Boris Johnson, FPN's, and Sue Gray report due. Thread 5

[Roussette]

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4545092-boris-and-his-fines-part-4

Previous thread!

The thing is that home owners could and we're fined for gatherings in their homes against the restrictions rules.

How the feck in a month of Sundays can Johnson prove that him and his wife were carrying out a work event necessary for work purposes in their flat late in the evening.

The offices are downstairs. He could have held meetings there any time if day. It didn't require them to be in their home with loud music.

The only good thing about this is that Durham cannot possibly now fine Starmer for having food and drink in a constituency office - as it's a work place. Therefore it can be argued it was reasonably necessary for work.

I have to have some hope seeing this as most people here seem to be condemning Johnson.

I see our right wing popular press - the Express, Mail, Sun especially - cheering Johnson on. The Express front page was promises of tax cuts at a time when the government tax policy is hurting most of us (and I believe hurting the economy too) for the benefit of the rich. I wouldn't be surprised for the Express, our most popular paper, would praise Johnson even if he was caught on film murdering infants!

So I hope to see that the media doesn't have the power I worry it may have. We're at a time when our popular papers are more like propaganda, we have right wing TV channels coming online while the BBC is now run by government representatives and Channel 4 faces the threat of privatisation.

Latest YouGov Westminster voting intention (18-19 May)

Con: 31% (-2 from 10-11 May)
Lab: 39% (+1)
Lib Dem: 12% (n/c)
Green: 7% (+1)
SNP: 5% (+1)
Reform UK: 4% (+1)

yougov.co.uk/topics/politic…

twitter.com/yougov/status/1527587952385310720?s=21&t=LG3zcTrHcJPnAXIkHkmpsg

Junior civil servants aren't happy with being scapegoated.

Something to keep an eye on, especially with their jobs being threatened

Ah, but the thing is that Boris isn't the homeowner, so rules applying to homeowners wouldn't apply in this case. In fact the flat is more just an extension of his office.

So I hope to see that the media doesn't have the power I worry it may have. We're at a time when our popular papers are more like propaganda, we have right wing TV channels coming online while the BBC is now run by government representatives and Channel 4 faces the threat of privatisation

^^ This.
And Britain is known as having the most right wing press out of european countries.

Robert Peston
@Peston
In Downing Street there is a sense of injustice and considerable upset that the 126 Partygate fines have been levied disproportionately on women and junior officials. One source said: “the majority of [those fined] are very junior diary managers etc on 24k-ish and these fines…
“are really stacking up for them. Typically they are getting fined for events they were at with their male bosses who seem to have got away no problem. Pretty clear also that people who bothered lawyering up [like the PM] are fine. There is a lot of very angry and…
upset people”. Much now hangs on the report by the senior Cabinet Office official Sue Gray, which will be published next week. Through colleagues, she has made clear that she wants to protect the more junior officials and…
hang responsibility for Downing Street’s rule breaking culture on more senior named individuals. The big question is whether her report corrects the perceived unfairness of the distribution of fines and identifies who at the top was to blame. The PM will have an…
anxious weekend as he waits to read what Gray says about his role in the creation of the compromised culture at the top of Whitehall and government

The huge flaw with appointing Sue Gray to do this review and report - apart from the fact that she apparently has integrity - is that she’s 65, at the end of her career and has literally nothing to lose by releasing the report to the news outlet of her choosing if Johnson decides to either decimate it or sit on it.

We have been repeatedly told that Boris is a good Prime Minister because he knows what a woman is. Here again we have firm evidence to support this, and more than that he knows what their role is.

Objections will be made by some, still predict the report will be published when Parliament is in recess.

I'd be happy for no fines if the Prime Minister was charged with corruption and corporate manslaughter, which he should be.

Think we may have the same team- should have known by your name.

Boris just spoken...
"I am very grateful to the Met for their work. I am very grateful for the work they have done. I just think that we need to wait for Sue Gray to report and then … fingers crossed … that will be very soon"

Of course he's grateful! He's been excluded from investigation of 5 of the 7 parties he attended, why wouldn't he be thanking them for that??

Pretty concerning poll from the Police’s point of view (and perhaps from No 10’s). New data from @YouGov showing that over half of adults surveyed either don’t trust the outcome of the Met’s partygate investigation much, or don’t trust it at all.
twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1527666687255912449?t=x2JOQVXjkX6vrPwULx_5zQ&s=19

Spirit of the Blues 🎶

And so the madness of First Past The Post:

Total Right Wing: 31 + 4 = 35
Total Progressive: 39+12+7+5 = 63

Progressive votes always outnumber right wing votes, but we keep getting right wing governments. I believe it's the same wherever First Past The Post is used.

The danger for Boris is surely that in each constituency people vote for whoever is most likely to beat the pig in the blue rosette in that particular constituency.

As long as Boris continues to insist that each election is a contest about his popularity then I doubt this will go well for him.

I think trust in the Met was pretty low before this. It will be nonexistent now. Let’s hope they get a new commissioner from elsewhere who will sort it out. God knows it needs it.

We know Boris didn't bother to read his oven ready brexit deal, or the covid legislation that his government passed, because he is only responsible for the pot plants.
What are the chances he will read the Sue Gray report? Does he like pictures, perhaps she should include some to keep him entertained.

An interesting thought.

The news has just been talking about pitch invasions and violence against football players being on the increase. They are asking what can be done to prevent it and why clubs aren't stopping it.
They are not asking why its increasing now.

Imagine, you are feeling disenfranchised from politics, aware that the poorest in society are getting poorer, bills are going up, you may not be able to afford a ticket in the future.
You are worried about your job, your home, feeding your family.

You can see the government and their families avoiding paying taxes, building swimming pools, giving millions to their mates in dodgy contracts.
The prime minister attended multiple gatherings for which he received no penalty as the met declined to investigate his attendance, whilst the junior staff at the same events received fines.

It appears that the government and police are both corrupt, and you have no way of squaring the circle.

Civilisation is a veneer, a mask we wear to avoid killing each other. When the population feel that being civil is pointless, they get restless.

I think that the violence at football is a pressure cooker letting of steam but unless things change drastically at the top of government this is just a start.

I hope I'm wrong.

I wonder if junior officials will start leaking what happened at these parties if they are the ones who end up carrying the can?

@L1ttledrummergirl
Great post. Agree.

My post at 12.46 sums it up. Some of those lower down the civil service feel very aggrieved I would imagine

The news has just been talking about pitch invasions and violence against football players being on the increase.

They were talking on the radio about the bad behaviour being fuelled by cocaine and (I think) the policing minister said that they were finding traces of cocaine all over football grounds, which reminded me, didn’t they find cocaine all over the House of Commons too?

I understand that Gove is a football fan.

Like the bloke on QT last night said, there's a lot of anger building up inside the public and it will find a way of coming out.