To think the Met will do nothing about the Downing St parties and now seem corrupt

[Poetrypatty]

AIBU to think they won't do anything? Surely there were even police officers stationed in Downing St when it actually happened.

I feel sorry for all the decent hardworking Met police officers because the bad ones, and all of these scandals and the failure to be seeming to hold up the law (by those at the top) is really damaging faith in the police.

@Snoopysimaginaryfriend

But it literally isn’t an order. If this had happened in your building or in your work place you wouldn’t blame the concierge or the security guard at the desk.

I’m not saying you’re wrong to be angry though, I am too but maybe save your ire for the staff at number ten who arranged the party rather than the officers who don’t even have access to the building.

Or even the PM who has presided over a culture of exceptionalism.

@Alexandra2001

And it is reported this morning that the Sue Gray inquiry is not expected to have found evidence of any criminality

What a surprise!! she has no legal training or expertise so was never going too... which is why she was appointed by Bojo, her employer, to investigate her boss and the arbiter of a PM's behavior is the PM of the day.

Remember how Bojo cleared Patel of bullying (even though the enquiry found otherwise) and that Patel has just renewed Dicks contract... who amazingly has decided not to even look at any law breaking in no 10.

Be that as it may (and politicians of all parties have registered their respect for Sue Gray), no police force is likely to pursue a prosecution that their legal advisors will have told them they stand little or no chance of winning - the legal obstacles being that the garden of No.10 is not a public place but an extension of a workplace, and having alcohol available is no proof that a meeting was not a work meeting (albeit one to say farewell to a colleague).

This is NOT a defence of what the Civil Service were up to, but simply an observation that a prosecution would never stick and the Met are not willing to waste public funds on it.

@Changechangychange

Do people really want Met Police to take officers away from investigating rapes, stabbings, assaults etc. to investigate a party for which the likely conclusion would be no arrest, no fine

They took time off investigating rapes etc to follow me and my two year old around the park to ensure we were “exercising and not playing”.

They took time off investigating rapes to stop Marina Hyde playing cricket with her children in the park “because sport isn’t exercise”.

They took time off investigating rapes to fine two women for walking to Borough Market together for a coffee (too far away, apparently).

They took time to fine a man for taking shopping round to his elderly mother’s house.

So yes, I would have liked them to have taken time to break up this illegal party, and if they weren’t aware of it at the time, to investigate it now.

But they won’t, because Cressida Dick is in Boris’s back pocket.

They took time to ask me why I was 20 miles from my home in the second lockdown last January. I was on my way to get my first Covid vaccination.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dick had dirt on senior figures that she could make public if she was made to face the consequences of her many failings as commissioner. I was gobsmacked when she got her appointment extended.

I was gobsmacked when she got her appointment extended.

Me too. But now we can see why, it’s the government’s insurance policy.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dick had dirt on senior figures that she could make public if she was made to face the consequences of her many failings as commissioner.

Or just blow their heads off. After all she has an innocent mans blood on her hands and sleeps at night.

I've always assumed Dick had some serious dirt.

Alexandra2001
If you produce evidence that no10 sought permission from the Met beforehand for the party and they ok's it, then granted.

Quite clearly in the op; Surely there were even police officers stationed in Downing St when it actually happened and subsequent posts - the suggestion is that police officers were aware of the 'gatherings' - that was my point.

Damien Hinds Security Minister nailed it "this isn't about one MP or one political party......"and of course she isn't a spy, no matter how many times you keep repeating this slur.. if she were, she'd be arrested and charged as such.

I put 'Chinese spy' in inverted commas because that was what they were discussing on LBC last night and in the media. Perhaps you should contact the BBC and Sky News because 'Chinese spy' still appears in their headlines from this morning;

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bh5rw6

news.sky.com/story/chinese-spy-christine-lee-operated-out-in-the-open-damaging-trust-and-creating-an-atmosphere-of-paranoia-12515444

Remember this?

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jeremy-corbyns-stance-on-skripals-was-political-poison-at-the-polls-3hnbj7hpb

I must admit to being puzzled by the faux outrage at a group of office workers being outdoors in the office garden. Should they have all been sent indoors to the crowded and much less ventilated offices where they all worked in close proximity all day anyway?

@Babdoc

I must admit to being puzzled by the faux outrage at a group of office workers being outdoors in the office garden. Should they have all been sent indoors to the crowded and much less ventilated offices where they all worked in close proximity all day anyway?

It’s not faux outrage. It’s very real outrage from people who obeyed the law at huge personal cost. Are you seriously unable to see what a kick in the teeth this is to them?

I don;t think the Met will give 2 tosses about this,Yes they may give lip service but we have to bear in mind Downing Street has permenant police offices and is one of the most highly secure locations we have so it stands to reason EVERYBODY who was there in any capacity at the time of these incidents knew full well what was going on and still did nothing, Collusion in my view,

Had to vote YABU just because they have been corrupt for a long while.

@Babdoc

I must admit to being puzzled by the faux outrage at a group of office workers being outdoors in the office garden. Should they have all been sent indoors to the crowded and much less ventilated offices where they all worked in close proximity all day anyway?

Outdoors or indoors, they shouldn't have been having a piss up. Others were fined thousands for organising social events.

@Iputthetrampintrampoline

I don;t think the Met will give 2 tosses about this,Yes they may give lip service but we have to bear in mind Downing Street has permenant police offices and is one of the most highly secure locations we have so it stands to reason EVERYBODY who was there in any capacity at the time of these incidents knew full well what was going on and still did nothing, Collusion in my view,

The Met will have been advised by their lawyers that because no criminal act can be proved to have taken place, it would be a waste of public funds for the CPS to try to bring prosecutions against the civil servants who organised these events.

@Greenbather

Had to vote YABU just because they have been corrupt for a long while.

I onlhy found out yesterday that the Met's Assistant Commissioner in charge of police standards is Bas Javid, brother of health minister, Sajid Javid.

I can't recall any other ACPO ranking Met officer having such close links to a government, and I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with it.

Apparently the Met Asst Comm in charge of Standards is Sajid Javid's brother. Ho hum.

To be honest, the main problem was the ridiculous lock down rules they came up with in the first place.

Oh, sorry lakielady, didn't see your post. I'm getting to the bit where I'm nearly through outrage and am just shrugging and thinking 'of course, what else could you expect?' Who would have thought UK could be reduced to banana republic quality so easily and quickly? But no bananas obviously as they're foreign, please wave flag here.

Apparently the Met Asst Comm in charge of Standards is Sajid Javid's brother. Ho hum.

You're right, Bas Javid.

It all stinks.

@tttigress

To be honest, the main problem was the ridiculous lock down rules they came up with in the first place.

The main problem isn't the lockdown rules, but these politicians' inability to follow the rules they themselves imposed on others.

Lockdown rules were utterly shit for all - all those who actually followed them, that is - and it's a handy squirrel for those in power if we shift the focus onto the shitty rules and away from the shitty, entitled, disrespectful rule-makers who were also rule-breakers. They encouraged the Met to fine ordinary citizens for activities that were far less serious than regular booze-ups.

AulAlliance
The main problem isn't the lockdown rules, but these politicians' inability to follow the rules they themselves imposed on others.

It was mainly civil servants who were not following the rules.

@Florianus

AulAlliance The main problem isn't the lockdown rules, but these politicians' inability to follow the rules they themselves imposed on others.

It was mainly civil servants who were not following the rules.

The idea that the ministers for whom many of these civil servants work were unaware of their staff's rule-breaking is laughable. Suitcases full of wine? DJing till all hours? Breaking Wilf's swing? It's not a quick glug of Bordeaux and a lump of brie on a cracker we're talking about, but recurrent boozing in groups in their workplace after hours.

And there are numerous suggestions that not only Johnson, but other ministers, attended these parties/booze-ups that were clearly not work events.

Johnson was commuting between Chequers and Downing Street, which was against the rules laid down by his own government. Other people resigned for less (Ferguson, Calderwood).

The civil servants and politicians all broke the law and should pay. Just as ordinary citizens, who committed lesser offences and were fined thousands, did. They should resign.

BJ's flimsy attempts to dissemble are risible. It's alarming how accustomed people have become to his blatant lies and contempt for the public.

@CorrBlimeyGG

Apparently the Met Asst Comm in charge of Standards is Sajid Javid's brother. Ho hum.

You're right, Bas Javid.

It all stinks.

Of course it stinks. They will turn a blind eye.

Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution.
This is probably why those “party animals” felt that they were above the law. A Them and Us kind of situation……

AuldAlliance
The idea that the ministers for whom many of these civil servants work were unaware of their staff's rule-breaking is laughable.

Ministers, who have constituents to look after, parliamentary votes and committees to attend, and in some cases cabinet meetings as well, hardly have time to drop into their departments let alone supervise hundreds of thousands of civil servants. Government doesn't work like that.

@Florianus

Interesting. Not everyone's take on it:

twitter.com/mikeychalpin/status/1483735486636204032?s=20