he was at a party" into a GIF.

I loved Labour yesterday and I'm not even going to apologise. Starmer made me laugh. Wes Streeting was great on news night. And the more I see Angela Rayner the more I like her too - I'm starting to think the way people respond to her is driven by misogyny. Anyway a bit off topic.

Notonthestairs · 13/01/2022 08:56

I don't blame them for wanting a drink and a party.

But if you (the government) introduce and enforce emergency & highly restrictive legislation on the public you have to be willing to comply with it.

And if you can't or won't abide by the restrictions then you don't get to pillory the public or lie about it.

And I don't see anything unreasonable about my expectations.

jgw1 · 13/01/2022 09:08

@Notonthestairs

I don't blame them for wanting a drink and a party.

But if you (the government) introduce and enforce emergency & highly restrictive legislation on the public you have to be willing to comply with it.

And if you can't or won't abide by the restrictions then you don't get to pillory the public or lie about it.

And I don't see anything unreasonable about my expectations.

If I had to work with Johnson and Cummings then I would certainly need regular drinks.
ancientgran · 13/01/2022 09:09

JVT has resigned. I haven't heard why but I wonder if partygate is the reason.

Florianus · 13/01/2022 09:10

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

Nobody has suggested that Johnson held the party. It was apparently organised by Martin Reynolds, principally for his fellow civil servants.

Nope, I stand by this, he held it. It was in his garden and he was there - that's holding a party in my book.

If it hasn't officially been confirmed, it's only because it hasn't been leaked yet. That'll be the next leak. The leak after that will be an email from him going 'PAAAARTAY!' Final one will be a photo of him heading a conga line, wearing a pair of giant plastic tits.

The invitation came from Martin Reynolds and the garden it was held in is part of the No.10 workplace, in which Reynolds is one of the key figures. It is reported this morning that Johnson has been telling his MPs that he took the blame for somebody else - Martin Reynolds, obviously - in the strange but ancient tradition that ministers take the blame for the mistakes made by civil servants. Of course, it is now widely acknowledged that Cummings is behind it all in his attempt to bring down the government.
borntobequiet · 13/01/2022 09:12

I suspect that every time Christopher Chope emerges from (relative) obscurity and open his mouth, Conservative support drops by a number of percentage points. Go Chris!

Notonthestairs · 13/01/2022 09:13

No way Reynolds organised a gathering in his bosses garden without getting agreement from his boss.

BellaChagall · 13/01/2022 09:14

This is part of Cummings master plan to get rid of Johnson and get Sunak into Downing St. Johnson, the silly fool, has given him everything he needs and Sunak the snake will soon be slithering in. Woe is us.

longwayoff · 13/01/2022 09:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DuncinToffee · 13/01/2022 09:15

Johnson pulling out of a visit to a Lancashire today as a family member has tested positive....

ClaudineClare · 13/01/2022 09:15

From the Guardian

"And this has just happened as well – reports that someone within theBoris Johnsonfamily has tested positive for Covid, leading to the prime minister cancelling a planned excursion to a vaccination centre today, where he would have had to face the public for the first time since apologising in parliament for attending a lockdown party in Downing Street"

How convenient.

ancientgran · 13/01/2022 09:16

I know everything gets blamed on Cummings but why would he release the 15th May photo that clearly includes him? He is no doubt enjoying all this, he might be involved in some of it but I don't think it is all coming from him.

Not defending him by the way, I don't like him anymore than Johnson, but I think this is bigger than Cummings.

ClaudineClare · 13/01/2022 09:17

He really is a despicable, cowardly piece of shit.

Florianus · 13/01/2022 09:17

@ancientgran

JVT has resigned. I haven't heard why but I wonder if partygate is the reason.
His period of secondment to the Department of Health from his lectureship at University of Nottingham has apparently come to an end. The timing is unfortunate, though.
Florianus · 13/01/2022 09:21

@ancientgran

I know everything gets blamed on Cummings but why would he release the 15th May photo that clearly includes him? He is no doubt enjoying all this, he might be involved in some of it but I don't think it is all coming from him.

Not defending him by the way, I don't like him anymore than Johnson, but I think this is bigger than Cummings.

When Cummings released that photo he insisted it was "not of a 'party' or 'rule breaking'" and instead captured one of "several meetings" he had been present at in the garden that day. Wink
ClaudineClare · 13/01/2022 09:21

Why would he need to resign if that was the case florianus?

borntobequiet · 13/01/2022 09:22

Of course, it is now widely acknowledged that Cummings is behind it all in his attempt to bring down the government.

I suspect it’s more widely acknowledged that the Government is perfectly capable of bringing itself down by its own efforts, or rather by those of its leader.

DuncinToffee · 13/01/2022 09:22

I think people are giving Cummings too much power here.

Florianus · 13/01/2022 09:23

@Notonthestairs

No way Reynolds organised a gathering in his bosses garden without getting agreement from his boss.
I don't think you understand the relationship between top civil servants and ministers, and who is the boss of whom. I suggest reviewing a few episodes of Yes Minister (I know two of the former Division One civil servants on whom several of the episodes were based).
kittensinthekitchen · 13/01/2022 09:24

@derxa

I'm fed up with people using the terms 'loved ones' and 'mates'
Do you not have any?