Oz Katerji tweeted

@OzKaterji
· 49m
Here is how Britain’s head of state marked the funeral of the man she had been married to for 73 years. It might not seem immediately obvious in the reaction to news that the Prime Minister was throwing parties at Number 10 during that period, but I have a feeling this matters.

https://twitter.com/OzKaterji/status...98704197140485

picture in link

What I heard BlowJob say on R4 was along the lines of he hadn't directly ordered this to happen...

I can think of soooooooo many ways ("Will no-one rid me of this troublesome priest?", much of The Sopranos) of making clear what needs to be done without directly stating it.

Twisting, devious bastard.

Tory Gavin Williamson hosted party as millions of Brits faced Christmas Covid ban misery
The Mirror can reveal another top Tory broke Covid party rules at Christmas as then Education Secretary Gavin Willamson hosted a 'reckless' bash during the ban on socialising

London was in Tier 2 – which banned any social mixing between households – on December 10 last year when up to two dozen of Mr Williamson’s staff gathered in the Department for Education cafe for “drinks and canapes”.
The former Cabinet minister delivered a short speech at the evening event before officials and ministers knocked back glasses of wine.

Tonight the DfE did not deny Covid rules had been broken and admitted “it would have been better” not to have held the event while the rest of the country was banned from doing so.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politi...party-25641812

I'm not buying this one.
The idea that anyone would go to a party hosted by Gavin Williamson.
I mean, come on.

Bloody Hell!

I didn’t think the revolution would be led by Ant and Dec!!

Calling Boris out on live primetime TV.

https://twitter.com/imacelebrity/sta...29208749465606

Video in link!

Any reaction from Bojo on the growing Ukraine crisis?

A bit of back-and-forth between lawyerly types on Twitter suggesting it technically may not have been a breach of regulations.

Regardless, the optics are poor.

Not 'technically' a breach if their [current] version of what occurred is true. Given their track record, I don't think I'm unreasonable in being dubious of the...accuracy of their recollection of events.

Yes, exactly! :mad:

As the BBC points out, there are a lot of MPs who feel that they owe their seat to Boris Johnson's popularity and so he's safe as houses. Some of the advisors will have to go but he'll be fine.

Many anti-mask Tories are happy because this means that even if Plan B is activated, any restrictions will be in effect optional.

I read one anti-mask MP describing such measures would be "advisory". A more ironic choice of word I could not imagine.

I think there have alternated between denials that the rules were broken and denials of any party.
Without seeing the technical arguments I don't know if they are right (probably wouldn't know if I did see them!)
But where a load of people are having cheese and wine, playing party games and wearing Xmas jumpers that to me technically sounds like a party.

AIUI, the rules stated that people should work from home unless there was no alternative. People working at 10 Downing Street likely fit into that category.

I suppose the defence is that they were working close to Christmas, that refreshments were supplied for the hard working people, but that any activities that sound like a party (music, games and so on) were spontaneous and took into account social distancing. Utter rubbish I know, but it may just convince enough people to keep Boris Johnson in his job. :rolleyes:

Or also known as Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the PM's office.

(Obviously, no one works the weekend, and Friday you are being driven or flown down to one of your country homes and Monday you need to get over your hangover.)

A video obtained by ITV shows senior No 10 staff joking about holding a Christmas party - days after one was held there during lockdown.
The PM's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton is asked by colleagues about reports of a party, as they rehearse a news conference in December last year.
In jokey exchanges, she says: "This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced."

In the clip, obtained by ITV, Ms Stratton responds in a playful tone to questions from colleagues pretending to be journalists.
Special adviser to the prime minister, Ed Oldfield, asks her about reports of a party in Downing Street "on Friday night".
In reply, Ms Stratton says: "I went home" and then pauses.
After Mr Oldfield follows up to question if the prime minister would "condone" a Christmas party, Ms Stratton asks: "What's the answer?"
When another aide jokes that "it wasn't a party, it was cheese and wine", she laughs and asks "is cheese and wine all right?", adding: "This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced."

In response to the clip, No 10 said: "There was no Christmas party. Covid rules have been followed at all times."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59572149

This made me laugh....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/5957...ost_type=share

Hahahahahahahaha !!!!

Has he not heard Boris Johnson at all in the last few years ? The man lies as easily as he breathes and has repeatedly and demonstrably mislead the House in the past.

Is the defence going to be that Ms Stratton's comments should be ignored because she was only joking prior to an interview ?

The police must a record of the comings and goings that evening and the officers on duty doubtless have opinions about the state of the alleged party-goers as they left the building.

IMO Boris Johnson will manage to wriggle off the hook yet again. Ms Stratton will apologise (and perhaps have to resign) because of that ill-judged "joke" but otherwise the claim will be that there was no party, only hard-working people who had to be in 10 Downing Street who may, or may not, have had some refreshments. :mad:

But they don't investigate crimes that happened in the past.

It also looks like the government is adopting a "Brave Sir Robin" approach until they manage to concoct a narrative which is consistent with the known facts and which keeps them in the clear.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/5957...ost_type=share

One would hope that they needed to spend more time with their family....

Or mistress, gigolo or someone else's family, as the case may be.

Maybe the next stage will be to insist that this "Christmas Party Witch-hunt" is illegal because it compromises the alleged attendees' privacy and civil rights under the ECHR..... :rolleyes:

Seems like the next stab at defending the indefensible from the government is to claim that there was no party, but if there was a party it adhered to Covid rules and even if it didn't, Boris Johnson knew nothing about it at the time and has been subsequently been mislead by those horrible, horrible, people who broke the rules that weren't broken at the party that never happened. :boggled:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59580640

He says he has asked the cabinet secretary to look in to it.

That’s ok then.

"...Mr Johnson said he shared people's anger, adding: "I was also furious to see that clip.""

For once he seems to be telling the truth, obviously his reason for being furious will be quite different from the people's anger who he thinks he is sharing.

Starmer then tells the Commons about the story of Trisha Greenhalgh, whose mum called her on the day that the party happened "breathless and feverish".

The Labour leader says she followed the rules and didn't visit, but as No 10 staff were joking, her mum was admitted to hospital.

"What Trisha wants to know is this why did the prime minister expect her to accept rules that allowed a Downing Street party but didn't allow her to visit her dying mother?"

Johnson says he extends his sympathies to the family and "everybody who has suffered throughout this pandemic".

But he says it was a "great mistake to try to play politics with this issue".

He said the government is "focusing on rolling out the vaccines not the events of a year ago".

As long as the investigation lasts long enough for the public to be distracted by Christmas and/or for some positive headlines to be generated by taking a pop at the French or enacting Article 16 then "Mission Accomplished" :rolleyes:

Did you hear Rees-Mogg in the leaked video?

What a ****

Yup....11th commandment and all that. ;)

On Radio 4's PM last night brought up how although announced in August there was still no system to bring in people who worked with the military in Afghanistan. Apparently, it is a tricky thing to do, I wanted the interviewee to have a moment of honesty and simply say "What don't you understand - we only announced it because it was polling badly that we stranded people, we never meant to do anything".

Look, it's reckless to bring up something like this up now while there are people in Afghanistan that the government wants to help.

OTOH, in a few months it will be pointless because it's far too late.

The sad fact is that the vast majority of the British public couldn't give a stuff about the tens of thousands of Afghans who helped us while we were there and who will now be murdered by the Taliban.

Boris Johnson's government has lurched from crisis to crisis and yet they seem to be avoiding any negative consequences.

Remember the furore over Owen Paterson ? The British Public don't, having been distracted by several clowders worth of dead cats.

More non-apologies from BlowJob: sorry for any offence caused in not being sorry for his staff and colleagues pissing all over the rules everyone else was trying to play by; being furious about the leaked video seems to mean he was furious it leaked, not that any of it happened.

Standard lying twisting nonsense from the twisting liar.

And no doubt Tory Girl of Berwick, who's conveniently in the US, will tell me that local folk are only interested in local matters, not this Westminster Village nonsense.

Not sure having a man that doesn't know if there is a party going on in his own house in charge of a country is a great idea but what do I know

Paul Brand ITV UK News Editor tweeted

@PaulBrandITV
Am told the mood in No 10 this morning is “horrific”.
“Incredibly unsettled and uncomfortable”.
It is going to be another difficult day for staff.




It must be difficult sharing the place with a walking corpse

Number Ten is confirming that cabinet secretary Simon Case did not attend the party on the 18th

Thereby implicitly confirming there was a party on the 18th, if you think about it

That's a loooong hangover.

I honestly think that this will blow over - just like everything else. Just think of all the things that Boris Johnson has simply breezed through which would have finished off anyone else in the past:

• Disclosures that he was awarding contracts to someone he was sleeping with when he was Mayor of London
• Proroguing parliament
• Having a Brexit deal, not having it and then breaking it - at least twice
• Having tens of thousands of avoidable Covid deaths
• Blowing £38bn on test and trace
• Awarding £billions in contracts to mates
• Risking the Northern Ireland agreement
• Fuel shortages
• Food shortages
• Yet more sleaze
• Trying to change the law to allow sleaze - and then having to u-turn
• Abandoning our Afghan allies

I'm sure there are dozens more and all of that on top of being an embarrassing buffoon on both the national and international stage.

First bump on this particular party bus ride as it goes over Allegra Stratton.

....and wait to see whether this insulates Boris Johnson from it.

Of course there's still the Gavin Williamson party

But if there was no party, why did she have to resign ? :confused:

She resigned as she felt her comments made light of the restrictions others were subjected to. She didn't mention the party

NM

Rory Bremner on twitter. If there was a piss-up at No 10 last Christmas it’s very unlikely Boris organised it. Because, well, you know.

Ah so.......

Yep.
There is of course an investigation into whether the party that BJ and minister assured us never took place, actually did take place.
I predict such an enquiry will mean ministers are no longer in a position to comment while that enquiry is on going. The investigation will be on going until the outcome can be burried under more bad news.

Calling Sir Humphrey! There is some long grass over there we need an issue kicking into and you are just the man to do it!

So she resigned. What about Rees-Mogg? He was on the video behaving in exactly the same way.

Notice that The Sun hasn't had a single front page story on the party fiasco or the **** up over Afghanistan. Today they are leading with a story about last weeks storm.

He’s fine because:

1) Male
2) Went to Eton

Good but short article about their privilege: https://chbenj23.wordpress.com/2019/...hellfire-club/

Doesn't know much, does he?

Considering he didn't know who'd coughed up for the gold wallpaper and the like at Downing Street and he didn't seem to know who had covered holiday expenses a couple of times, not to mention that he doesn't seem to know how many bairns he has, nor what chickens actually eat...Nor what mask-wearing rules apply in hospitals...

It's nearly as long a list what BlowJob doesn't know as what Raaaaaaaaaab doesn't know.

I'm still trying to get my head around why someone would resign for laughing at not attending a fictional party.

For a peerage?