Downing St parties night before Prince Philip's Funeral

[buddhasbelly]

The telegraph are reporting more parties... The night before Prince Philip's funeral.

• party spilled out into garden

-someone broke Wilf's swing in tthe garden -someone sent with a suitcase to buy booze from the co-op

When the telegraph of all papers are reporting it, he's surely done for now?

Apologies if another thread on this, couldn't see one

Ffs.

It would be quicker to do an investigation into when parties DIDN'T take place.

Thanks - I think I might have been looking at the wrong update too - not always easy to find, and it was that awkward cross-over time when more was permitted in venues (where rules were (ha!) enforceable) Han in homes even outdoors.

Still think it's utterly appalling in the Prime Minister's official London residence during a time of formal mourning

@CovidCorvid

Blimey! Was Boris at this one too ?

He probably didn't know if he was or not.

The BBC states two parties came together later...

@CaptainChannel

I'm hoping that something good can come of this - that is that the electorate will finally realise what a collective bunch of lying, disrespectful, arrogant scumbags the Tory party are and stop voting for them.

Do you remember all of the back lash about MPs expenses about 10-15 years ago? People said the same back then.

Meanwhile in May, A few weeks after the parties someone earned a police visit and a £5k fine.

It really is 1 rule for them!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-59982463

@PurpleDaisies it's been so long since I've been to a party I've forgotten what it's like! To be honest, at a work party I wouldn't be hugging people- I see them all the time, why would I hug them?

My work parties have been at schools in the lunch hour, where you all bring a plate of food to share and might possibly have a glass of wine and a cracker. I'm clearly out of touch!

My work parties have been at schools in the lunch hour, where you all bring a plate of food to share and might possibly have a glass of wine and a cracker. I'm clearly out of touch!

They sent someone out with a suitcase to bring booze back.
This wasn’t a school staff room party.

I think the Telegraph just want to have a big scoop of their own. They haven't ever operated a policy of completely ignoring stories which look bad for the Tories like the Express tends to.

And at this point this story isn't about the people vs the Tories so much as it is about the people and Conservative MPs vs Boris Johnson and his team. If they can ditch him in a spectacular act of regicide then it's like Christmas has come early for political correspondents and the dirt won't necessarily stick to the Tories as a whole.

Notoriously there are two sorts of people, those who like Johnson and those who've met him, and Johnson worked for the Telegraph for years, in a very successful but egregiously mendacious role as their Brussels correspondent. So they know him quite well. When he was running for leader Max Hastings was first in line to warn the nation and the party that he was utterly unfit for the job.

Why the outrage?! Boris Johnson was elected despite (because of?) his track record as a racist, lying, untrustworthy sort.
Tories are just eating eachother, always happens at some point.
Do we really think the next leader will be any better?
Who is leaking this and what is their agenda?

Genuine question - these were leaving parties. Were those attending all staffers then?

I'm not too sure of the who's who in this, but if PM in Chequers, and staff in and working, was it an actual party (with non-staff there)?

I'm not too sure of the who's who in this, but if PM in Chequers, and staff in and working, was it an actual party (with non-staff there)?

Of course they weren’t working. The guy who was leaving has said it was a party this morning. It doesn’t have to involve non staffers. They had a suitcase full of booze. There was music. There was drunken behaviour. There were more people than was allowed at the time for social mixing. How is that not a rule breaking party?

@picklemewalnuts

If it's the same people who are there anyway because of work does it matter?

Disclaimer- I haven't been reading the details, just aware of the headlines. I know nothing of the numbers, or the type of parties. But if the same people are in the same place, but with a mince pie and a glass of wine, isn't it the same risk if they are working or partying?

Even assuming they kept the social distancing (which I doubt given the alcohol and dancing), that still wasn’t the law.

And if the law was wrong, if it was too over cautious, and socialising with colleagues you’d be working with all day was actually fine, then the law should have been changed. Not kept as it was while those in Downing Street freely ignored it but others were fined.

Sort - badly out

I know they weren't working at the party.

But had they been in the building and working during that day? And it was a staff leaving do at the end of it.

Or did it involve others who did not work in Downing Street? Did it include just civil servant, or were there spads, MPs or other Tories not then working at no10?

I really am just wondering who was present

Not questioning whether there was a party

Why does that even matter? They were blatantly breaking the rules either way.

The advice we were getting was quite clear. Even if you worked with someone they couldn’t come round your house, you couldn’t socialise with them. People at the time questioned it and were told it was to do with minimising exposure. Which we all accepted.

The suitcase thing is hilarious. I want to see heads roll now.

Weren't students being fined £10k for small house parties and kicked out of Uni at this point?
I assume they got criminal records as well?

I have never agreed with fining young people those sort of sums of money - but surely now they should get a pardon, fine return and criminal record removed? They could argue it was a 'study/work' party too?

😄😄

I think it matters schulte, because if it's the same people in a room discussing diary management, media coverage, news [disclaimer, I clearly have no idea what people in no 10 do] who then put the diaries away and discuss what's on tv last night with a glass of wine, then it's not the same as a 'party' where people who haven't been together all day every day for weeks suddenly arrive in their best togs shouting 'dahling', air kissing total strangers, and getting jiggy in the ladies.

It's the difference between a technical violation that makes sod all difference and an actual high risk event.

Don't get me wrong- I'm a stickler and a joy sponge and guaranteed to see the downside to everything. I despised Cummins et al.

My friend's big extended family all moved in together, so partied all year long.

I think my concern is that people are seeing this as evidence that 'the rules' were wrong and we've been conned and shafted. It's just a bunch of people who are renowned for spin, bending the rules imo. The rest of us who missed so much were still doing the right thing.

So a friend of a friend type conversation with someone (so obviously feel free to think it’s absolute bollocks 😀) who knows dominic cummings told me that just after the whole ‘driving to test my eyes’ debacle cummings was furious at being blamed for a leak which he didn’t actually leak

So angry that he decided to show them exactly how an expert leaks …

I think the drip drip drip of these leaks suggests there is more information to come and that information will get worse and worse

@PassingByAndThoughtIdDropIn

You gotta ask, where was Sunak when all these shenanigans were going on? It's his garden too. I know he has a different set of staff, but I'm genuinely curious what the two teams knew about each others' events.

Sunak has a house in Kensington and rarely stays in the Downing Street flat.

Honestly - it’s another world. I don’t know how they have the stamina for all these parties at their age. Cocaine perhaps.
As for the Covid breaches, just inexcusable and sickening. Embarrassed to be British. Get rid.

I think it does make a difference whether they were breaking the law in a way that increased risk or in a technical way which didn't increase the risk and is only a big deal because they're the head of government.

The first thing my team of four did at the end of our first day back in the office was to go down the pub (legally at that time). That's no measurable additional risk for a team of four who've been shoulder to shoulder all day. But for thirty people who've been working in different rooms during the working day or two different teams coming together it's probably both illegal and additional risk.

However from the point we're at now, 99% of the outrage is probably due to the dual standards.

[quote bestbefore]@LizzieMacQueen it must be Dom, plotting his revenge and leaking all these stories, because why now? Also isn't the press there most of the time at Downing Street? 🧐 and the police??
[/quote]
Not necessarily. This was after he had left.