To ask if your essential meetings involve sitting around in the garden with wine and cheese, with your spouse in attendance?

[AlexaShutUp]

So the justification for the pictures of Boris in lockdown is that they were essential work meetings and therefore allowed. The wine and cheese was apparently because people were working long hours. I have seen no explanation of why Carrie was present.

Do you have essential work meetings of this nature? I don't.

AIBU to think that, in the midst of a pandemic, I'd rather that our decision makers stayed off the booze while carrying out their essential functions? And that unelected individuals who are not employed by the government in an official capacity have no business sitting in on such meetings?

Boris thinks we, the public, are stupid, because that’s what he was raised to think.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=mGr3qbOPHoE

‘We’ voted in someone who was a proven liar, who clearly had no moral compass and then we wonder why things are in such a state. Talk about Turkeys voting for Christmas.

Next election please please don’t rely on media coverage to make your decision- go directly to the various political party websites. Listen to their speeches directly and look at their voting record and vote someone in with integrity and values with policies that address the issues that matter most to us all.

Ain higher Janie.

Aim!

Is it not a bit embarrassing defending this bunch?

These leaks are coming from within the government - is Pippa Crerar supposed to ignore them @JaniieJones?

@JaniieJones

'It's actually a little bit sick inducing how fan girly you are over them '

Fan girly. Hmm that sounds a bit misogynistic to me.

'Why no laptops or pens? '

Haven’t you ever seen people discuss business in restaurants. They don't always have their bics, notepads and tablets out do they?

Anyway, let's hope the trashy media focus on the current situation with the virus rather than their constant smear campaign. Pippa Crerar needs to get out more if she thinks any of these photos constitute 'parties'.

They aren't in a restaurant. A senior minister has said this was an after work event.

This is government, the public sector. There are civil servants and the prime minister in attendance at this meeting. I couldn't give a monkeys what "people" do to discuss "business" in restaurants. There should be a record of what this meeting was about if not minutes being recorded. These are basic standards for those in the civil service at the very least.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

It's actually civil servants more than members of the government in all of the photos. It's actually both along with at least two people who are neither.

It is pretty obvious that the majority of the 17 in the May photo are civil servants. I didn't say they ALL were !

It seems amazing to me that the justifications that this is okay is because it is okay for dodgy businessmen who conduct important business over boozy lunches and drinks on the back of yachts. That is not how I want my government to do their business, especially if that business is restricting my freedoms from doing the same.

@Suspiciousmind20

Boris thinks we, the public, are stupid, because that’s what he was raised to think.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=mGr3qbOPHoE

‘We’ voted in someone who was a proven liar, who clearly had no moral compass and then we wonder why things are in such a state. Talk about Turkeys voting for Christmas.

Next election please please don’t rely on media coverage to make your decision- go directly to the various political party websites. Listen to their speeches directly and look at their voting record and vote someone in with integrity and values with policies that address the issues that matter most to us all.

The overwhelming majority of the electorate don't get to vote for a prime minister.

They will do from now on 😂 although DH wouldn’t last 5 minutes in one of my work meetings!

What a great Dad he has.

Heartwarming.

Florianus

I was talking about voting in elections. Generally people look at the leader of the party to help inform their decision. The leader sets the tone of how the party behaves.

'It seems amazing to me that the justifications that this is okay is because it is okay for dodgy businessmen who conduct important business over boozy lunches and drinks on the back of yachts. '

Now you're making stuff up, I didn't say this at all.

What I did say is you don't need a pencil case and a projector to have work related discussions. Maybe something was recorded on a phone. You can do allsorts on phones nowadays it's just just snap and WhatsApp y'know.

Well we all know this excuse of it being a meeting is absolute twaddle.

However, Carrie being there is the easiest for them to explain. She lives there. It's her garden and she's entitled to use it.

They were at work, outside. Unclench

No need to tell me to 'unclench' Janiie. They show themselves up for who they are and what they do without any 'clenching' from me.

At work, lolol. Good one!

@Frankola

Well we all know this excuse of it being a meeting is absolute twaddle.

However, Carrie being there is the easiest for them to explain. She lives there. It's her garden and she's entitled to use it.

The Tories problem is that the two things don't mix well together.

It is Carrie's garden, and she was more than entitled to use it. But she shouldn't be at a work meeting, since that's not her job. Any such meeting ought to have taken place elsewhere in Downing Street, if she was using her garden.

Her being there either means it actually was a social gathering, or it was a work meeting and her level of involvement is inappropriate. You don't become entitled to be involved in government because you happen to be shagging the PM. And whichever one of those it was, the optics are damaging.

May 2020.

The guidance:
“Social mixing between households limited to 2 people outdoors at least 2 metres apart.
In workplaces, in-person meetings only if absolutely necessary”

rules were relaxed on the 13th May and you were allowed to travel to beauty spots, beaches etc. and enjoy unlimited exercise

• they're in a garden, not a public space such as a beach
• they aren't exercising
• you were only allowed to meet one other person, not 18
• they aren't social distancing

They ARE breaking the rules that were in place at the time. I am literally baffled that people think they're following them. And yeah maybe your neighbour did the same, but your neighbour wasn't on TV telling everyone what the rules were, or instructing police to fine people who weren't following the rules.

@Player067

And Boris has effectively just called Raab a liar, claiming all the wine and cheese was people "at work"

I wonder if the phrase "at work" has been carefully chosen...ie, the people pictured are "at work" in the sense of being "at their place of work", but not actually working (as Raab said this morning).

Excellent point, well made.

smear campaign
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Roussette

They were at work, outside. Unclench

No need to tell me to 'unclench' Janiie. They show themselves up for who they are and what they do without any 'clenching' from me.

At work, lolol. Good one!

As we have now seen "at work" is the new party line on this - note as pointed out by a PP that isn't the same as "doing some work" which neatly avoids commenting in too much detail about what they were actually doing.

I was pleased Boris nearly let the mask slip with his very curt response - the contempt was barely concealed.

As an aside, teaching in the pandemic sounds even worse than I thought. Social isolation from colleagues brutal. Nadim can go whistle when he asks for teachers to come back and help.

I hope we're all enjoying watching the dopier right wing denizens of MN embarrass themselves trying to defend Johnson. Get your fill now, because at current pace it'll be about another 4 days before the next illegal party revelation.

Nah Viking it's doubling every two days doncha know