AIBU to think that Boris should resign now?

[Seemslikeagoodidea]

Today it has been revealed that in May 2020 invitations were emailed to (allegedly) 100 Downing Street staff, for a garden party. This party happened during the first lockdown, when many people could not visit their elderly relatives, even on their death beds, due to the lockdown rules. The email was sent by one of the PM's top people, and stated that people should "bring their own booze and enjoy the sunshine". Today Boris has been conspicuous by his absence.

I think this is the final straw and shows a lack of judgement and absence of moral fibre. Enough is enough - he should resign and if he doesn't do it then his own party should force him to go.

AIBU?

@JaniieJones

'If 40 plus people turned up to the party then 40 plus people are also tossers who didn't obey the restrictions'

But they were surely people who minutes before were inside the building working together so what actually is the problem?

If we find out people on their days off were turning up with their kids in tow fine, but work colleagues going outside and the PM spending 25mins with them does not outrage me.

Some of you must stopped being so whipped into a frenzy by the media.

The fact is, is that if you or I had done the same we would be breaking the law. The fact that the people at the gathering were actually the people who wrote that law just makes clear that they basically view us as fucking plebs.

Regardless of whether in reality there was any heightened risk of transmission caused by the gathering - if the people who right the laws can't fucking follow them they are unfit for any sort of office.

If it was a BYOB "work event", that means they can reclaim the cost of the bottle on expenses...

This shameless bunch in government is no more "conservative" than I am. The Tories used to consider honour and duty important but the days of resignations on the matter of principle and/or being caught out doing something wrong are long long gone. If the PM could brazen out lying to the Queen then there's no chance he's going over this, it will take the 1922 committee doing something to get a change at the top.

I would also like to know when journalists like Laura Kuenssberg and Robert Peston knew about all these parties. You can't tell me with all their contacts that they had no wind of it at the time. Have they been covering up for the government and why?

Did they all share an office ? If so were they masked and distanced? Were they following infection control policies? Indeed did they have infection control policies? This was not permitted in any other public sector place of work. Why are they any different ? Do they have special abilities to prevent infection the rest of us don't ? I got regular thank you emails not a byob drinks party at the back door.

@JaniieJones

'If 40 plus people turned up to the party then 40 plus people are also tossers who didn't obey the restrictions'

But they were surely people who minutes before were inside the building working together so what actually is the problem?

If we find out people on their days off were turning up with their kids in tow fine, but work colleagues going outside and the PM spending 25mins with them does not outrage me.

Some of you must stopped being so whipped into a frenzy by the media.

Even Boris didn't use working inside together beforehand as an excuse !

@JaniieJones

Why are the media trawling out all the stories people who lost people. Yes very sad but not comparable situations.

If we find out Johnson attended a funeral with 100 people present fine but he didn't. A brief garden visit with colleagues, he has apologised it was an error of judgement.

They have got a lot right in the pandemic.

you mean like releasing all those covid positive people into care homes and not letting the staff know they had the virus.

hmmm

thats what did for my mother in law, who died 3 days prior to his garden party jolly. We werent even allowed to visit her in her last week, and they were not able to send her to hospital.

And Boris did bring his wife and child along - who in fact live above number 11 (Sunak and family live at number 10) so you cannot even say his wife was just socialising in her own garden.

I believe the garden is shared between the flat-dwellers in Nos. 10 and 11. It is also part of the work place for some 200 civil servants.

He's now been found out to have been lying to the House of Commons about being there - which he now says he was, after earlier denying it.

He needs to resign.

@JaniieJones

Why are the media trawling out all the stories people who lost people. Yes very sad but not comparable situations.

If we find out Johnson attended a funeral with 100 people present fine but he didn't. A brief garden visit with colleagues, he has apologised it was an error of judgement.

They have got a lot right in the pandemic.

It's really not difficult to work out.

If someone you know - a friend, family member etc had been in hospital at the time of this party you would not have been allowed to see them. And yet Boris and a bunch of his tory mate twats are happily breaking the same rules and having a nice little time in his garden.

It's utterly depressing that people are still making excuses for him when it's clear he is a cunt of the highest order who does not give 1 tiny little fuck about anyone but himself.

[quote Pumperthepumper]@justasking111 regardless. Labour are seen as the moral party, and the Tories are not. Even by their own supporters.[/quote]
Well their moral bar is set very low 😅😅

We had to warn waitresses, chambermaids, conference staff at the venue to watch out for sexuall harassment.

It may well have been the same at conservative , liberal venues. Women being fair game,

To use one of my late dad's expressions
"If he fell in the sea he wouldn't get wet"

I can not imagine how many times people are willing to excuse, or somehow explain away his contemptuous behaviour. "A brief garden visit with colleagues" why would you be invited to bring a bottle, if this was a brief, or fleeting visit?

Having said this there must have been a lot of people who knew either because invited, or attending, (and I'd be amazed if it was a one off or isolated incident) that have stayed quiet about it.

Just to add to the above, if he doesn't resign now, the details of all the rest of the 15 or so parties will come out.

I keep imagining his ex-wife sitting at home watching all this and thinking it seems familiar.

I didn't do that - there's no proof - you're imagining it - I stayed late to work - it wasn't me - I'm sorry for what I did but I didn't enjoy myself - this is all a fuss over nothing - you have to overlook this and trust me

Blah blah blah. He does what he thinks he can get away with. He wanted to be seen as Mr Fun giving staff a party. He doesn't have the strength of character to resist temptation and do the right thing.

@JaniieJones

Why are the media trawling out all the stories people who lost people. Yes very sad but not comparable situations.

If we find out Johnson attended a funeral with 100 people present fine but he didn't. A brief garden visit with colleagues, he has apologised it was an error of judgement.

They have got a lot right in the pandemic.

As long as they tried their best that's ok is it? That's the kind of standards you hold a 15 year old sitting their GCSEs to, not the Prime Minister.

What I remember about May 2020 wasn't as sad as many posters here, but I recall telling my children that they couldn't go to the playground and tramping the streets with them but feeling like we were doing our bit and helping the NHS and our country. It's just so so depressing to know that the people making the decisions were looking for mealy mouthed loopholes to allow them to do what we all understood was against the rules, while banning everyone else from having those freedoms.

Just to be a devils advocate, I do wonder how many of the incensed were on a beach with 100's of thousands of others on May 20th, 2020.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2020/may/25/uk-crowds-enjoy-may-sunshine-lockdown-eases-in-

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52754039

If anyone of us had broken a rule such as this whilst working we would have at the very least been suspended pending the result of an inquiry. Why wasn’t he?
Surely parliamentary rules have some means of enabling this

Yes, he should resign but I doubt he will and today's 'apology' may have bought him time. The Tories have to back him for now because they don't have another vote winner to replace him and so they will 'accept' his apology and claim Labour are simply playing politics. Winning elections is far more important to most Tory MPs than any concerns about a PM's honesty.

'If someone you know - a friend, family member etc had been in hospital at the time of this party you would not have been allowed to see them'

Yes I know that, it wasn't to be mean though it was for a reason. Did Johnson visit anyone in hospital? If not I don't get the relevance.

If however I worked with someone I would have been able to sit socially distanced with them in an indoor or outdoor area.

Again, an error of judgement as this level of hysteria should have been predicted but I don't think it was that bad tbh.

@JaniieJones

'If 40 plus people turned up to the party then 40 plus people are also tossers who didn't obey the restrictions'

But they were surely people who minutes before were inside the building working together so what actually is the problem?

If we find out people on their days off were turning up with their kids in tow fine, but work colleagues going outside and the PM spending 25mins with them does not outrage me.

Some of you must stopped being so whipped into a frenzy by the media.

You're totally missing what the problem is.

If any other business had gathered their employees at the end of the day and invited them outside to drink and enjoy the sunshine together then they would have been breaking the rules... the rules set by this government. Someone overlooking them would have called the police (we know people were really loving calling the police on neighbours) and that business would have been fined. The police would also probably have taken photos and tweeted about breaking up a party.

It doesnt matter that they all work onna building together. It was this government who said that that was not allowed. They could work in a building together but they could not socialise afterwards. Boris made that rule.

Then this government broke it. Boris broke that rule. And lied about it. And lied and lied and lied. And accepted resignations from others when the storm wasnt going to calm. And that's the point.

This government made a rule. They expected people to follow it and mandated the police to enforce that rule. Then they broke it themselves and have done all they can to cover it up.

If any other business had a gathering of staff at the end of the day, I'd say crack on. Leave them to it. They work together anyway and it was a stupid rule. But this wasnt any business. This was the people who made and oversaw enforcement of the rule. And they think, "fuck the people, we are more important and can do what we want." And that is why Boris needs to go. Because he puts himself above the law, lies and cheats and runs the careers of others to cover for himself. While we all stuck to the rules he issued, he did not.

'Again, an error of judgement as this level of hysteria should have been predicted but I don't think it was that bad tbh.'

Well obviously lots of people don't think anything the government do is bad, which is why people still vote for them despite the fact there are children starving and freezing in their homes in this country while BJ and CI siphon billions off into their own and their mates companies through public contracts.

@ItchySnoof

The whole fucking party needs to go. Not that I have faith a General Election would do anything. I said on another thread that the general public needs to come together in protest, start a general strike (govt have already shown their hand that the UK would grind to a halt - it's why they are shortening the isolation period for covid because public services and some private would grind to a dangerous halt if we stopped working and demanded higher wages) actually DO something for any tangible change to happen or the Tories are just going to keep sucking us dry financially then shitting on us.

But there is no backbone in the UK anymore. We are all talk and no action other than write your MP, which has had zero impact though the entire pandemic as it is.

@ItchySnoof I am in the one of only two roles in the country in which we can't strike (Police) but trust me if I could I would be waving my placard alongside you.

Yes, he does want to be seen as Mr. Fun, I agree.

One of his cronies yesterday or day before was defending him by saying he cares too much for his staff and he wanted to look after them. Just Fuck Off.

I remember him telling staff to 'put a circle round the Pritster' after Patel broke the ministerial code for bullying. I thought WTAF> He probably is Mr. Fun, nicknames for everyone etc.

But he can't do the job and he's a liar. So that bit cancels out the fun bit.

But they were surely people who minutes before were inside the building working together so what actually is the problem?

If that’s the case, then that’s what the law should have been. As it is, if 40 NHS staff had gone outside to a park with a bottle of wine or a beer or something, had the police seen they’d have been told to go home. The fact they’d been working together all day wouldn’t have been relevant, as it wasn’t an exception in the law.
When schools reopened, children technically could spend all day in a classroom but then a group of them couldn’t have gone to the park.

Maybe it’s illogical, in which case the government should have thought “this doesn’t make much sense, let’s change the rules” not “ah well, everyone else can follow them but we can see it’s silly so we’ll crack on”

@itsalmostanaccessory - wish there was an upvote button!!

Spot on