Page 35 | To be really enjoying Boris Johnson's downfall Part 3 Cake ambush

AdamRyan · 28/01/2022 10:35

If the Met actually think much more serious crime has potentially been committed, one that could require a jury trial, then they are right to request this is removed so as not to prejudice any trial.
I have a feeling things are more serious for Johnson than we have been led to believe. This isn't about fixed penalty notices for parties any more.

ClaudineClare · 28/01/2022 10:37

I really don't like the narrative of blaming Carrie Johnson, as though she is some sort of party-mad version of Lady Macbeth. Johnson is 100% responsible for his actions.

AdamRyan · 28/01/2022 10:44

I mean, join the dots of what we know has been reported to the met:
Parties potentially breaking covid rules
Civil service culture/who tasks the civil servants
Alleged blackmail of MPs by whips
Alleged islamophobia/racial harassment of MPs

It paints quite a serious picture. I'm not a lawyer but I know what I think and its a serious crime.

merrymouse · 28/01/2022 10:47

@ClaudineClare

I really don't like the narrative of blaming Carrie Johnson, as though she is some sort of party-mad version of Lady Macbeth. Johnson is 100% responsible for his actions.

I agree. If she posted on MN and said ‘AIBU to organise a little birthday do for my hubby at in the office, he works soooo hard’ she would have been piled on, but fundamentally Johnson is PM. She should be irrelevant.

Florianus · 28/01/2022 10:50

@AdamRyan

I mean, join the dots of what we know has been reported to the met: Parties potentially breaking covid rules Civil service culture/who tasks the civil servants Alleged blackmail of MPs by whips Alleged islamophobia/racial harassment of MPs

It paints quite a serious picture. I'm not a lawyer but I know what I think and its a serious crime.

As I understand it, the Met are only investigating a subset of parties - they are not investigating the tory party.

Original poster

Notonthestairs · 28/01/2022 10:53

Will we see the report at all?

OP posts:

AdamRyan · 28/01/2022 10:55

The police don't disclose what they are investigating if its sensitive for some reason. I am reading between the lines. Time will tell.

Alexandra2001 · 28/01/2022 10:56

@Notonthestairs

Will we see the report at all?

I have obtained a copy...

To be really enjoying Boris Johnson's downfall Part 3 Cake ambush

jgw1 · 28/01/2022 10:57

@DuncinToffee

Ian Murray on Sky News

This tells us there's items in the Sue Gray report that are now part of criminal investigations... serious information about law breaking

And Cressida Dick has already made clear that she is not interested in retrospectively investigating crimes that would attract a £100 fixed penalty notice, so we could probably draw some conclusions as to what the evidence suggests.

jgw1 · 28/01/2022 11:05

@ClaudineClare

I really don't like the narrative of blaming Carrie Johnson, as though she is some sort of party-mad version of Lady Macbeth. Johnson is 100% responsible for his actions.

As I understand it, Johnson is responsible for pot plants, maintaining morale in the office and the wine cellar. Other actions that used to be the responsibility of the Prime Minister such as what his government does are not the responsibility of this Prime Minister.

merrymouse · 28/01/2022 11:07

Johnson is responsible for pot plants, maintaining morale in the office and the wine cellar.

I think his remit also includes finding somebody to

CryingAtTheDiscotheque · 28/01/2022 11:08

Yes @jgw1 - this was the point that Starmer made in PMQs:

"The police, having got that material from Sue Gray, subjected it to a test to decide whether to investigate. That test was whether it was the “most serious and flagrant” type of breach in the rules. The police spelled out what they meant by that: that those involved knew, or ought to have known, that what they were doing was an offence and that there was “little ambiguity” about the “absence of any reasonable defence”.

merrymouse · 28/01/2022 11:08

Oops

Finding someone to pay lulu lytle’s bills.

AdamRyan · 28/01/2022 11:17

Oh yes, I forgot to add how the flat renovations were paid for to my list of "things the police know"

UnconditionalSurrender · 28/01/2022 11:28

Tory bots not around today so far. Maybe their paymasters have been arrested and not able to give out instructions.

Mayorquimby2 · 28/01/2022 11:28

@ClaudineClare

I really don't like the narrative of blaming Carrie Johnson, as though she is some sort of party-mad version of Lady Macbeth. Johnson is 100% responsible for his actions.

Shows the caliber of him that he's happy to let his party go out there and fuck her under the bus for ambushing him with a cake

TeloMere · 28/01/2022 11:29

ItsSnowJokes
Its all another cover up. Civil service can say the police told us we can't publish in full, the police will then "investigate" fine a few lower grades a few hundred quid each, then never release their investigations and it will all go away.

Perhaps Sue Gray has been taking lessons from Sir Humphrey Appleby. It sounds like one of his cunning plans to protect the Minister.

Celia66 · 28/01/2022 11:31

I didn't intend for my post to sound like I blame Carrie. I blame Johnson for not taking his post as PM seriously and telling his wife she has no place in the Cabinet Room and that he won't be giving jobs to her friends, his advisers will be appointed on merit. Didn't happen.

TwentyFirstCenturyTricoteuse · 28/01/2022 11:45

@peregrina the joke was the "overboard" bit

Blossomtoes · 28/01/2022 12:05

According to today’s Times, Johnson’s being held hostage by his MPs. He’s spending almost all his time in the Commons because No 10 is toxic and granting every request made of him to keep them on side. Rumour has it that this strategy will, among other things, create a new hospital in Hemel Hempstead - that location of northern poverty in dire need of levelling up.

SueSaid · 28/01/2022 12:06

'Tory bots not around today so far. Maybe their paymasters have been arrested and not able to give out instructions'

Would you like some more from me

ClaudineClare · 28/01/2022 12:12

Theresa May has waded in. Her comments are interesting, given what some posters have been saying on these threads about who does or doesn't have responsibility for setting the rules.

I have said previously that it is vital that those who set the rules, follow the rules. Nobody is above the law.

This is important for ensuring the necessary degree of trust between the public and government.

Like so many, I was angry to hear stories of those in Number 10, who are responsible for setting the coronavirus rules, not properly following the rules.

jgw1 · 28/01/2022 12:15

@CryingAtTheDiscotheque

Yes *@jgw1* - this was the point that Starmer made in PMQs:

"The police, having got that material from Sue Gray, subjected it to a test to decide whether to investigate. That test was whether it was the “most serious and flagrant” type of breach in the rules. The police spelled out what they meant by that: that those involved knew, or ought to have known, that what they were doing was an offence and that there was “little ambiguity” about the “absence of any reasonable defence”.

Thanks, I missed PMQs.

What puzzles me is why some posters seem intent on suggesting that nothing much happened and if something did happen one compared it to parking on a yellow line.

And yet all the evidence available to us suggests something rather different.

Florianus · 28/01/2022 12:16

@DuncinToffee

Hunt and Mordaunt were being touted on BBC South last week

According to Ladbrokes, Penny Mordaunt is a real outsider (they are offering 14/1 on her becoming PM.

They rate Rishi Sunak as the most likely successor and are currently offering 11/8 on him succeeding Johnson.

the80sweregreat · 28/01/2022 12:17

What did Paul Brand's husband do?