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?

@justasking111

Remember when we clapped at 8pm. Went out onto the decking in a garden below us there was a party. Was stunned to see a woman in a pretty short red dress and high heels climbing onto the roof of a shed with a Tumblr of liquid and dance vigorously to the music from the sound system in the garden. It was a BBQ party I filmed the roof dance for posterity.

Like I said not everyone followed the rules set by the government of this country

One would hope however that Prime Minister of this country would follow the rules set by the government of this country, in this case a rule made that very day.

Or AIBU to expect this?

@LethargicActress

I haven’t read the full thread, apologies, but I think if we want boris to resign, then everyone else who broke the rules in any way that has a responsible job should resign too.

I don’t like our government and I didn’t vote for them, but I am starting to realise how surrounded by hypocrites I am. I heard parents today talking about how out of order the government was to have had this party, but I can remember those exact same parents having illegal play dates and garden parties during lockdown without giving a shit.

The massive difference being that your fellow school parents weren't televised standing at a podium telling the whole country to 'stay at home' or face legal repurcussions.

The PM has misled and lied to the whole country. How is anyone supposed to believe a word he says again?

Clearly we are run by people who know how to party.
It's like all the grown ups have left.

How can people not see the difference between a few other fuckwits who broke the rules and THE ACTUAL FUCKING GOVERNMENT WHO SET THE RULES breaking the rules??

How is this so hard?? How are we struggling with this basic concept??

No wonder this government gets away with being so fucking awful.

I despair.

It's definitely time for Boris Johnson to go, this article describes him quite accurately :

Now he has, beyond any doubt, revealed who he really is: a brattish authoritarian who puts his personal whims above anything else. And whatever his future, Britain will be remade in his image

www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/opinion/boris-johnson-britain-bills.html

I haven't read the entire thread so soz if this has already been shared....

BashStreetKid
Says it all

Yes - that's a very sad story...

That evening, as I walked alone, the streets were piercingly quiet. How sad it all is, I thought...

Quite different here - Daily Mail 20 May 2020;

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8339235/Britain-hits-beach-bask-82F-sunshine-today-hottest-day-year-far.html

How can people not see the difference between a few other fuckwits who broke the rules and THE ACTUAL FUCKING GOVERNMENT WHO SET THE RULES breaking the rules??

It's called partisanship, Goldfish. I've no doubt people can see the difference, but for whatever reason some are so wedded to their chosen party that criticism must be deflected no matter what it takes

Gosh... were Ministers and Johnson on the beach? Who'd have thought they did that too?
Errrmmmm no. It wasn't. It was a very very small percentage of the population. And they didn't set the laws and urge people not to do what they were doing... partying.

I find it quite distasteful Clav that you link that alongside the article of the guy burying his sister on that 20 May day.

@BeMoreGoldfish

How can people not see the difference between a few other fuckwits who broke the rules and THE ACTUAL FUCKING GOVERNMENT WHO SET THE RULES breaking the rules??

How is this so hard?? How are we struggling with this basic concept??

No wonder this government gets away with being so fucking awful.

I despair.

It’s because they don’t want to. Politics has turned into this weird anti-intellectual mud slinging ‘who’s worse?’ competition where nobody ever has to admit responsibility or be held accountable. There’s always someone else to point the finger at, and then you’re still backing the winning team.

Nothing will happen off the back of this, because ultimately people will support our lying, hideous, moral vacuum of a Prime Minister rather than admit they were wrong.

BashStreetKid
Jeremy Corbyn was not Prime Minister, he wasn't even leader of the opposition.

He was at the time of the last general election - therefore relevant to the post about voting Tory.

I think Boris and the Tories think you're as stupid as we do. Except theirs are tears of laughter, and we despair.

Carry on bleating. "It wasn't a party. Baaaah" "or was it? Oh it is now. It was. but Boris didn't know that, baaaah".

Yes, I agree with that. They could not bear to admit they are wrong. Which is why you have posters urging others to accept that Freedom Day was a good thing, and oh, look at the economy, etc.
When it has absolutely nowt to do with this debacle of gatherings/party/shenanigans BYOB.

Quite different here - Daily Mail 20 May 2020;

What is your point?

Many people went to the beach and to parks because everything else was closed. Many people don’t have a garden.

However the reporting at the time clearly demonstrates that people were still concerned about transmission outside.

Do you honestly think that Johnson as PM had no more responsibility for the rules than a random person going to the beach?

Life has just been one big party for Boris, covid wasn’t going to stop that. I really hope him and princess nut nut are sent packing but some how I think he will just hang on and on.

but for whatever reason some are so wedded to their chosen party that criticism must be deflected no matter what it takes

Sunk cost fallacy but ego is the currency.

@Cornettoninja

but for whatever reason some are so wedded to their chosen party that criticism must be deflected no matter what it takes

Sunk cost fallacy but ego is the currency.

That’s such a good way to put it, exactly that.

I don't know how anyone can spend their time defending the indefensible.

You'd be a pretty weird person to think the way the PM has behaved was the correct course of action.

@ElenaCouch

I think Boris and the Tories think you're as stupid as we do. Except theirs are tears of laughter, and we despair.

Carry on bleating. "It wasn't a party. Baaaah" "or was it? Oh it is now. It was. but Boris didn't know that, baaaah".

Stop dissing sheep

He's apologised and sounded genuine.

Did you hear they have taken the word gullible out of the dictionary?

@MrsSkylerWhite

Head in hands reading this.

Are the suggested replacements really the brightest and best that this nation has to offer? Despair.

The Tory party no longer gets (many of) the best and brightest this country has to offer. They really do struggle to attract 4decent young members, things have changed enormously since the 60s/70s.

Roussette
I find it quite distasteful Clav that you link that alongside the article of the guy burying his sister on that 20 May day.

What did you think of the article?

Well, not all of us, it turns out. Not them.

I am, today, haunted by the tinkling of those glasses there on that sun-drenched night, the echoing of their thin laughter, the stifled chuckles as they practised their imagined denials and, most perniciously, the leadership that encouraged it to happen...

the revelations of the manifest and repeated failures of those in power to understand, empathise or show solidarity with what the people of this country experienced during that time have released from the body politic a stench so toxic that I can’t see how they will be able to put it back in the bottle, no matter how desperately they try...

It's called partisanship, Goldfish. I've no doubt people can see the difference, but for whatever reason some are so wedded to their chosen party that criticism must be deflected no matter what it takes

I can see the difference, but it’s really not that I’m wedded to the bloody Tory party. God forbid. I think it’s that I have low expectations of the government and their morals to start with. It’s obvious that they all think themselves a bit special and a different cut to the rest of us. It’s always been that way, not just since the pandemic. I’m surprised that other people are so surprised that they might have done this.

I’ll be shocked if it turns out that they had these gatherings regularly as standard. But I know many good people that broke the rules once or twice that I can’t get that worked up about it when they’ve behaved pretty much how I’d expect them to behave.

[quote Clavinova]he has ADMITTED it was a party. A PARTY. against the law at the time

Was this party on the 10th May 2020 against the law? Labour MP, Labour Mayor and at least one police officer present. Has Keir Starmer spoken to the MP?

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18484861.mp-kevan-jones-defends-decision-attend-100th-birthday-party-lockdown/[/quote]
@Clavinova - I'm not going to defend Kevan Jones. It should be investigated by the police as should any of the others you've put up.

Right, now that's out of the way. The police should also investigate Boris.

As a previous private secretary to Margaret Thatcher and John Major said earlier this week it is inconceivable that a private secretary would send out an invitation to 100 people to have a drink in Boris's garden without Boris being aware.

This is the quote... 'Asked by presenter Emma Barnett on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour whether a private secretary could send an email like this without the knowledge of the prime minister, Ms Slocock said: “I don’t think so. I find it inconceivable. The reason being that the principal private secretary, any private secretary, is incredibly close to the Prime Minister.

“And when he uses the word ‘we’ I think that word does include the Prime Minister. And also, this was in the Prime Minister’s garden. Especially given this was obviously breaking rules, he would have had to have discussed it with the Prime Minister.”

This person has done the job of private secretary to a Prime Minister. Actually for two Prime Ministers. I think she would know what the job entailed and what the boundaries of that job was.

How can anyone honestly say that Boris did not know that this event was happening? What if Boris and Carrie had decided to have a friend over, which was allowed, that evening to sit in the garden and have a drink? Only to find a potential 100 people boozing it up on your lawn? You don't just invite 100 people to pop into someone else's garden for a little drink. You just don't.

If Carrie attended (which it seems she did) then it is a social event. Not a work event. She doesn't work in Downing Street and her presence makes it something else. I don't take my husband to a 'work whilst you drink/eat' type event. If he's invited I assume I'm off duty. If my boss turned up with her husband, I'd assume I was no longer 'at work'.

As the word 'party' seems to be contentious, let's call it a social event. Which wasn't allowed at the time. So Boris's private secretary organises a little drink after work, potentially illegally, and doesn't run it by Boris just to check if it would be allowed? And in a place that doubles as his private home? And keeps his job?
Seriously!

He's apologised and sounded genuine. I don't think he should resign. I believe the strong position we are in now is due to his leadership and team, so a resignation would cause disruption at an unstable time.

hahahaha good one!

What is our 'strong position'? How can our position be both strong and unstable anyway?

We have erected tents in car parks to deal with the overflow hospital cases, and the excess dead bodies.
We have soaring poverty, especially amongst working families, with food banks now so overwhelmed they are turning people away for the first time.
We will see cost of living increases this year which will hit us all.
We are constantly picking empty fights with Europe for no good reason.

And he was not genuine. However genuine you think Johnson sounds, he is not genuine. I can not understand why anyone would believe him again after all the lies.

Carrie did drink gin at the 'gathering' (reportedly) which is the only thing her and I have in common