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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

653 replies

AlexaShutUp · 20/12/2021 08:27

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?

OP posts:
Roussette · 20/12/2021 19:40

If they're claiming they're "working" in the garden then they're also telling us that the Prime Minister drinks at work and that his wife is present in meetings of national importance

That's it really. They can't have it all ways.

Roussette · 20/12/2021 19:43

Correction.... girlfriend. She wasn't married to him at the time.

Eleganz · 20/12/2021 19:44

@Roussette

If they're claiming they're "working" in the garden then they're also telling us that the Prime Minister drinks at work and that his wife is present in meetings of national importance

That's it really. They can't have it all ways.

At the end of the day you could have moved that front table to a pub beer garden and it wouldn't look out of place.
Whinge · 20/12/2021 19:46

@Roussette

If they're claiming they're "working" in the garden then they're also telling us that the Prime Minister drinks at work and that his wife is present in meetings of national importance

That's it really. They can't have it all ways.

Exactly. Neither situation looks good. I honestly can't believe people are still trying to defend them. Hmm
Roussette · 20/12/2021 19:53

I think the defenders of this are seriously under estimating what the british public feel about this, they are in the minority and it can't be brushed under the carpet.
North Shropshire illustrates it perfectly.
There's some heartbreaking stories out there of what people were going through in that May.

The tories trying to call it a 'business meeting' won't be forgotten in a hurry.

Thirtytimesround · 20/12/2021 20:03

It’s nonsense.

If it was a work meeting Carrie should have been distancing from the group.

If it was a work meeting they wouldn’t have been drinking alcohol.

This at a time when students and a priest were being fined £10000 each for breaching lockdown.

They KNOW that their every move is scrutinised in the press. They KNOW that this behaviour is illegal.

They don’t care. They think they’re untouchable.

Was this at the same time Matt Hancock was on the tv nightly lecturing us all on distancing at work, while shagging his colleague?

Roussette · 20/12/2021 20:11

Little Matty Hancock is one of those in the picture... in the group of a few with his back to us.
He'd just given a press briefing apparently.

noblegiraffe · 20/12/2021 20:13

The Telegraph is reporting that Matt Hancock is also in the garden party photo. The one on the grass with his back to the camera, jacket on, looking like an awkward sixth former.

pigsinblanketsrule · 20/12/2021 20:14

Civil service here - no alcohol but we have had a few meetings outside on a sunny and very hot day, we've got a few picnic tables on a piece of grass outside which can be shady depending on the time of day.

SecretSpAD · 20/12/2021 20:18

@Bluntness100

I think some of these posts people are being deliberately obtuse. I’m sure people do know that meetings without laptops and a glass of wine and nibbles do exist and quite often and that likely Carrie popped out as she was there, and she was solely next to Boris and socially distanced, I very much doubt looking at the attire they were simply invited to a cheese and wine party.

The reason this was stupid is because it can be weaponised. It doesn’t matter if it was a glass of wine outside at the end of the meeting and perfectly legal as they continued to discuss work items. What matter is it can be weaponised against Boris becayse the optics can be deliberately misconstrued.

Bollocks. I've worked in Westminster and no meeting I ever attended looked like that. Though I see even Raab has given up trying to defend the indefensible.

My husband was also a senior civil servant at that time in another department. I was not permitted to sit in on an official meeting (amd minutes are always taken btw so wheee was the notepad and pens?) in his dept and he was not permitted to do the same in mine. We did, however socialise widely with our departments. Sometimes that involved wine and nibbles. Never was that during a meeting.

I'm now working as a GP and dealing with hundreds of people who are still suffering the effects of the pandemic on their lives in some way. Some are bereaved, some have long Covid, some were driven to a breakdown by the loneliness and isolation they experienced during that time.

The whataboutery, the sheer mental contortions cutandpastova and other Tory bots are undergoing to defend these people would be funny, if it wasn't for the 150K people who have died. The families and friends left behind. The people who lost everything. The businesses now ruined. The lives of so many people changed forever.

SecretSpAD · 20/12/2021 20:20

And btw in no meeting I have ever attended with a PM or Minister were their spouse permitted to pop in to check on them.

Clavinova · 20/12/2021 20:30

Cbtb
Hospital staff here. We sit 2m away from each other at lunch and are allowed to remove our masks for 15min to eat and no more. Even outside we have to be 2m apart. No work socials allowed and not allowed to bring a coffee to a team meeting as it would mean removing mask.

Changechangychange
This, except all of our team meetings are over Teams now. The only time my mask comes off is if I’m by myself in a room (ie clinic room before or after clinic, with no patients), in my office (when my other colleagues are out), and outside.

The ward nurses were told they had to schedule their breaks so they could go and eat by themselves in the seminar room.

These photographs were published in March and April 2020 - a small selection:

Scroll down - wine or apple juice on the balcony?
www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196613/imperial-students-provide-over-350-free/

www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/gallery/gallery-nhs-workers-say-thank-18034772

www.theargus.co.uk/news/18347935.hove-mans-campaign-sends-150-meals-sussex-nhs-staff-per-day/

(scroll down)
www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/4-ways-to-help-feed-nhs-workers-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

www.irvinetimes.com/news/18347921.huge-food-donations-nhs-keep-fed-frontline/

SantiagoSky · 20/12/2021 20:32

Obviously this wasn’t a work meeting. How stupid do they think the British general public is?

Clavinova · 20/12/2021 20:34

And btw in no meeting I have ever attended with a PM or Minister were their spouse permitted to pop in to check on them.

The Times 2018

Philip May, the prime minister’s husband, played a crucial role in meetings about her future before last Wednesday’s vote of no confidence in her leadership.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/theresa-may-s-husband-makes-his-voice-heard-over-brexit-battles-shxvpcgzm

Roussette · 20/12/2021 20:36

We're not talking about the NHS and knocking them. That's a pretty low blow having a go at them for eating donated meals
We're actually talking about the Government Clavinova... you know... the ones who set the restrictions and rules
Nice try though!

SecretSpAD · 20/12/2021 20:46

Lol. You can't resist can you @Clavinova. Where would we be without your lightening speed at googling the most inane crap ever. Crack on my dear. But just in case you and the other Tory bots ever develop a conscience or at least grow a brain cell between you.....

This pandemic is not a joke or a MN thread where you can show off your googling skills. People have died. People continue to die. People have become seriously ill and will never regain their full health again. People have lost their livelihoods, businesses, whole industries have come close to being wiped out. People have been forced to breaking point and their mental health has been damaged.

It. Is. Not. A. Fucking. Joke.

Clavinova · 20/12/2021 20:48

Roussette
That's a pretty low blow having a go at them for eating donated meals

It's not a 'low blow' if they were disregarding social distancing rules their colleagues were following - as posted above. Although perhaps the guidance (for hospital settings) was tightened later in the pandemic.

We're actually talking about the Government Clavinova... you know... the ones who set the restrictions and rules

Yes - and NHS activists are all over Twitter today.

Roussette · 20/12/2021 20:49

That's funny.... I thought this thread was about the Government.

As I said... a low blow

Clavinova · 20/12/2021 20:52

SecretSpAD
This pandemic is not a joke

Indeed - I thought StoneofDestiny's 'cartoon' post at 16:43 was in very poor taste.

Suspiciousmind20 · 20/12/2021 20:55

SecretSpAD

Well said! Both your last posts. Heart breaking but true. I work with children and families and hear the same kinds of things. Seeing the chilling in the sun with wine and nibbles, knowing how the rest of the country were living makes my blood boil.

SantiagoSky · 20/12/2021 20:56

Having a party that breaks the rules you made for the rest of the country, that’s poor taste.

CurzonDax · 20/12/2021 21:00

@Clavinova - So instead of being angry at senior government ministers, and their pals, for constantly breaking the rules that they made it the law for the rest of us to follow, you are going to blame NHS staff who worked tirelessly to save lives throughout?

No wonder Boris and co think we're all muppets.

Clavinova · 20/12/2021 21:07

CurzonDax

As I posted earlier today:
I think the hospital gatherings are more concerning from a health point of view than the meeting in the Number 10 garden

Roussette · 20/12/2021 21:10

You knocking NHS workers says all we need to know about you.

Hugoslavia · 20/12/2021 21:12

Tbh, I feel as though, if they had all been working together all day, then it probably didn't matter if they had a glass of wine. The whole point of the rules was to stop the spread. And if they'd been working for hours on end and were still discussing work, then so be it. And I feel as though it's a little different Carrie attending because it was her home. What I can't forgive is Dominic Cummings driving hundreds of miles across the country with Covid, visiting hospital and going to beauty spots and then the PM backing him!! That was far far worse imo. Neither can I forgive Boris's flip flopping chaotic last minute approach to everything. It's pretty certain that he is going to impose greater restrictions after the 26th. So why not tell us what those are likely to be and actually give us a little head's up! It will be like last year when he let half the schools back for 1 day and the other half had put their kids to bed expectIng to go to school the next day, having ironed uniforms and made packed lunches, only to wake up to no school. Everything that he does seems to be slapdash, last minute and ill judged.