To think that the partygoers at Downing Street should be sacked

[MaMaLa321]

Until I read the Sue Gray report today I was, frankly, fairly 'meh' about the whole thing, but it's appalling isn't it?
The Head of Ethics, Helen MacNamara, taking a karaoke machine to a party. Martin Reynolds, a high level civil servant (due to be our next ambassador to Saudi) boasting on WhatsApp about 'getting away with it'. Vomit on the walls. Cleaners and security staff abused.
I don't buy the blaming of Johnson (though I believe he should resign). They are all adults, and many were probably in the job before he came along.
I'd sack them and take away their nice pensions.

Apologies from the leadership and politicians is unacceptable, especially in the case of further obfuscation and lying. They should resign, or be forced to. MPs who think differently are cowards and thinking only of themselves.

Of course they should all go, including Boris.

Obnoxious bunch of twats.

YouGov snap poll.

59% of voters think he should resign.
30% think he should not resign.
11% ‘dunno’s.

A big partisan split between Labour and Conservative voters, with a majority (63% of Conservative voters still backing Johnson)

yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/05/25/snap-poll-johnson-gray-report-resign-lied

I do wonder if the needle might move slightly further against him over the next few days.

Everyone including BJ should have been sacked & there should be a general election. A woman who is an executive on our city council was at one of the parties, she has been on Gardening Leave for the last 6 months, she earns £190k a year, that money could have done more good than paying her.

Bunch of entitled, prole-hating yobs showing sickening contempt for anyone outside their circle. Imagine being one of the scientists they wheeled out every day, knowing they dont give a stuff about the science. I've not heard Bozo thank Chris Whitty or Jonathan van Tamm when he's bawling about his brilliant Covid achievements. I'd have van Tamm as PM if we could. Imagine that; a real grown up running the country. We can only dream. We're stuck with Big Baby.

It’s so damming but most of the media seem to be burying it.

emails about “getting away with it”.

Invitation for a “wine and cheese evening” later amended to “end of year meeting with wine and cheese”

emails saying “drinks which aren’t drinks. When are we having the drinks”

they knew what they were doing was wrong.

emails saying such events were a “comms risk”. Actually it wasn’t a communications risk, it was a risk to public health! Which staggeringly they don’t seem to have realised.

As someone who worked long hours in the NHS every day while my mum was dying from COVID in hospital alone I’m fucking furious.

@leotardrock I totally agree (also civil service and i despair at the terrible behaviour on display). I worked long hours through the pandemic, wouldn't have dreamed of having a party - well, we had short events to say goodbye to valued colleagues but they were all done virtually. We even cancelled our December 2021 Christmas party because although the rules allowed it, it felt irresponsible when Omicron cases were rising.

Oh, and calls for us to "move on" remind me of an unfaithful spouse blaming their partner for not getting over an affair when they have shown no real remorse for their deception and harmful behaviour. If the PM wants this to stop he knows what he should do.

If they sack all the junior staff over this, those staff will have nothing to lose from going straight to the press with their version of events.
They don't dare let all that info into the public domain.
I'd be interested to know if anyone who was fined for being at any of these events for less time/earlier than BJ (unfixed) is aggrieved enough to say something.
I think the Downing Street flat cleaners could have a tale to tell.

/Unfixed unfined obvs.

@QuebecBagnet
The media are burying it??? Really? It’s in every newspaper and on every news radio bulletin and more via discussion etc. it’s everywhere. Are you living under a stone?

It’s been in the media for months I think it has been the opposite of burying it.

As annoyed as I am about all the partying carry on the coverage has been hard to avoid.

The only people who can remove the PM are MPs of the Conservative Party. They won’t at the moment as they don’t have a strong leader in waiting who will win the next election. They are waiting to see if this mess continues to anger people who vote conservative.

I agree.

I also doubt there would be any support with the rise in energy cost if not for the fact they want to bury this.

that thought scares me.

as it is I doubt it’ll be much support… but it will definitely be glorified support.

Listening to Radio 4 this morning, I learnt that one of the Downing St cleaners contracted covid and subsequently died. It’s not known where he contracted it but it shows an appalling lack of safeguarding for cleaning and security staff.

@DrippyLongstocking
Ive read most of the report and there are constant references to the PM. He is the head of the Government. It does indeed mention senior leaders in Government but doesn’t mention who. We know Richi Sunak was fined but no one else is named so “leaders” seems to really mean the PM. Unless she’s including SPADs but they are not the elected Government and the Civil Service isn’t either. Sorry to be pedantic but it’s not really correct to lump the Civil Service in with the Government as they serve all Governments. They cannot be THE Government.

How do people who have suffered incredible heart ache just 'move on'?
That is the cry of the guilty.

So tragic to hear about a cleaner at number 10 who died of Covid...what if he contracted it from a person there?

How many times do people need to be told the outrage is not just about a ''party' or 'parties'...it is the lying , cheating and lack of morals at the top that is the problem.

But you want them to be allowed to continue...and make more cock ups?

So sick of being ruled by an entitled political class who think nothing of breaking every rule in the book with impunity or putting in an astonishingly poor job performance (Dido harding, anyone? Gavin Williamson?). I honestly can't believe the Tories are still polling so high.

Despite ALL the evidence of incompetence, disregard for the law, blatant cronyism, misleading parliament (lying to the public!), unrest growing again in Ireland, rich getting richer while those in poverty are in dire straits, you still get people on vox pops saying 'I think he's doing a good job!' So the question for those people is, what the fuck constitutes a bad job?

@BigGreen don't forget that poor performance was awarded by Johnson to make him Sir Gavin Williamson, master of the mutant algorithm.

I have voted for different political parties over the years. Mostly Labour. I can, hand on heart, say, that if this was a Labour government I would be just as angry and want the PM and any other officials involved sacked. It is abominable on so many levels:

• the rest of us were struggling but doing our best to follow the rules set by government- if we’d all behaved like them we’d have been stuffed.
• if anyone else in a publicly paid professional role behaved like this they would be sacked.
• we need leaders to set the standard. If they don’t follow the law and act in a morally decent way - why should Joe Bloggs?
• we pay their salary. I don’t want anyone who is paid for with public money working whilst drunk. If there is alcohol involved then no work should be done. We have a whole policy about drugs and alcohol at work and it’s a flat out ‘NO’!
• how can we trust a government that lies?!

intetesting how they have announced today the windfall tax to help with the energy crisis. They must think we are stupid. They have held off until today to release that news. They have zero integrity, no morals and they need to go. I’d have Thatcher back right now. She was a cold hearted cow but she was honest!

It’s utterly disgraceful behaviour. I’m more disappointed about this than awful Tory policies. It is simply not fair that politicians should get away with behaviour other public staff (quite rightly) don’t. Why is there no misconduct authority? I don’t mean about policy making, but about procedure. If a politician breaks the law at work (or a serious law outside of work) it should be matter for discipline. Just like the rest of us would be disciplined for sleeping at work, fraudulent expenses, illegally poroging parliament etc etc. yet there are no consequences, because the fox is guarding the chicken coop. And the chickens bloody voted for him!

Boris will never resign. He is driven by pure self interest and genuinely doesn’t believe the rules do, or should, apply to him at all. He holds ordinary people (and that’s almost everyone) in utter contempt. He lied to the Queen, FFS. I find the whole business utterly abhorrent.

It isn’t one rule for them and another for us. It’s no rules for them. They make the rules for us with no intention of following them themselves.

No, I followed the rules to keep others safe. I and my kids weren't vulnerable. I did it to protect the many vulnerable people who covid meant a death sentence.

My kids missed out on so much school and parties and events to keep others safe. They're not vulnerable. 3 of them got covid before they were jabbed and 1 of them didn't know it, 1 thought she had hayfever and one was a bit poorly for 2 days.

The govt is absolutely vile and I don't understand how those arseholes could stand there and preach at the whole country whilst they were partying. People didn't see their love ones before they died. People couldn't go to funerals. People killed themselves because of loneliness. I have single friends who had to spend months without seeing anyone.

In my opinion they should all be jailed and never hold office again.

It’s a disgrace.

If it’s now fine to break the law, lie about it, not fill in police questionnaires and just say, ‘the public want us to move on’ whenever asked, where does that leave the rest of us? It’s a very dangerous path to start on.

Is it now ok to break the law? Or only ok if you’re in government or the Met?

I’m a teacher (who certainly wasn’t drinking at work because we were in fixed bubbles for months, the staff room was closed and we’d have been sacked) who has to teach British Values to my class.

What are these British Values? I am not seeing any of our elected members of Parliament demonstrating anything other than lying, corruption, sycophancy and obfuscation.

The bar is set so low among Tory fans who support Johnson. It's like a cult. Zero moral compass.

It is really really worrying that the Met police have not done their job. Why haven't they?

And the Telegraph today talks of a radical hard left coalition forming for the next general election.

I guess if you're so far right like these thugs, anyone who isn't on your team looks like a communist.

Michael Rosen has it right when he tweeted, "Horrible, horrible people. Go away."