I've expressed very strong feelings on this thread, I hate saying it but I think I hate the man, yet I can't really get myself worked up about a photo of him sat at a table on Zoom with two colleagues he's probably been working with everyday anyway, (unless there's more people in the room), even if technically it may be a break of the rules that only allowed one non-household person in the room if gathering for social reasons and work colleagues didn't have an exemption. But covid virus doesn't differentiate between whether 3 people are working or socialising. According to this barrister the issue is also Boris was Zooming to offices that had up to 24 people in them, who I've read had apparently come in to the building just for this social event. And there was alcohol etc. So seems organised as a party/social event. Which was against the rules, including for work colleagues. This barrister made a thread about it:
mobile.twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1469791515308396544
Apparently this also led to drinks and mingling between offices too:
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/top-lawyer-not-convinced-boris-25675483
It was obviously organised to be a party/social event. The exemption to gathering with more than one non household person was if "deemed reasonably necessary for work", which did not include social gatherings at work. From The Mirror, "the government told us exactly what they thought was “reasonably necessary for work” – their own guidance at the time said “you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity”. So that seems to exclude the work exception."
"On 15 December 2020, London was in Tier 2. Under paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the “All Tiers” regulations, no person could participate in a gathering indoors of two or more people.
The officer would have considered possible exceptions. The first relevant one is a “permitted organised gathering”, under paragraph 4(4). But that could only work if people participated alone or in household groups. (HeadPain: I don't understand this,btw.) That doesn’t seem to apply here.
The second is that the gathering was “reasonably necessary for work” under paragraph 4(6). Maybe the civil servants would say that they needed the quiz for morale, or had to stay at work to run the government.
The officer might think: well, what is “reasonably necessary” for an office is a bit subjective.
But the government told us exactly what they thought was “reasonably necessary for work” – their own guidance at the time said “you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity”. So that seems to exclude the work exception. "
But yeh this photo is not a smoking gun I don't think. Actually I was surprised that Boris seem a bit sensible, doing it on Zoom to the offices, (even if the offices were misbehaving and breaking the rules), and only being with 2 people (unless more not pictured) even if technically Boris should've only had one non-household person in room with him when mixing socially, rather than two. It is breaking rules, but I just can't get worked up about that. Covid virus doesn't differentiate when you're mixing for work or social event, if those three were working and then did this quiz what's the point of one of them leaving the room because they started a "social activity" , when they'd just been working together. Once you have to get into technicalities, explanations, debates about wording, rather than it being simple and clear, most people switch off. Though it seems obvious Boris knew about the rule braking in the offices. The photo is probably the main thing in people's minds now and it doesn't really look bad for Boris I don't think. Of course we don't know what Boris got up to outside of this photo, but actually this will probably make people go "Oh well, that's not a big deal." and stop caring about any of this.
This is not The Party, anyway, but now the waters can be muddied with some people thinking it is. This was 3 days before the party that is being investigated.
And apparently there were other parties:
mobile.twitter.com/Afzal4Gorton/status/1468902101187280896
On one hand I'd like party footage to come out, on the other hand it could risk public health. The issue of the lying, mocking, laughing about it and in turn laughing at the public is evidenced.