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?

@ThomasHardyPerennial

Unsurprisingly, I have never attended a work meeting that involved drinking alcohol.

Then you haven't worked in properly, finance or insurance

Whatever happened to lead by example? They are just going from bad to worse.
I have followed every rule, guideline and bit of advice religiously but I'm done now with what they have to say
I will continue to keep my family safe but they can whistle to the wind

To be fair i have had one or two work meetings which involved a very small glass of prosecco

But i worked in a shop and it was used as bribery to get us in, usually followed by an evening in a restaurant paid for by ouselves

BUT, it wasn’t in the middle of a pandemic and partners were not allowed…and it was actually a work meeting not a jolly so not quite the same

Dh used to have meetings about cubs in my living room….I obviously wasn’t allowed to sit in on that meeting 🤔

@LoveGrooveDanceParty

What does it really matter?

Boris, and the Tories in general, are untouchable.

They will be voted in again, without a shadow of a doubt. So they know full well that they can do whatever the hell they like.

So 🤷🏻‍♀️

It matters when there are people who spent that month attending socially distanced funerals of no more than 10 people with no wake, who were unable to visit during relatives in hospital and homes, having to cancel all their big life event celebrations and more.

It's the sheer selfishness that makes people care and makes people angry.

Yes, I've come to expect it from them. But it still doesn't mean I don't care.

Seeing those pictures and then remembering those funerals, cancellations and disappointments, loneliness, sadness, etc makes me want to cry.

I have many work meetings where food is provided. A tray of sandwiches, sometimes take out, cans of pop, coffee, biscuits… ive never EVER had cheese and wine at a work meeting.

Like with the Christmas parties, it’s the lying that is so annoying. If it was a business meeting, what about the group of people standing around in the top of the pic, is Downing Street short of tables for meetings? And business meeting or not, they should be spread out.
Ditto Johnson’s table, maybe a meeting can have wine, but they have no notes/paper/laptops/tablets or anything. And a work meeting was only allowed if it wasn’t possible to do it remotely and everyone there definitely had to attend. Carrie + baby did not need to attend a business meeting. Does she sit in on a lot of government business? Don’t remember her being elected, is she an employee?

It’s not the most awful of breaches, but back in May 2020 people were sitting at the end of the parents’ driveways on camping chairs just for a little chat with a parent sitting in the doorway.
If this was actually allowed (it wasn’t), then all the rules were considerably laxer than suggested. Not that that’s an excuse to break them now, but if I’d been fined by the police I’d be seriously fucked off.
People were stopped from sitting on park benches on their own. But this grouping of people who actually do not all work together, and who weren’t distancing was actually allowed? It fucking wasn’t, so don’t say it was.

@Howshouldibehave

What does it really matter?

It may not bother you but this matters to lots of people. Nobody is above the law. I think this lying, minimising and gaslighting when everyone else remembers how their days back then were about working and ‘just about’ coping, will damage the party hugely.

It bothers me a huge deal. That’s my point.

But what does it matter, if the Tories are untouchable - can fuck up left, right and centre, and just get voted straight back in again?

Yes, cheese and wine in the Downing Street garden was a bigger priority than funerals...

Funnily enough, no.
Drinking at work would be a disciplinary offence.

But I'm not the the least surprised number 10 were up to this. Lazy, selfish assholes.

@UnaOfStormhold

It would be a disciplinary matter if I worked after having a drink.

Likewise (when I was working in the transport industry)

Private sector - Regardless of role in the company it was against the regs to be drinking alcohol in the company workplace, whether on duty or off.

It was also against the rules to be drinking alcohol in those parts of the buildings we worked in that were not company property but were accessible to the public if you were wearing ID or otherwise identifiable to the public as being an employee.

Exactly sickandtiredagain

They’ve just had raab on the telly defending it

He looks a bit ‘rabbit in headlights’ but to be fair he has that look on his face a lot!

In the old world I used to work in, maybe, but now I work in the public sector and am paid with public money there is nothing like that. No alcohol, not even at lunch, and not after work on the premises. We had a BBQ a couple of year ago at lunchtime which included ice lollies. In our lunch hour. That's about as good as it gets!! (Tbf it was a lovely sunny day and I miss those kind of things a lot)

@Bluntness100

Hmm. But I'm going to say "plenty" of business cancelled those kinds of things during lockdown?

Sure but there was no requirement to do so, there was nothing thay said if you have a meeting no alcohol can be consumed.

And plenty didn’t.

There was direct government advice that gatherings with a primarily social purpose at work were not allowed. Any company doing this was breaking the rules.

Cheese and wine and a chat in the garden "at the end of a gruelling day" (to use Dominic Raab's words - important word there is "end") is a gathering with a primarily social purpose. It was not allowed.

It is also fair that we hold those at the heart of the government, who made decisions to drastically limit people's freedoms, resulting in a lot of economic, social and psychological harm (even if it was justified), to the highest possible standards of conduct and to lead by example.

It wasn't allowed, but even if it was allowed it fell well short of the standards of conduct that those in government and the civil service should be rightly expected to maintain. Talking about what other companies or businesses did at that time is irrelevant.

I see dominic raab is defending them. At the end if the day who cares about some wine vs not coming home from holiday to sort out the afghani evacuation? They are all dreadful people without souls.

@Bluntness100

Also what additional risk is there, you’ve been in a meeting all day and you go outside and have a glass of wine after. It’s not like they got together just for a piss up.

Yes but that was the whole point at the time.

We were being told not to do our own personal risk assessments about what was and wasn't OK; we were being told to follow the rules. If everyone had made up their own lockdown advice based on what worked for them, there wouldn't have been a lockdown at all.

Regardless of whether you agree with lockdown or not, these people were the very ones who were making the rules and then not following them themselves. They don't lead by example. They make their own policies look like bullshit nonsense that they don't even believe.

Can you imagine the thread on here if parents got wind of the fact that teachers were drinking in staff meetings?

My company was wfh most of the time but about once a month a team of about 10 had to come in to deliver a critical event that required us to be together. After it was done, we absolutely sat round getting drunk together in the office - we’d all been shut in a boardroom together for 8+ hours already, what’s the risk of a couple more? And this is outside which carries even less risk.

I get why people are annoyed, and I don’t support this government in any way, but really I think everyone should stop following the rules to the letter and start actually assessing what is a risk and what isn’t and act accordingly

And no wonder they all got covid, they were just continuing as usual. No thought of social distancing.

Dh has been to many work meetings involving meals, drinks, and social mixing. All through his career this has been the norm.

However in May 2020 and throughout all lockdowns this didn't happen. Because he and his colleagues are responsible adults who actually care about protecting others around them.

Instead he said goodbye to his dad in a hospice in 5 minute shifts, alternating with his mum and brother, and then attending his dad's funeral with 9 others, all distanced and none of his dad's friends being able to attend. They couldn't come so they stood in their road sides and paid their respects as the funeral cars drove slowly by. A month later, in May - whilst Boris and his mates swigged wine together in their 'meeting' he supported me as I did similar for my grandma's funeral and then again a month later for my other grandma.

Oh by the way you can tell it is a social gathering as the older, senior people and the young, junior people are segregated. If it were a work meeting they would be mixed as the seniors would need the juniors to do things like take minutes and brief them. The only time this kind of segregation happens is as workplace social events where people tend to go with "their own" where they feel comfortable.

@hotcrossbun83

My company was wfh most of the time but about once a month a team of about 10 had to come in to deliver a critical event that required us to be together. After it was done, we absolutely sat round getting drunk together in the office - we’d all been shut in a boardroom together for 8+ hours already, what’s the risk of a couple more? And this is outside which carries even less risk.

I get why people are annoyed, and I don’t support this government in any way, but really I think everyone should stop following the rules to the letter and start actually assessing what is a risk and what isn’t and act accordingly

You're saying that now because we've seen so many of these examples. At the time, you'd have been crucified here for suggesting the rules were flexible.

@Bluntness100

Also what additional risk is there, you’ve been in a meeting all day and you go outside and have a glass of wine after. It’s not like they got together just for a piss up.

Right so if there's no additional risk why was it banned for everyone else?

@Abraxan

Dh has been to many work meetings involving meals, drinks, and social mixing. All through his career this has been the norm.

However in May 2020 and throughout all lockdowns this didn't happen. Because he and his colleagues are responsible adults who actually care about protecting others around them.

Instead he said goodbye to his dad in a hospice in 5 minute shifts, alternating with his mum and brother, and then attending his dad's funeral with 9 others, all distanced and none of his dad's friends being able to attend. They couldn't come so they stood in their road sides and paid their respects as the funeral cars drove slowly by. A month later, in May - whilst Boris and his mates swigged wine together in their 'meeting' he supported me as I did similar for my grandma's funeral and then again a month later for my other grandma.

I'm so sorry. 💐💐

This was the reality for so many people all over the country, and they were put in this position because of rules imposed on them by people who gave zero fucks about following them themselves. 😥

I have had many meetings that involved a glass or wine and or cheese but not during lockdown and not often since WFH I miss the free food and wine, I am yet to decide if the ability to wear leggings all day makes up for it

Actually I'd expect nothing less of a tory meeting. Booze, nibbles and plenty of schmoozing. I'm surprised to see actual tables there rather than peasants bent over on their hands and knees. Perhaps the garden photo was just a small lull in proceedings. After that, they all ventured back inside to watch the UK version of Squid Games where we all fight for gp appointments or NHS beds.