Why I'm angry about the May parties at Downing Street - share your stories

[ThirdTimeIucky]

No agenda, just a whinge to demonstrate rhe millions of individual reasons people are angry about BYOB parties in Downing Street whilst the rest of us were in Lockdown. I've heard so many stories of loved ones dying alone, loneliness and heartbreak.

For me, when the party took place on the 20th, I had been struggling in a domestic abuse situation for months. In lockdown. I'd been on my own trying to deal with this situation. I felt like I was trapped. It was an incredibly painful and difficult time of my life. Three days later, feeling terribly guilty, and despite the restrictions, if went to my sisters as the situation had become so bad. But because of those restrictions, I stayed in that situation for so much longer than I should have done.

My aunt died alone in a care home. 6 people standing 2 meters apart at graveside.
My FIL died in a care home. 2 children were allowed in with him. The other had to wait outside. 6 people standing 2 meters apart at the graveside.
My DP lost his job of 20 years.
My DBILx2 lost their jobs.
My elderly mum has become agoraphobia and anorexic and is terrified of covid.
My MH is nearing the end.
For the first time in my adult life I have decided I will no longer vote.

I am angry because I believe that the leaks about these parties are coming from the PM or No 10 as a smokescreen

Boris is hanging onto his job by a thread. There's no way this is him. If he doesn't want to be PM any more, resigning would offer a much less humiliating option than being kicked out by his own MPs. Which is a risk he's dancing with now.

Someone else in the party or some other faction, on the other hand, that's plausible.

Not as sad as others. It’s horrible you went through that.
In May 2020 I was begging my drs to see my son in person. He was 2 months old. Eventually got through to a dr that allowed a very quick visit and straight away she referred him to a paediatrician.
If there had been health visitor visits/clinics his condition could have been spotted sooner and medication prescribed.

My 6 week check was over the phone too. As a first time mom the support was diabolical. A phone call can’t replace proper care.
We were isolated from others yet the Tories felt it was ok to have a jolly. His other grandparents didn’t meet him until he was 14 weeks old because we all stuck to the rules. How is that ok?

DH was living away from home with his siblings so they could visit terminally ill MIL in a hospice. They were only allowed to visit 1at a time per day. I know they were 'luckier' than most being able to visit at all.

DH wanted to come home for a weekend as the DC were missing him so much. A member of staff told him he wouldn't be allowed back in if he did.
My DC used to cry because they wanted their dad to come home but knew when he did it would because their beloved Nana had died.

I've shared this before but then, FIL couldn't come to the funeral as he wouldn't have been able to go back in his care home. He had to watch on an ipad.

I was comforting my mum who couldn't go and say goodbye to her twin. She will never get over that x

@Allycott

I will be angry to my dying day that for my mom's funeral I could have only six people and nothing afterwards. This was May 2020. Worst thing is I don't know who to be angry with but it hurts.

Be angry with the person who was responsible for inflicting those rules on you whilst hosting parties himself.

Lockdown baby born in april... Only grandchild on both sides and neither met until the rules relaxed to allow. Even then, it was following the 2m rule as we thought we were doing the right thing to protect our baby and the NHS.

These are all dreadful stories, it’s so sad to read them.
In May 2020 I was so busy with work, the idea of partying simply hadn’t crossed my mind. I was doing a back office role (covid related) and felt so sorry for my front line colleagues who would have really deserved a party (if they’d had the energy and the inclination, given that many people were still getting seriously ill or dying).

I bet the party guests put their kids in key worker school while they nursed their hangovers. Just sickening.

I’m so sorry to hear these terribly sad stories. My dad was very ill in May 2020 although we hadn’t had a diagnosis by that point - due to covid he hadn’t been able to get a dr appointment face to face. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few weeks later and then died after another six weeks. I am devastated I missed out on seeing him during the restrictions.

Because I was forbidden to open my business in June 2020, which is outside, even sticking to the rule of fucking six and social distancing. We tried opening and we were reported to the council by some bastard curtain twitcher, even though we thought we were acting within the law. So we had to wait until July 4th along with indoor hospitality, even though the risk of Covid spreading in what we do is pretty much zero. Meanwhile in Number 10's garden....

I was at home on my own for 12 hours a day with 4 children, including a newborn with what I now suspect was pnd. I cried every day. My babies 6 week check eventually happened when she was 16 weeks old. Thankfully, we are all fine and it doesn't compare to others stories, but it still makes me feel sick to think that, had something been wrong, no one was around to spot it.

There are so many levels of hurt and fury about this

We need to send a clear message to that fucker and to those who danced to his tune.

I'm so sorry to read these posts

I'm so sorry for everyone on this thread - some truly heartbreaking situations.

My cousin was taken into hospital, he lived 200 miles away, he had asthma and a bad chest infection. He was in for a fortnight with regular COVID tests, all negative. Then he caught COVID, from another patient in the ward and went downhill very quickly. His wife, children and sister were not allowed to visit and the ward was too busy to allow them to speak to him or say their goodbyes via an iPad - his wife got a call the following morning to say he had died. 6 people only to the funeral, so none of us could go. I hate this so called government, their decisions, desire for herd immunity and syphoning off billions of pounds for their dodgy dealings will cost this country dear. But never mind, let them have a party while we all stick to the rules. And yet, they will still get voted in....I'm baffled.

I looked back at my photos from that day and I was in one of the worst, most frightening, most enduring depressive episodes of my life. I had to keep going for my then two year old DS but I was so frightened. I wanted my mum and I couldn’t be with her because, like everyone else, I was scared she or my dad would get Covid. I was furloughed because my husband’s work wouldn’t allow him any time to share childcare so it was me and DS all day every day. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. I was terrified of what my mental health was doing to my beautiful son. I lost two stone by the end of that summer.

And DH at that time didn’t know that these were the final months of FIL’s life, and they lost so much time together.

This thread has made me cry. Lockdowns have destroyed me.

5 friends have died, one from suicide, one was murdered so not all directly covid but due to to the effects of lockdowns. One other died diectly from covid but 2 from lack of treatment due to restrictions and cuts.

My own mental health is shot to pieces.

Relative who is a hospital nurse treating Covid patients who had to stay away from home in hotels for months to avoid bringing home a dangerous virus to clinically vulnerable family members.

Isolated, exhausted, alone with no home comforts, no company, seeing hundreds of people die alone, saving hundreds of other people's lives. Utterly harrowing. But not going home at the end of the shift to protect others.

Yet Sarah Vine in todays DM thinks her ex-husband and colleagues are heros because they worked really hard during this time and it's a shame that this hard work will be overshadowed by the rule-breaking. 175000 dead (ONS) is more of shame Sarah and the healthcare staff with PTSD who will never be the same again. Mostly though this anger is to Boris Johnson and those around him.

Because my DH wasn't allowed to be with me when I was diagnosed with cancer, nor could he come with me to the subsequent X-ray and checks straight after, when I was in floods of tears unable to find where I needed to go. A lovely nurse saw me and helped me find the right place because my mind really wasn't thinking straight.

Sorry to read everyone's stories.

Because my mum died on her own as she wasn't allowed hospital visitors.

And the police were too busy stopping people going for walks in the countryside and coast, too busy fining and criminalising inviduals who were meeting outside, sitting down in a park - 18 year olds getting named as rule-breakers in the local paper with criminal records because they left the house to meet a friend or sat down on a hill. The police were so busy doing this (because this is peak Covid-transmission activity) that they totally missed what Boris Johnson, his family and staff were doing. I was so scared of the police road blocks and drone cameras I didn't leave the house for 6 weeks because I didn't want to walk in my busy city but couldn't leave to walk anywhere else. I still don't go out much, mental health destroyed by draconian policy behaviour who watched and did nothing as those running the country socialised.

I was a few days before dd special birthday she was doing a joint one with a friend - the first one they did was their 21st they had hoped to do it a year latter but no -
We had to celebrate it by zoom - we lost so much time with families the important mile stones & the everyday ones
All of that pales compared to the sadness & isolation so many people have had to go through

Boris & his coven are just concerned with ambition & profit - amoral creeps

The never ending list of parties held at Downing Street while we locked down and lost parents, relatives and friends just sounds like Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

Mr Johnson is not responsible for Covid but he is responsible for how he has handled it. I won't forget and I'll find it bloody hard to forgive.

it not I

A friend of a friend died of cancer. She was in her 40s and had three teenagers and a husband. None of them were allowed to be with her at the end.

@Kshhuxnxk

My aunt died alone in a care home. 6 people standing 2 meters apart at graveside. My FIL died in a care home. 2 children were allowed in with him. The other had to wait outside. 6 people standing 2 meters apart at the graveside. My DP lost his job of 20 years. My DBILx2 lost their jobs. My elderly mum has become agoraphobia and anorexic and is terrified of covid. My MH is nearing the end. For the first time in my adult life I have decided I will no longer vote.

I am so sorry to hear what happened to you.

Don’t give up your vote without considering the alternatives though, it’s better used on a smaller party (Greens, Lib Dem, whatever UKIP changed into, independent candidates) than not used at all, if you don’t agree with the big two.

Sending lots of love to the posters in this thread… I missed baby nephews first months, my sister coming home from the Labour ward herself infected and baby infected, nobody able to help her. Struggling as a single mum, wfh full time with three kids having their world whipped from under them….