AIBU to feel gaslighted by the government and BBC?

[Bavarois]

Another photo has appeared, showing the Tories having a 'work meeting' (garden party) on 15th May 2020. The BBC report states 'The 15 May photograph shows a gathering of staff in the Downing Street garden... At that time, gatherings of more than two people were banned in outdoor public places in England. However, because the picture appears to show a private garden, that restriction would not apply. Later on in the pandemic, gatherings were banned in private gardens too.'

We were in LOCKDOWN. We weren't allowed to leave our house for anything other than work, medical supplies, or exercise. Now I'm in Scotland so I might be remembering things slightly differently as our rules were slightly different, so I looked it up. Guardian article from 28th May - 'Johnson said: “We will now allow people to meet in gardens, and other private outdoor spaces'

How can they just lie and lie? And even the BBC?! Shouldn't we be able to trust at least them? It's despicable.

@echt

YABU because you clearly don't know what gaslighting means.

"Gaslighting is a colloquialism, loosely defined as making someone question their own reality" - isn't this what the BBC have done by writing that restriction didn't apply to private gardens?

The Tories have done a lot of bad shit, but this endless flagrant flouting of their own rules is among the worse. The stuff that people were asked to sacrifice… perhaps not as the hell they inflicted on disabled people who could no longer access their benefit payments, believed to have directly led to at least 69 suicides among that group. But pretty horrible all the same. Yet still people go and vote for them.

@IncessantNameChanger

Someone wants him out. It's going to work. Everything is a political game to benefit some corrupt cronies.

I'm not investing headspace in it.

Politicians lie. So it ever was and will be but this lot seem super corrupt. I'm preserving my mental health by not getting enraged.

I can see why the conspiracy theories explode and there is so much distrust of the establishment more as time goes on.

Interesting this has come out in the middle of the massive booster drive.

Excellent fodder for the anti vaxxer agenda

...perhaps not as the hell they inflicted on disabled people who could no longer access their benefit payments, believed to have directly led to at least 69 suicides among that group

Money? What do those pesky plebs need money for? Money is for spending on wallpaper and doing up Number 10's flat at a cost of some £200,000

It’s made me feel vindicated in my choice to not follow the rules as stringently in may 2020 when I started socialising with my parents in their garden again. We did 9 weeks strictly but by the end of may I was done. No one caught covid so no harm done!

@Hollyhead
What if we had all done that?
What about people who had to die on their own? Don't know how anyone can think this is ok

Despite whether it was the 11th, 13th or 20th May, if someone's OP on here was

"I'm planning on having a couple of blokes round in the garden later, my wife is invited too. We're going to have cheese and wine, but if we call it a work meeting AIBU?"

The OP would have been flamed alive "don't you know there's a PANDEMIC" "people are DYING" "I can't see my Nan but you can have a party?"

Its a work place, people were at work, they had a work meeting outside. Surely that's better than having a meeting indoors??

@DrManhattan I think by the end of may it was safe enough, the restrictions went on too long, that version of covid was highly unlikely to be transmitted outside. Blame the rule makers not me.

And no I don’t think anyone should have been left to die alone either - again the rules went way too far. We should have had consistent moderate rules for a prolonged period not all this chopping and changing.

I just can't get worked up about people who presumably work together being outdoors together. Why would anyone have been at Downing Street who wasnt meant to be there in the first place? What I do wonder about is the timing of these leaks and who is paying/being paid for the photos.

'I can't help feeling the outrage over this would be much less if people politically supported the people in the photo.'

Yes probably. And the reason so many don't politically support Boris Johnson is because he's already spent so much time screwing us over, lying and taking the piss that every time we see even more of it the disgust and contempt builds and builds even further.

@torquewench

I just can't get worked up about people who presumably work together being outdoors together. Why would anyone have been at Downing Street who wasnt meant to be there in the first place? What I do wonder about is the timing of these leaks and who is paying/being paid for the photos.

Me neither from the place I'm in now. But when I put myself back in the place I was then, scared, lonely because I hadn't seen my family for months, with a child at home who couldn't even go to the playground, trying to work from home and look after him at the same time then I remember how shit it was but it clearly wasn't shit for Boris Johnson was it? One rule for him and his wife and his mates and another for the rest of us. Fuckers.

Its because you can see wine there in the photo. Its not a meeting is it. There's wine which makes it a social gathering

That's why people are annoyed

Why's it taken so long to come out? Somebody wants Boris gone

Focus on the here and now ok.
NHS teetering on the brink. Hospitality ditto. Mayor of London so concerned he's declared a major incident - but he wasn't invited to yesterday's Cobra meeting. Yes, that meeting that Bojo couldn't be bothered to attend. Current enough? Hopefully he'll turn up at the cabinet meeting. With a bottle of wine under one arm and a camembert under the other

Time to move on, it was 18months ago

Let it go

If these photos had been released at the time, i wonder how that would have changed the public's compliance and the effect it could have had on the pandemic and nhs?

That's not what gaslighting means.

But it doesn't look like a work meeting.

[quote luckylavender]@madisonbridges - hairdressers weren't open in May 2020. And when they did reopen refreshments were not allowed. [/quote]
Sorry, I conflated two things in my post. First, I went into work over the lockdown and had drinks and biscuits with co workers. Second, people seemed concerned about them having wine so I said I'd had prosecco at the hairdressers. I didn't mean specifically during lockdown but during that time when we couldn't mix. I can see it read differently.
However, we definitely could have refreshments. We just had them in throwaway cups. My hairdressers has a whole drinks list you can have.
We couldn't read shared magazines, though.

@pickingdaisies

Focus on the here and now ok. NHS teetering on the brink. Hospitality ditto. Mayor of London so concerned he's declared a major incident - but he wasn't invited to yesterday's Cobra meeting. Yes, that meeting that Bojo couldn't be bothered to attend. Current enough? Hopefully he'll turn up at the cabinet meeting. With a bottle of wine under one arm and a camembert under the other

What is this obsession with cheese? 😂 Is it a very non-compliant, decadent food or something?

@madisonbridges

When I went into the office during lockdown, we didn't have wine but we did have a variety if drinks (I had pop). I don't understand the hangup over cheese - is that worse than biscuits? Had a nice prosecco at the hairdressers while chatting with other customers - should I have stuck to a glass of water. Wasn't Carrie Symonds part of the Conservative HQ? Do we think Cherie Blair didn't get involved in political discussions? Aren't there pictures of Leo Blair when he was a toddler playing in Blairs office while his father was working? I can't help feeling the outrage over this would be much less if people politically supported the people in the photo.

They were voted into government with a large majority - it's not just about who supports them politically.

Someone definitely has it in for Boris.

I really wish I'd put my best suit on and invited colleagues into my garden for a very important business meeting with cheese and wine. Instead, I was one of the mugs following the rules.

YANBU at all and it was TOTAL BOLLOCKS about being allowed in private gardens. DD’s birthday was on 31st May and I hired a bouncy castle and initiated 2 friends over and I was nervous because the next day, 1st June, was the first time we were allowed gatherings in private gardens.

Boris had not long since recovered from COVID at this point and why are his wife and child there?!

We've got our own Muppets in Wales one of which has bonked staff in the office a la Hancock 🤣

@MeMumI

"I get people being annoyed for parties, but now we have to be outraged for people going to work?"

Ah yes, that work meeting they're so obviously having with no pens, papers or laptops. But instead, have someone who is not a member of govt (Carrie) and her baby. Has she signed the official secrets act? Why is she at a government meeting? Does Boris normally take his wife to business meetings? How does that square with the official secrets act? Particularly given that she doesn't live there (they live next door at number 11).

This

How are people so naive still to think this is a work meeting?!

They'd risk their lives because Boris Johnson had a drink outside with co-workers?

I think it’s time we asked ourselves why the people telling us to be scared aren’t the least bit scared themselves