Thread 24, Sunak and the local elections aftermath

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4793978-thread-23-sunak-unicorn-kingdom?page=1

I'm a bit technically illiterate and I'm a bit confused by the relevance of new/old phones. On the few occasions I've had to replace my phone everything on the old one magically appears on the new one.

And then you read stories like this, one rule for them....

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/covid-travel-rules-quarantine-tests-prosecution-key-worker-fined-b1084919.html

🍿

NEW: Boris Johnson says he is sending his unredacted WhatsApps (from May 2021 onwards) to the Covid inquiry direct.

He says he wants to pass the WhatsApps from his old phone to them too

https://twitter.com/hzeffman/status/1664562818534850561?s=20

Be careful about the exact wording Johnson is using before you get too excited.

Eg, the impressively deft use of "relevant" in the seventh paragraph - so well camouflaged you may miss it.

Beat me to it!!! Just came to post that. Saw it on sky breaking news.

Just makes the plot thicken even more.

We know it won't show him in good light.

My guess is that more so it'll throw some current government members right under the bus with him and this is as much revenge as him saying "I think I was right and always did the best I could".

He can't seriously be deluded enough to think the enquirers won't show he made massive bad decisions at the time?

Unless by relevant he only means the messages that show he made good decisions rather than relevant as in "related to covid directly?"

He can't seriously be deluded enough to think the enquirers won't show he made massive bad decisions at the time?

I actually think he can.

It won't matter, he knows he can can make good money doing speeches.

Out & about at the moment so just catching bits on my phone but this sounds glorious!

I suppose Johnson thinks 'well loads of people think I'm a massive twat anyway, so I'm taking them all down with me!'

So Phone 2 he'll supply unredacted WAs.

Phone 1 he'll supply messages he decides are relevant.

Is that right?

Phone being the height of the pandemic from March 2020 until May 2021. 🤔

The COVID inquiry has asked Boris Johnson: "How did meetings with newspaper editors on September 18-23 [2020] affect the decision not to impose a second lockdown".

These are the meetings in question...
bylinetimes.com/2021/02/11/rec…

https://twitter.com/writesbright/status/1664553354448470017?s=46&t=Uw4lJNwxFZFnX0Xs3doHYg

If you can open the tweet it reveals 5 days of meeting Murdoch, Barclay, Rothmere, Brooks, Greig, Nelson - ie all the right wing newspaper owners & editors.

https://twitter.com/danbloom1/status/1664344069747646492?s=20

A nice little update — we now know for certain the names of 14 more people whose WhatsApps have been requested by the inquiry, simply because they happened to be outstanding on the date of a letter included in the bundle.

They include Liz Truss, Michael Gove and Kemi Badenoch

Politico article description of the Aus-UK trade deal negotiations is both shocking and entirely unsurprising. Shembolic snd willing to give way to almost any demand in the hope of just getting a deal, any deal...

"This has been common knowledge among trade types for some time, about how Boris Johnson went into dinner with the Australian PM, and as he did with the EU, simply gave way on everything to the despair of officials. Kudos to @g_lanktree for sourcing..."

twitter.com/davidheniguk/status/1664515639753469954?s=46&t=Uw4lJNwxFZFnX0Xs3doHYg

Shambolic!

They include Liz Truss, Michael Gove and Kemi Badenoch

It would be marvellous if these three were all brought down.

All this nonsense about Boris not being able to access his old phone and needing to 'test' the advice from the security services is laughable.

So is Boris

1. Incredibly stupid?
2. Thinks the entire country and especially the members of the Covid inquiry are incredibly stupid?
3. Both the above???

He's come out with some whoppers over the years but this one truly is farcical.

Oh, is it evil to wish they had gone ahead with that? With any luck it would have been a more virulent strain than the one he actually caught, not necessarily enough to kill him, but enough to require his immediate removal from public life? At one stroke he could have demonstrated that, actually, Covid did cause a threat, and also saved us endless aggravation in subsequent months and years.

Security people agree LittleBowSheep

An intelligence officer currently advising the Government after holding a senior position at GCHQ told i:

“I really can’t see why the phone can’t be switched on in a controlled environment, the relevant WhatsApp data extracted and then turned off again.”

A former official at the Government Security Group said Mr Johnson’s letter was “odd”.

He told i: “Recovering data from a device that might be compromised or have malware on it isn’t an unusual task in digital forensics.”

twitter.com/Richard_AHolmes/status/1664625014757261313?s=20

Interesting article. I bet that at this moment the opposition parties are very busy ensuring their election campaigns are ready to go at a moment's notice.

@CabernetSauvignon if this affair brings about an early general election I am here for it.

"I bet that at this moment the opposition parties are very busy ensuring their election campaigns are ready to go at a moment's notice."

Given we seem to be heading in an interminable period of blue on blue attacks a GE can't come quick enough.

Just injecting it would have been more risky. I did for a moment wonder how different the U.K. pandemic response might have been if he had done it. But then you have to wonder who might have ended up as PM. I don’t think either Truss or Sunak would have been better.

And anti vaxxers would have had a field day even though it wouldn’t have been the same thing.

Raab would have deputised for longer. I don't think they'd have had a leadership campaign in the middle of covid (surely not that stupid?)

He can’t have been serious, surely? It must have been along the lines of “What do I have to do to keep the plebs quiet, inject myself with Covid on live TV”? At the forefront of Johnson’s mind is the preservation of Johnson.

This might pass you by given the timing but 2 new peerages - Darren Motte former CEO of the Conservative Party & Dr Kay Swinburne.

"Announcing new peerages at 5.02pm on a Friday afternoon, is it?"

https://twitter.com/jackblanchardd_/status/1664664856975364097?s=46&t=Uw4lJNwxFZFnX0Xs3doHYg