AIBU to assume Boris Johnson is lying?

[Thirtytimesround]

Cummings says that he warned Boris the drinks party was against the covid rules.

Boris says he didn’t. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60039868

So, given the track record, AIBU to assume that BJ is either
(A) lying to Parliament, or
(B) so bad at his job that he has no idea what his private secretary is up to, or what the rules he created actually said, or what the difference is between working and having a drinks party.

Are his lips moving?

Then he’s lying.

Of course he's lying!

@noblegiraffe

Are his lips moving?

Then he’s lying.

Right on the money.

Beth making him squirm

Both. A and B

What are the bears doing in the woods? They know.

The leaks are strategic - the next one will be proof that he lied to Parliament.

I don’t think Cummings is the most honest of people either to be fair. And he’s going after Boris and making it his life’s work to get him out of office as revenge for loosing his job, so In this I’m not so sure.

The thing I don't understand is why he repeatedly keeps saying that nobody told him it would be breaking the rules...he made the fucking rules though, so why would he even need to be told?!

I noticed this afternoon that he repeatedly dodged Beth Rigby's question about whether a prime minister who is found to have lied to Parliament should resign. It's a simple question, and if he hadn't lied, there would be a simple answer. His refusal to respond directly to that question tells me all that I need to know.

The thing is that DC doesn't have to be dishonest - BJ is doing all this for himself.

Almost certainly he is though I'm astonished that anyone is giving Cummings any airtime. This is the same man who viewed the public with complete contempt when he had his little trip to Barnard Castle (when the rest of us had to stay home) then came up with a ludicrous story about testing his eyesight. FFS.

Wouldn't trust either of them as far as I could throw them.
Cummings has only been all anti-BJ since he got the push.

Of course he's lying. It's his default behaviour.

Cunnings is a horrible man. However he is not lying, Boris is IMV. Boris has form

'I don’t think Cummings is the most honest of people either to be fair'

Absolutely. This is the sewer we find ourselves swimming in - having to choose which self-serving sack of shit to believe. Good times

He's lying and has lied to parliament over his knowledge of the party on May 20th. Several sources suggest this and it all fits with his previous character.

Cummings might not be particularly trustworthy either, but there are other sources that support his view.

Boris doesn't think he's lying. He's just not being open and honest, in case anything he says incriminates him. I'm really sorry not to have seen him personally at a vaccination clinic, as I would quite liked to have elbow bashed him in the eye!

Why couldn't he just answer Beth Rigby's question though? It was simple enough fgs

Of course he's lying. Cummings is a liar too but the BBC also found 2 other government officials who corroborated what he said, so I believe him this time.

Is Cummings entirely responsible for all the leaks about parties though? He had actually left his job by the time some of them took place so there must be someone else involved on the inside.

I think you'd be unreasonable to ever assume he's not lying tbh given his track record

Of course he is lying. I don't think that man has said a truthful thing his entire life.

Much as it pains me to lend any credence to that poisonous little eft - Cummings' stock-in-trade is vengeful, premeditated destruction of people he no longer needs, so I am assuming he has the receipts to back up this onslaught on Johnson.

It's so, so depressing that this is our politics now. And likely to be so for a good long stretch, as long as the witless keep bleating "But Starmer is stodgy...Corbyn is a terrorist...no viable opposition, what else are we to do" and voting for the absolute worst this country has seen since Thatcher.

The difference between them is that Cummings wasn’t elected to serve the people and bound to maintain standards in public office. So his wrongdoings are a different matter. He was an employee like any other (well, not quite, but you know what I mean). Johnson is accountable to Parliament and the public in a way that Cummings isn’t and wasn’t.

So lies from one have a greater import than lies from another.

And of course Johnson is lying. Cummings is bright enough and Machiavellian enough not to have said this without knowing others had witnessed it and could corroborate, which is exactly the case here.

Cummings is one of the view people I trust less than Johnson.

If this was true why on earth didn't he reveal it sooner? This could have sunk the ship long ago.

The delaying, the drip drip drip, makes me less inclined to believe it.