AIBU to say that people in the “real world” absolutely do care about Downing Street parties?

[PuzzledObserver]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60318610

According to Mark Spencer MP, the new leader of the House of Commons, people don’t care about partygate because what really matters to them is their jobs, NHS backlogs and energy prices.

Personally I am capable of caring about all of those AND being incensed by the “do what I say not what I do” attitude of certain members of the Government and its officials.

YABU = of course nobody cares, move on

YANBU = it absolutely matters that they told us one thing and did another themselves.

I'm past caring about the parties but I care deeply about the lying about them. If Johnson had owned up and apologised weeks ago we would have moved on by now.

I care, and everyone i knows cares. Its about intergrity and honesty and not have a bunch of liars with no morals ruling us.

I don’t care, the ‘powers that be’ have always done what they like. Like I’ve said so many times on the Covid threads, life’s too short to care about the choices of other people, when you can’t do anything about it. I didn’t follow all the rules and guidelines, anyway. Some of it was a load of baloney, which Boris and co knew all too well.

I care. I lost family members during the pandemic who were entombed in a nursing home, for their own safety, whom we couldn't hug before they died or tell them we loved them due to a combination of dementia and COVID regulations. Meanwhile the PM and key members of his administration were getting pissed up in No.10.

Nothing will change though. People will still vote for them. I've never voted Tory and I never will. They are beyond my contempt.

@PuzzledObserver

It’s as if they think that if they just keep on saying it’s no big deal (and while they’re about it: reshuffle the cabinet, misrepresent multiple resignations as acting on Sue Grey’s report and announce the early removal of compulsory isolation), that it will become true. If they just keep on repeating the lie enough times, we’ll believe it.

The thing that bothers me is that they may just be right.

Naaah, no one will believe it. We know they are liars. How could they believe they could do as they pleased during lockdown - after standing at the podium all serious and decisive telling us what we must all do - then F ing off home for a piss up.

But Boris has lied 6 times to parliament so that should come out tomorrow www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00146b6

I think the people that care are those predisposed to hate the Tories anyway. The next general election is several years away and I don't see it being a factor by that point. I'm not convinced that Labour or any other politicians wouldn't have done any different. It's always one rule for the masses but another rule for those in power. No matter who is in power.

I care a great deal.

I am very pissed off.

But what is also concerning me is the alcohol which seems to be in every office, and at every meeting.

If I drank on the job I'd be fired - because I'd be incapable of doing my job as well as it needs to be done.

I do not want those in charge of the country - ie. defence, the NHS, the courts, etc... oh.. and not to mention a global pandemic .... pissed up while they make important decisions. It is NOT ok.

One rule for them, another for everyone else.

If I cannot drink while working...why can they? and how the hec can they make important decisions while necking back the wine and prosecco??

If they weren't working and were partying... then... well why did they have laptops out at parties (really inappropriate to run a country from a party), and why the hell were they allowed to party while relatives were dying alone in hospital, people were not.allowed to go to funerals, kids couldn't hug their elderly parents...

Makes me sick ..... and scared for the country.

Is he actually called Mark Spencer?

I can’t get worked up about it either really, I couldn’t hand on heart, say I stuck to every single rule, to the letter, over the last two years.

I won’t ever vote Tory again though, because I am furious about the NI rise and their pathetic attempts to get a hold on the cost of living crisis. I’m incandescent with rage about that.

I care enough about this to have emailed my (Tory) MP to ask that they look to their conscience and write a letter of no confidence.

@Florenz

I think the people that care are those predisposed to hate the Tories anyway. The next general election is several years away and I don't see it being a factor by that point. I'm not convinced that Labour or any other politicians wouldn't have done any different. It's always one rule for the masses but another rule for those in power. No matter who is in power.

Interestingly 2019 Tory voters are also not happy about this. There is voter disapproval across the spectrum.

Nope, I care. I detest that we have someone leading our country who is morally bankrupt and an out and out liar. Someone who is so selfish that he will do anything to save his own skin, including using COVID news to deflect.

They say ethos starts at the top....our country is in tatters.

I care about corruption, greed and flagrant stupidity. There's a difference between respectfully disagreeing with the priorities and policies of a particular party and actually thinking the people in post are scum. I think he makes us look ridiculous in the eyes of the world.

I care very much about the fact we have a Prime Minister who has lied to the public and to Parliament. He cannot be trusted to run his workplace or his home, so how do we trust him to run the country. He has surrounded himself with some of the most odious political figures to take office, Rees Mogg, Pritti Patel, Michael Gove and Nadine Dorries to name a few. He allowed government to be steered from behind by the grim and unelected Dominic Cummings who is now reaping his revenge. I care very much we have a PM who has modelled himself on Trump - sleaze, flag waving, lying and spraying fake news to provoke bone heads who want any excuse to break laws - just like the PM has.

I care that we have a kangaroo court in this country. Johnson and his cronies have no respect for the British people or indeed the rules that are supposed to govern their behaviour as members of parliament.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct2dl9

Today's episode of More or Less documents how Johnson has repeatedly lied to the House, been corrected by fact checking bodies and ignored their corrections. They are supposed to issue a clarification or retraction.

He is a sociopathic megalomaniac who believes himself beyond the law. It's a game to him.

I honestly think we have never been governed by a more dangerously inept government.

The parties are just a symptom

I care. I've never voted Tory in my life and I don't expect I ever will, but I don't write off all Tories as monsters. I don't currently vote Labour either because I'm concerned they have abandoned common sense and science and are pretending we don't any more understand the definition of male/female.

However, I don't accept that it would have been just as bad under Labour. I also don't accept that it would have been just as bad under Theresa May or John Major or Margaret Thatcher (jury's out on David Cameron). Johnson is totally unfit for high political office. He has no integrity. He is a serial liar. He has sacked or passed over all the clever and principled Tory MPs in favour of numpties who won't argue with him.

I wasn't surprised about the party revelations but I am disgusted. The hypocrisy and arrogance is off the scale. How anybody could consider voting for him again is beyond my comprehension.

YANBU but I am m ore concerned about alcoholics running the country and the booze culture that goes on. I wouldn't dream of drinking and working.

I care. Because it means they have lost all authority and can’t ask us to self isolate or lockdown again. We’re dropping self isolation in a desperate bid to save Boris’ skin- other countries doing that have deaths in single figures and new infections in a fraction of ours.

@dipdye

Is he actually called Mark Spencer?

Yes, he is. I can confidently say that if my surname was Spencer when we considered boy names Mark would have been ruled out from the start.

The parties were annoying but their words and actions since all that came out are something else entirely. They are treating us like we are morons and it’s offensive.

I care.

I care. I still couldn't vote Labour but I'm far from happy about the conduct of this current Government and want to see significant changes as soon as possible.

Apart from anything else, thinking back two years, Tory politics was focussed on bloody Brexit. It took them far too long to notice that there was a pandemic sweeping across the world and they needed to do something about it. Closing our borders would have been a good start, but no. Then when they finally did react, of course our pandemic planning had gone from being best in the world in the 2000s to dropping off the to do list, so we were on the back foot from the start. Then the PPE contracts being handed out to Tory cronies and donors.

Corrupt and incompetent is (literally) a killer combination.

I can't get worked up about it TBH - the ruling classes have always lectured people about doing all the stuff they do on the sly anyways, this kind of behaviour isn't new! I'm just surprised that anyone is surprised by these parties - I always assumed at the time that they were breaking the rules.

For me all it shows is how stupid the lockdown rules were in the first place - I wasn't exactly adhering to the rules anyway, I was always meeting up with people who were willing to bend the rules too.

I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't care either - was in a cab with my nursing colleague the other day and both her, I and the cab driver agreed that we weren't bothered by these parties having gone on.

elfycat

I care that while many of us were following the flipping rules, trying our best to flatten curves, avoid needing NHS care, missing family, remembering why I hate doing a big weekly shop etc, they were sneaking around doing whatever they wanted.

While people were stressed to the point of being brittle in temperament, the police telling walkers off, cancelling weddings and funerals, and people actually dying of this illness, they were having parties.

And then standing in the heart of government and lying about it. Lying because they knew it was wrong. Sorry because they got caught. Non apologies abound. DARVO at government level.

I care. I have many other things in my life, but I care about this.

Well said!! I was going to write something similar but you’ve said it so well I thought I’d just quote you!

I think any ‘real person’ who does care about this, should perhaps email him to let him know. And to educate him that the general public do indeed have the capacity to care about more than one thing at once!