Another Bloody Downing Street party

[JustJam4Tea]

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.

Bugger. Try again. Angela Rayner is a gobby, socialist woman who is the absolute antithesis of the entitled oafs currently in charge of our futures. That's why they hate her, ooh she's a bit, er, common isn't she? Yes, she is and bloody good luck to her. A human being in politics. Astonishing. Obviously, she should be cleaning the loos and just doesn't know her place. Boris is scared of her and so he should be. Go Angela.

@ClaudineClare

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

Cummings was pushed out by "colleagues" (including Martin Reynolds) whose jobs were under threat from Cummings' attempted "reforms".

@PartyOnKale

Sounds like he stumbled out into the garden, saw the staff, mingled a bit to improve morale, what! The sort of scrape anyone of us could get into mid pandemic😉.

It’s happened to us all

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. So he hasn't resigned?

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)

Oh come on. Reynolds is Johnson's PPS.There is no way he would not have mentioned he was using the No. 10 garden for a party. Minister's private offices don't function quite like the rest of Whitehall.

Do you not have any? Touche
My point is that there would likely be many poor old souls who died alone and had no 'loved ones' at all. 'Loved ones' sounds so mawkish
I wasn't at my dad's bedside when he died. I was 5 minutes too late. I wasn't at my brother's bedside when his life support was turned off. Life and death isn't like a soap opera where a loving family surround the dying relative where they gently pass away.
'Mates' An attempt tp sound edgy and hard

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. I thought the photo was leaked, was it Cummings who leaked it? His explanation of several meeting in the garden that day came out weeks after the photo didn't it, I don't remember that being said at the time.

It wouldn't make much sense for Cummings to release the photo with him in it, bit of an own goal if he did.

If JVT's secondment was known to be coming to an end in March, why has that fact suddenly been announced today? All very odd.

I still cannot believe there are people on this thread defending Johnson. It is astounding.

Florianus
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).

For those unacquainted with the role of Principal Private Secretary, this is the civil servant with the closest working relationship with a Minister. No PPS would arrange a party without being asked to by their Minister or without their Minister’s knowledge.

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).

My abiding memory of Yes Minister was Bernard being told in no uncertain terms that if he wanted his career with the civil service to go anywhere, he needed to remember that his real boss was Sir Humphrey. Not whatever hapless person happened to be minister for a while.

I also recall there were two types of chairs ministers could sit in. I wonder which one Boris chose ?

I don't think it has occurred to Florianus that there will be people on here who have direct experience of working in Private Office and aren't basing their knowledge on a decades old sit com!

Sir Humphrey would have been ousted by a SpAd long ago...

I don't know whether Cummings is behind the leak/s or not, but he does quite obviously have an axe to grind. He's also widely known as having shat all over the lockdown rules anyway. After the Barnard Castle trip, it's not like a photo of him at a party is going to significantly change his position or the way he's viewed.

“Loved ones” and “mates” are fairly common parlance and used naturally and easily by many people nowadays (though not by me, probably because I’m elderly). It’s not advisable to dismiss or minimise people’s feelings on account of their vocabulary.

I'm sure Cummings has a hand in many stories, some leaked some he is open about, but I don't think it is all down to him. I think he is a convenient cover for others with their own agendas.

I agree Cummings has more to gain (to him) than lose by releasing this

He doesn’t need much power to have sat on stuff for a while and leaking it sporadically - but he might have people behind him which I’d like to know more about

And if it is him guessing he just can as it hadn’t been stopped

@borntobequiet

“Loved ones” and “mates” are fairly common parlance and used naturally and easily by many people nowadays (though not by me, probably because I’m elderly). It’s not advisable to dismiss or minimise people’s feelings on account of their vocabulary.

I don't minimise people's feeings. God knows I've been through enough bereavements myself. I'm talking about the use of mawkish language. You're probably right. It's a generational thing.

@MarshaBradyo

I agree Cummings has more to gain (to him) than lose by releasing this

He doesn’t need much power to have sat on stuff for a while and leaking it sporadically - but he might have people behind him which I’d like to know more about

And if it is him guessing he just can as it hadn’t been stopped

Didn't pretty much everyone else around Johnson hate Cummings anyway? So he isn't getting back into power whatever he does, he hasn't got a lot to lose. Again not saying it's him doing this, I just don't know, but I agree with you about priorities.

I recall people trawling over Cummings past when he was Mr. Brexit and Mr. Tory, and it seemed he not only wanted to destroy the Tory party, but the whole damn system. Raze it to the ground, and start again.

If he is still working to that agenda (and many men have told us who they were early on, and we didn't listen) then a slow sustained corrosive drip that reduces the Tory party to a sludge while there's no credible opposition would be almost the perfect way to go about it.

spartacus-educational.com/spartacus-blogURL129.htm

@ClaudineClare

If JVT's secondment was known to be coming to an end in March, why has that fact suddenly been announced today? All very odd.

I still cannot believe there are people on this thread defending Johnson. It is astounding.

JVT strikes me as a man of huge integrity who does his very best to do a good job.

I am sure the University of Nottingham could have found a way for him to continue the secondment if JVT had wanted to, if he found the job enjoyable, that is input was valued and the people he worked with had even some of the integrity he does.

As communications go he is good at it - even though I ended up loathing him and loathe to say it

He gets the one liners ‘shopping trolley’ was a good one and also knows a long, slow campaign on this stuff will work very well

I also have wondered about the secrets act and releasing videos etc but don’t know much about it

God knows I've been through enough bereavements myself.

We may be about the same age, Derxa. Maybe me a bit older. And bereavements come with age, not that it makes them any easier. Commiserations.
I disliked the phrase “loved ones” mainly on account of Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novel (in which he also disparaged the use of deodorant), but got used to it and think it’s useful and appropriate for family and close friends. I wouldn’t use “mates”myself though. My friends are far too genteel.
The one word I never use is “cool”. I stopped using it in the late 1970s as far too hippyesque and generally passé. I’m astonished at its persistence. I blame Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs for pushing it well past its best before date.

@ClaudineClare

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)

Oh come on. Reynolds is Johnson's PPS.There is no way he would not have mentioned he was using the No. 10 garden for a party. Minister's private offices don't function quite like the rest of Whitehall.

Top civil servants tend to rule their domains without reference to ministers. Martin Reynolds is a lawyer who later became one of Her Majesty's ambassadors and is well used to making decisions on his own behalf. He has been described by Dominic Cummings as more influential than many cabinet ministers.

So @Florianus

Who do you suspect Martin Reynolds was referring to by saying "we thought" and "please join us" in his invitation for socially distanced drinks?

@ancientgran

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. So he hasn't resigned?

I have not seen any reports that he has "resigned" (although some journalist may have misinterpreted his departure as such). All of those I have seen say that JVT is "stepping down" or "departing" from his government role.

Sir Jonathan has been on secondment to the Department of Health from the University of Nottingham since 2017 and will return to be the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the end of March.