To be really enjoying Boris Johnson's downfall Part 2

[ClaudineClare]

A follow on thread from

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4457488-to-be-really-enjoying-boris-johnson-s-downfall?msgid=114425763#114425763

@JaniieJones

Oh so what. As someone on twitter said "So, when people in an office buy a cake in the middle of the afternoon for someone else they are working in the office with and stop for ten minutes to sing happy birthday and then go back to their desks, this is now called a party?"

Honestly that Paul Brand and his half arsed 'scoops' 🙄

They had a load of food spread out on the cabinet table, and the flaming decorator and their boss's wife were there, FFS. That is not a work party.

Um, have you considered that the person claiming it only lasted 10 minutes - being the person who was breaking the rules and is trying to keep his job - might possibly not be the most credible source for you to be hanging this argument on?

To say nothing of the fact that said person has been sacked from at least two jobs for lying and has been caught out lying on innumerable occasions since.

At that time no-one was supposed to be going into an office to work unless it was essential. Given the amount of time this lot spent at parties, clearly their presence in the office wasn't in the least essential.

I just watched Peter Bone make an absolute arse of himself on Newsnight. Johnson's defence team of Bone, Dorries and Fabricant is a triumvirate of ridiculousness.

@ClaudineClare

I just watched Peter Bone make an absolute arse of himself on Newsnight. Johnson's defence team of Bone, Dorries and Fabricant is a triumvirate of ridiculousness.

I saw that too. If the Tory party is reduced to sending Bone onto a major news programme to defend Johnson, they’ve basically admitted defeat. He lied through his teeth too.

You can add George Eustice as well
"There was 10 minutes there around sharing a piece of cake, I don't think that constitutes a party..."

Well, good job there's nothing important going on the world while this government disappears up it's own capacious arse.

Someone's laughing, that's for sure. But I think it's Vlad.

Face it, Dorries, Bone and Fabricant is an obvious admission of defeat, a trio of the desperate, 2 of whom have been in a cupboard out of sight and hearing for the past 15 years at least. If that's all that Boz can summon to his aid then Carrie's packing. Or maybe not. I wonder if she'll stage a coup, 'get off my sofa', and refuse to leave as Boz slinks out the back door, something in which I believe he's well practiced.

Johnson is finished.

My God I hope so, but there are still people like JaniieJones defending him to the hilt.

For my 70th birthday which happened during lockdown, DH and I had a Chinese takeway. We were mugs obviously, I should have invited a couple of dozen people too.

Blossomtoes yes, he did lie through his teeth. All that guff about doorstepping and no-one being bothered about Partygate, but worried about Ukraine instead. That is clearly the Tory line to take, a line which was used by someone on this thread earlier today, if I remember rightly. Funny that.

I know - and then he had the gall to accuse Peter Kyle of lying! They’re just unbelievable.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring? PMQs on Wednesday should be worth watching.

@Blossomtoes

I know - and then he had the gall to accuse Peter Kyle of lying! They’re just unbelievable.

I know! I was screaming at the TV at that point.

Me too. The only consolation is that he looked like the deluded old has been he is. He’s been a joke in the Tory party for years.

www.nnjournal.co.uk/p/a-northamptonshire-market-towns-residents?r=d8ltb

What Bone’s constituents really think.

Dorries only defends Johnson because she knows she hasn't a cat's chance in hell of keeping her job under anyone else.

It doesn't matter whether this birthday thing meets Dorries' or Bone's definition of a party. What matters is whether it met or broke the lockdown rules of the time. Surely it fails on several counts, the singing of Happy Birthday being just one of them.

Dorries has a history of inappropriate tweets, gaffs, inane comments and absolute total ignorance. She though Channel 4 was paid for by the public FFS ! And this from a Culture Minister?

She will be gone when Johnson is gone. And she knows that. She's ignorant and unable to answer any sensible question at the despatch box.

Yes... even singing was banned at the time, you could not sing in Church for a very long time.

@ClaudineClare

He has surely got to go now, as he has lied to Parliament?

Johnson's defenders have gone very quiet on this thread. Perhaps busy preparing their lines to take?

There is no mechanism to make a minister - even a prime minister - resign as a result of lying to parliament. Tony Blair lied to parliament about weapons of mass destruction but stayed on for another four years or so as PM. Johnson Misled parliament last year over the award of Covid contracts, High Court documents show, but as we all know he is still PM.

The convention is that ministers "normally" resign if found deliberately lying to parliament, but it is up to them whether or not they do.

There is no mechanism to make a minister - even a prime minister - resign as a result of lying to parliament.

This. Look what happened to Dawn Butler MP when she pointed out that Johnson was lying.

Tony Blair completely wrecked his reputation over Iraq. Had he not done so, as one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement, he would have gone down in history as a good Prime Minister.

But other PMs - namely Chamberlain and Eden - were considered good until they went and destroyed their reputations.

It's debatable whether Johnson ever had a reputation for being anything other than lying and lazy. It's probably only the 54 letters followed by a no-confidence vote which would get him out. Even then, he might try to argue that this doesn't mean he shouldn't still be PM.

@margegunderson

It doesn't matter whether this birthday thing meets Dorries' or Bone's definition of a party. What matters is whether it met or broke the lockdown rules of the time. Surely it fails on several counts, the singing of Happy Birthday being just one of them.

Yes, this. See also “work event” used to excuse the May garden party. The regs don’t talk about “parties” or “ work events”. The length of attendance is also irrelevant. The actual criterion under the regs was whether the gathering was reasonably necessary for work.

@Zonder

There is no mechanism to make a minister - even a prime minister - resign as a result of lying to parliament.

This. Look what happened to Dawn Butler MP when she pointed out that Johnson was lying.

Indeed, it’s easier to get thrown out of the House of Commons for calling someone a liar than for lying itself.

Roussette:
Dorries has a history of inappropriate tweets, gaffs, inane comments and absolute total ignorance. She though Channel 4 was paid for by the public FFS ! And this from a Culture Minister?

A point I have been making for a very long time is that ministers generally have no experience of the work done by the departments they are expected to "run" and nor do they have time to spend more than a few minutes a week in those departments.

Only the other day, I was thinking what damage Liz Truss could do if she was allowed to tell Putin what to do about Ukraine - after all, she has no experience as a diplomat. In reality, ministers do what their civil servants tells them - Truss's admonishon would have been carelyy drafted by Foreign Office staff. It sounds like Dories may have escaped her minders, though!

The actual criterion under the regs was whether the gathering was reasonably necessary for work.

It is increasingly clear that Big Baby only does any work if food or booze are involved and so these gatherings were absolutely necessary for work to be done.

Have I pre-empted the latest line from our friendly fanboys?