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Original poster

To be really enjoying Boris Johnson's downfall?

998 replies

GrendelsGrandma · 19/01/2022 07:27

I know he'll be replaced by someone equally awful and I know he's not quite gone yet, but I can't remember when I felt uplifted about politics and the ejection of this national embarrassment is warming my cockles. Anyone else feel the same?

OP posts:
22itsallnew · 21/01/2022 17:04

@Florianus

22itsallnew *@florianus* Do you honestly think they should have held drinks in the garden at that time?

No, I have said many times that the organiser should be punished, and I have little doubt that he will be.

@Florianus but you believe Johnson to be blameless allowing this to happen under his Government, in his work and home premises?
Toanewstart22 · 21/01/2022 17:06

@BashStreetKid

Yes to being optional - many. And yes to their being drinks. Finance. City.

And bring your own booze was presumably to limit drink sharing and in pre covid times their would have been a bar or drinks laid on.

Did those events happen less than two months after lockdown began, at the time when we had shameful infection and death rates in the UK?

Given that refreshments were laid on, manifestly there was no intention or effort to limit close contact.

Did I get together with work colleagues in the office and have a drink during that time - yes.

We were socially distancing. Sort of.

Blossomtoes · 21/01/2022 17:08

Not at any level @Toanewstart22, have you worked in the public sector? Because I have and no way would alcohol have been provided. That’s why they had the booze suitcase for the runs to Tesco.

ParsleySageRosemary · 21/01/2022 17:09

I thought everyone realised that the Downing Street working environment is not the same as the one they impose on us working plebs. Normal professional working environment it isn't. It's 'international diplomacy' innit - not for the likes of us. Think old boys clubs, shady business deals, definitely male environments. Booze is a standard part of life there. Expenses are a different thing altogether there and somewhat smeared over too. Caroline Lucas has occasionally written about what the working life is really like.

Florianus · 21/01/2022 17:10

@Notonthestairs

"Wakeford claims that he was told that a school would not be built in his constituency if he voted against the government"

And did he vote against?

He resigned from the entire Tory party - but the school is still going ahead. He said the threat to not build the school was the trigger for his resignation - but he resigned and yet the school is still going ahead. That is why a number of people are doubtful about his claim.
BashStreetKid · 21/01/2022 17:11

@Florianus

BashStreetKid Unless Kwarteng was present during the conversation in question, he is in no position to give any opinion on whether it was or was not true.

Wakeford claims that he was told that a school would not be built in his constituency if he voted against the government. He actually walked out of the party - yet the school is still being built.

The balance of probabilities (which is what matters in civil cases) is that Wakeford - who has now gone strangely silent - is telling porkies.
I

Because he's called their bluff. Of course they're not going to pull the funding when it would prove their threat. Unfortunately for his constituents, however, that is likely to be the last school they'll get funding for.
the80sweregreat · 21/01/2022 17:12

People defending the PM and the ones organizing these so called ' work events' ( or whatever they were ) forget that one person has already lost their job over this ( Allegra) and she is on film saying ( laughing ) that one gathering wasn't socially distanced at all and there was cheese and wine.
I think that is one piece of evidence that shouldn't be ignored , she resigned over it all the following day.
I bet that the men involved in these inquiries will kept their jobs though :(

ClaudineClare · 21/01/2022 17:15

Toanewstart22 reminds me of the poster who insisted that there were hampers and wine from Harrods at civil service meetings.

BashStreetKid · 21/01/2022 17:15

Johnson would say that after the event, wouldn't he? But at the time he said he believed it to be a work event and he did nothing

What on earth are you talking about, @Florianus? At the time Johnson said nothing publicly about the event whatsoever, doubtless for very good reason. Is it really your case that at the time he was bloody stupid, and subsequently he was lying? He accepts he should have stopped it, end of, really.

Florianus · 21/01/2022 17:16

22itsallnew:
@Florianus but you believe Johnson to be blameless allowing this to happen under his Government, in his work and home premises?

Why is it necessary to keep repeating the same point over and over again. Is it that people don't read the thread properly, or cannot remember what they have already read?

I don't believe he is any more to blame than others who attended. The person to blame (as in just about every contravention of lockdown rules) is the person who organised the event.

No.10, including its garden, is the workplace for some 170 civil servants. It is not some private area used by the PM (who, in any case, doesn't live at No.10).

BashStreetKid · 21/01/2022 17:17

@Toanewstart22, you weren't even supposed to be in the office at that time unless you had to be. Manifestly if you were drinking, you didn't at that point have to be in the office. Not sure that the fact that you and your colleagues broke the rules really proves anything.

ClaudineClare · 21/01/2022 17:18

No.10, including its garden, is the workplace for some 170 civil servants. It is not some private area used by the PM (who, in any case, doesn't live atNo.10)

So why is there play equipment for Wilf in the No.10 garden?

BashStreetKid · 21/01/2022 17:20

He resigned from the entire Tory party - but the school is still going ahead. He said the threat to not build the school was the trigger for his resignation - but he resigned and yet the school is still going ahead. That is why a number of people are doubtful about his claim.

He resigned yesterday, FFS. Of course no-one in government is going to pull the plug on the school project within 24 hours when the entire issue is very high profile. If that's the strongest argument the likes of Kwarteng can produce, they really need to keep quiet.

22itsallnew · 21/01/2022 17:20

@Florianus

22itsallnew: It's the fact that Boris Johnson doesn't know that he is attending a party - as people pitch up with their own booze and sit in his garden - that boggles mine

You will be even more boggled, in that case, to learn that the garden of No.10 is part of the No.10 workplace.

@Florianus the garden may be part of the workplace. Inviting everyone to hang out in it as its sunny & booze it up is does not constitute work.
the80sweregreat · 21/01/2022 17:22

If Carrie and Boris Johnson don't live at number 10, then where do they live with the children ?
There was footage of him taking Laura K round the garden on the news once and he was talking about it to her as if it was his garden !
I assumed that they live above the shop ( so ti speak ) and spent oodles on the interior design of it too.

BashStreetKid · 21/01/2022 17:22

I don't believe he is any more to blame than others who attended. The person to blame (as in just about every contravention of lockdown rules) is the person who organised the event.

Does the PM not bear any responsibility for ensuring that the laws his party enacted are complied with at No. 10?

the80sweregreat · 21/01/2022 17:24

Yes, why have play equipment in the garden if they don't live there?
.. the swing was broken at one of the 'work events ' ?

Toanewstart22 · 21/01/2022 17:25

@Blossomtoes

Not at any level *@Toanewstart22*, have you worked in the public sector? Because I have and no way would alcohol have been provided. That’s why they had the booze suitcase for the runs to Tesco.
Did some legal work and went to an event It was paid for out of by the tax payer And I had more than my fair share of free champagne If I recall correctly!
Toanewstart22 · 21/01/2022 17:26

[quote BashStreetKid]@Toanewstart22, you weren't even supposed to be in the office at that time unless you had to be. Manifestly if you were drinking, you didn't at that point have to be in the office. Not sure that the fact that you and your colleagues broke the rules really proves anything.[/quote]
We did have to be in the office
We didn’t have to have a glass of wine at 11pm post 15 hour day
But we did

Can’t see any difference had we had a cup of tea together

Notonthestairs · 21/01/2022 17:28

twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1484561592704512003?s=21

Interesting information from the Telegraph.
Party lasted from 6 until 1. Lots of work going on I'm sure.

Notonthestairs · 21/01/2022 17:29

@Toanewstart22 we were supposed to be minimising meetings wherever possible - clearly you were a bit too special for that.

ClaudineClare · 21/01/2022 17:30

I can't access the whole article as no subscription, but it is clear from the existence of Wilf's slide that the No. 10 garden is used in a non-work capacity by the PM and his family @florianus.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/21/exclusive-taking-turns-wilfs-slide-spilling-wine-office-printer/

Toanewstart22 · 21/01/2022 17:30

[quote Notonthestairs]@Toanewstart22 we were supposed to be minimising meetings wherever possible - clearly you were a bit too special for that. [/quote]
Yep!

BashStreetKid · 21/01/2022 17:32

Wow.

Latest from The Telegraph: partygoers at the party the night before Prince Philip's funeral were served wine and mixers in disposable cups, spilled wine onto the office printer and took turns on the Prime Minister's son's slide, at a time when indoor socialising was banned.

The Telegraph reports that it has seen text messages indicating attendees partying until 1am, having started at around 6pm, the night when Downing Street is alleged to have held two leaving parties: one for Boris Johnson's then-director of Communications, James Slack and another for a departing photographer.

Was that a work event, then?

Cornettoninja · 21/01/2022 17:39

No.10, including its garden, is the workplace for some 170 civil servants. It is not some private area used by the PM (who, in any case, doesn't live at No.10)

Either they live there and there shouldn’t have been a ‘gathering’ at all or it’s a workplace and Carrie shouldn’t have been there.

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