Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
The civil servant in question, Martin Reynolds, was hand-picked by Boris, with whom he worked when the latter was Foreign Secretary. All the senior CS at No. 10 are hand-picked. The problem is the politicisation of the CS by the current government (starting with Cummings), not the CS itself.
That isn't a recent phenomenon. It was certainly politicised under Blair. A case could even be made that it began with Thatcher's post-Falklands attempt to set up what amounted to a parallel foreign office under Parsons.
A bigger problem seems to be that so many of them are just self evidently dumb and ignorant and yet unshakeably convinced of their own brilliance (rather like Cummings himself).
I don't agree with much of that. Under Blair, we knew who was a Civil Servant and who was a SPAD - mainly because the CS quietly got on while the SPADs hit the airwaves. He didn't clear out all the long-standing Senior CS, nor did they all run for the hills. Under this government, the distinction between SPADs and Senior CS has become (deliberately) blurred - do you know who's a SPAD and who's a CS?. Many of the best Senior CS were cleared out by Boris, Patel and others, or left because they no longer felt they could fulfil their neutral duty of advising ministers without fear or favour.
As I recall - and I'm working from memory so I may be wrong - Campbell and Whelan were both appointed civil servants and SPADs were given powers to manage departments.
This article would seem to partially at least bear that out:
No, Campbell and Whelan were never Civil Servants, always SPADs. But Blair did give them too much power, including the power to order civil servants around. An error, I agree. But they never concealed that they were political appointees doing a political job.
By an Order in Council no less, described by the Cabinet Secretary as a "minor and technical development". The G did not publish it until 1999, but it was done after the 1997 election.
Did anyone know?
The decision to give two of Tony Blair's closest political aides executive power over Whitehall officials was described by the cabinet secretary yesterday as a "minor and technical development" that would not politicise the civil service.
Giving Mr Blair's press secretary, Alastair Campbell, and his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, powers to issue orders to civil servants was a reflection of the "unusual circumstances" of 10 Downing Street, Sir Richard Wilson, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, told the Neill committee on standards in public life. "The streams of politics and government come together in that building," he said.
As special advisers, Mr Campbell and Mr Powell would normally have no control over permanent civil servants, but an unprecedented privy council order was made just after the 1997 election to give them executive powers. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/jul/16/labour.labour1997to991
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 38% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 18% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
Who gives a primate's eructation about what the Americans and the Canadians do? You might as well inquire what the Fon of Bafut, and the Chinese Communist Party, do.
We are here in the UK, whether we like it or not.
And you still won't tell me if you think that the UK giving India independence was a good or bad thing. That's a lot closer to home that some Canadian person.
Where the same principle applies, see the Tories collapse post 1993 after imposing VAT on fuel. Or after May's dementia tax. Conservatives do not like tax rises.
I told you quite clearly Conservatives opposed Indian independence before 1948 but have accepted it since Attlee gave it. I was not born until 40 years after Indian independence view on it beyond factual comment on it is irrelevant
In other words, you would refuse to say that you approved of the abolition of slavery because etc etc.
There were no slaves in British India and Tory PM Wilberforce worked with Pitt to abolish it
Anjd, as with the former Duke of York being descended from all the others without mass adultery, illegitimacy and incest, your ijnterpretation of history is so awful that you are completey trashing your post.
" Tory PM Wilberforce".
Even '1066 and all that' would be more accurate.
I am trying to watch a TV programme while replying to your usual Nat rants, obviously I meant the other way round
You are a Natdionalist. I am pro-independence.
And we are not mindreaders. You tell us that black is white, we are quite entitled to draw the immediate conclusion.
No you are a Scottish Nationalist and always will be, hence you support the Scottish National Party
Well, thta makes two of us - at least on what is rather misleadingly known as the Celtic Fringe.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
Nonsense. @NickP is a party loyalist, but everyone knows and expects that.
His work for CWF seems genuinely heartfelt to me, as does Carrie's love for animals. They bring out both the best and the worst of us a species.
Quite what we do with animals is a real ethical dilemma. Indeed I am part way through this very thoughtful book on the subject:
"While employed by Downing Street, I was sent to the Co-op on the Strand to fill a suitcase with bottles of wine for a lockdown-busting party held at Number 10 in honour of the future deputy editor of the Sun." https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/1481745743757119488/photo/1
FFS. Say what you like about Blair, Thatcher, Brown, Major or any other PM of my lifetime. This would not have happened. Whether they were there are not. And if it had, the people responsible wouldn't be around the next day. Which is why it wouldn't.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases tax again or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
watch this space
BETTING POST Lab maj at 5/1 looks screaming value to me
Nah. Too many seats to gain for a majority. Largest party perhaps, but a minority government.
Mmm. I have been a big believer in a much reduced Tory majority next time. However. It looks like the PM is staying. His reputation is toast. He is openly mocked by all and sundry. They're laughing at him not with him. It the Stalin to Mr Bean of Brown all over again. The polls are all one way traffic. The decline was slow since June. Rapid after November hasn't shown any sign of slowing down. He can't Brexit again. COVID is on its way out. Tax rises and inflation in. Moreover. He is beholden to factions who are seriously out of touch with majority opinion on a range of issues. And obsessed with others of trivial importance to most. Most importantly though. The population is fed up. We are all weary, restless and traumatised. We crave some quiet time to do familiar stuff while a competent government hums along in the background doing not much. This isn't Boris at all to say the least. There is no obvious successor. Any change would be a brutal bunfight. The downside potential for it getting very ugly indeed is high. Labour majority at 5-1 may be good value.
If my staff behaved this badly it would look bad on me and I'd be looking for a new job.
What does it say about Boris Johnson that he employs people like this and never sacks them?
Yes. I know directors who have been sacked for fostering a ludicrous party team atmosphere where everyone dicks about bringing the company into disrepute.
So is Priti positioning herself as the "Continuity Bozo" candidate?
I can't see that being a winning strategy.
Isn't that Truss's pitch? All the feelgood of BoJo, without his personal foibles? (National populism is the right idea, it's just that Boris has let himself down...)
Whereas Sunak is "Boris has done what was needed, the future is conventional(ish) Conservatism", and Hunt is "2019 was a mistake, even if 2016 wasn't, best to fess up".
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
This is shocking and heads need to roll - what on earth was their mindset
Apparently Boris had left to go to Chequers but just adds to the narrative
Boris gone by the end of the month looks very possible
Nah, a Tory leadership contest will take two to three months, which takes us to the locals and the new leader will not want their first major event to be a shellacking in the locals.
Boris Johnson is here to stay, in the near term at least.
I just do not see Boris surviving this and the end could be very swift
"While employed by Downing Street, I was sent to the Co-op on the Strand to fill a suitcase with bottles of wine for a lockdown-busting party held at Number 10 in honour of the future deputy editor of the Sun." https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/1481745743757119488/photo/1
The silence of the Sun on the matter is explained.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
"While employed by Downing Street, I was sent to the Co-op on the Strand to fill a suitcase with bottles of wine for a lockdown-busting party held at Number 10 in honour of the future deputy editor of the Sun." https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/1481745743757119488/photo/1
The silence of the Sun on the matter is explained.
This is shocking and heads need to roll - what on earth was their mindset
Apparently Boris had left to go to Chequers but just adds to the narrative
Boris gone by the end of the month looks very possible
So Boris was at Chequers and not even at No 10 the whole evening!
It was his house man!
His swing ffs!
The Queen or Boris. Let's see where your loyalties lie.
Tell that to TSE who dares use the Queen to make a political point while pushing to abolish her!!
Wrong, I don't want to abolish the Queen, I've said the UK should become a republic upon her death, which I hope is many many years away.
It's not likely to be far off.
Personally, I would make us a Republic, but with Charles as President, and rather than automatic succession an appointment by Parliament from time to time.
Clever move by Cummo to fire the next bullet straight away. Waiting for Gray risked too many spineless MPs retreating to the comfort zone.
Yes, I was going to post earlier that it didn't sound like him to wait for Gray's report in couple of weeks, so I thought he might deliver something next week, in case the polls inched even slightly.
That's got to be it. Can't disrespect the Queen in that way and still stay on as PM.
He is hardly going to have personally attended a party where one of the attendees broke his son's swing
Doesn't matter, he's the PM and could have banned all staff parties. He chose to turn a blind eye while the Queen was unable to give her husband a proper send off and not see her family and friends beyond the tiny allowable number.
You're supposed to the monarchist here, even I can see this is terrible news.
Looks like HYUFD's blind loyalty to Boris trumps his blind loyalty to HMQ
If my staff behaved this badly it would look bad on me and I'd be looking for a new job.
What does it say about Boris Johnson that he employs people like this and never sacks them?
Yes. I know directors who have been sacked for fostering a ludicrous party team atmosphere where everyone dicks about bringing the company into disrepute.
An inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street, which could determine the fate of Boris Johnson, is expected to lay bare a “farcical” culture of drinking and impromptu socialising, with little oversight from senior officials, the Guardian understands.
Whitehall sources said the investigation, overseen by the senior civil servant Sue Gray, was also likely to unearth other drinks events across government buildings as special advisers and officials were encouraged to “come clean” about breaches of lockdown rules.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
I understand that the chairman and officers of Sutton Coldfield Conservative association tonight unanimously (10-0) passed a motion calling for Boris Johnson to stand down. This is a large association in a safe Tory seat - and they backed Boris in the leadership contest https://twitter.com/jonwalker121/status/1481747636126650368
That's got to be it. Can't disrespect the Queen in that way and still stay on as PM.
He is hardly going to have personally attended a party where one of the attendees broke his son's swing
Doesn't matter, he's the PM and could have banned all staff parties. He chose to turn a blind eye while the Queen was unable to give her husband a proper send off and not see her family and friends beyond the tiny allowable number.
You're supposed to the monarchist here, even I can see this is terrible news.
Looks like HYUFD's blind loyalty to Boris trumps his blind loyalty to HMQ
This is going to be the most damaging, the Queen is still the most respected person in the country, up and down the country older, conservative voters venerate the Queen. The PM allowing this parties to go ahead while his rules banned the Queen from having a proper send off for the Duke is going to completely destroy what remains of his support.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
A regrettable comment. And I should know
Yes, and a bit unessecarily personal, as were previous comments about @Charles.
While many of us are not truly anonymous, a veil of pseudo-anonymity is a welcome separation from real life.
That's got to be it. Can't disrespect the Queen in that way and still stay on as PM.
You can. And with so much personal power at stake, any PM would stay on. But it's an open goal the width of the pitch to allow any opponent to be able to legimately leverege the Queen into an attack.
This is going to be the most damaging, the Queen is still the most respected person in the country, up and down the country older, conservative voters venerate the Queen. The PM allowing this parties to go ahead while his rules banned the Queen from having a proper send off for the Duke is going to completely destroy what remains of his support.
This is shocking and heads need to roll - what on earth was their mindset
Apparently Boris had left to go to Chequers but just adds to the narrative
Boris gone by the end of the month looks very possible
So Boris was at Chequers and not even at No 10 the whole evening!
It was his house man!
His swing ffs!
The Queen or Boris. Let's see where your loyalties lie.
Tell that to TSE who dares use the Queen to make a political point while pushing to abolish her!!
Wrong, I don't want to abolish the Queen, I've said the UK should become a republic upon her death, which I hope is many many years away.
It's not likely to be far off.
Personally, I would make us a Republic, but with Charles as President, and rather than automatic succession an appointment by Parliament from time to time.
If we carry on with this clown I'm all for an Absolute Monarchy.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
A regrettable comment. And I should know
Possibly. I am fairly full of St Chinian. But could you specify the bits which are wrong? Can't see it myself. The doggies/darkies thing was unambiguously clear at the time (as Ben Wallace told us at the time). The rest is true, but small change by comparison.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Siege of Jerusalem AD70, for a start?
Plenty of others, I think.
Mytilene and Melos were fellow Greeks and nominal allies. The decrees in both cases were for execution of adult males. Sure, Rome crushed rebellions of the theoretically subjugated, but there's a difference. And if it's not much of a difference, why the differential status granted to the Athenians?
I would say Athens tends to get a free pass because of the sheer volume of intellectual output. That's not to say it wasn't capable of brutality, ofcourse.
Yebbutnobutyeah
Plato was undoubtedly (I think) the crown of the output, but it seems perverse to credit him to the political system when he was rabidly antidemocratic anyway, and look what happened to Socrates.
Some of the literature was pretty good*, but if you are going to treat it as a credit to the politics you have to do the same for Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn... And if you say the Parthenon, same for St Peters, the Duomo, Taj Mahal, English cathedrals....
And the Mitylene and Melos decisions were at least as psychotically cruel as any Persian tyrant could have managed. A real advertisement against democracy.
And the universities built themselves on the theory that knowing Greek was the pinnacle of academic aspiration, and Athens was the standard by which everything should be judged (that is literally why "the classics" are called that), and what we end up with, is Boris.
* I have read all the surviving plays, in the original, so you don't have to. Trust me, a lot of it is fcking hard going.
But it was also the sheer range and versatility of output. At the top Plato was a political-metaphysical thinker, for instance, as well as in a way a literary one, so there was no need for reflected glory from one part of society to the other. Again and again it's this multidimensionality which sets Athens apart, I would say, and sets many of our modern parameters. Its military and rituals could still be as brutal as any other, ofcourse.
I'd also hesitate to use Boris, and empty prestige and affectation among the wealthy, as the inevitable historical result of Athens. The Enlightenment wasn't just an affectation of the wealthy.
Yes, but Plato was despite the political set up, not because of it. And Pericles Senior "the many not the few" has to be read in the light of the mob's (the many's) casual judicial murder of his son over Arginusae.
But this versatility was also built into the political structure. You were just required and expected to be many things simultaneously as a citizen, so it was natural that many of its intellectual innovators would also innovate in multiple areas simultaneously. I don't think there's any way round this intellectual plurality and versatility as something pretty exceptional.
I agree that doesn't mean we should skate over Athenian violence and brutality where it took place, though, or imagine them as some sort of perfect civilisation like whitewashed marble.
Very innovative to vote elderly philosophers to death because you've had enough of experts.
Had it coming, he did.
The links between Socrates, his pupils and the Thirty were the cause of Socrates' death sentence.
This is shocking and heads need to roll - what on earth was their mindset
Apparently Boris had left to go to Chequers but just adds to the narrative
Boris gone by the end of the month looks very possible
Nah, a Tory leadership contest will take two to three months, which takes us to the locals and the new leader will not want their first major event to be a shellacking in the locals.
Boris Johnson is here to stay, in the near term at least.
If BJ is still around suggestion for the locals strategy, with spring kicking off and Covid (hopefully) at bay.
We are the party party, the government of good times, Byob Boris and Carrie Oot are leading the way. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Stick a blond wig on this and the resemblance is there.
That's got to be it. Can't disrespect the Queen in that way and still stay on as PM.
He is hardly going to have personally attended a party where one of the attendees broke his son's swing
Doesn't matter, he's the PM and could have banned all staff parties. He chose to turn a blind eye while the Queen was unable to give her husband a proper send off and not see her family and friends beyond the tiny allowable number.
You're supposed to the monarchist here, even I can see this is terrible news.
Looks like HYUFD's blind loyalty to Boris trumps his blind loyalty to HMQ
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 38% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 18% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
Who gives a primate's eructation about what the Americans and the Canadians do? You might as well inquire what the Fon of Bafut, and the Chinese Communist Party, do.
We are here in the UK, whether we like it or not.
And you still won't tell me if you think that the UK giving India independence was a good or bad thing. That's a lot closer to home that some Canadian person.
Where the same principle applies, see the Tories collapse post 1993 after imposing VAT on fuel. Or after May's dementia tax. Conservatives do not like tax rises.
I told you quite clearly Conservatives opposed Indian independence before 1948 but have accepted it since Attlee gave it. I was not born until 40 years after Indian independence view on it beyond factual comment on it is irrelevant
In other words, you would refuse to say that you approved of the abolition of slavery because etc etc.
There were no slaves in British India and Tory PM Wilberforce worked with Pitt to abolish it
Not relevant to my point. YOu still won't say if you think it was good or bad to let India be independent. Always, always, blaming someone else.
It was not Conservative policy at the time. I am not going to say I supported it as I am not going to allow you to say I must therefore also support Scottish independence. The Conservative Party opposed Indian independence until Attlee had granted it, once given post Indian independence they accepted it as do I.
Note too Scotland is not a colony unlike Scotland otherwise we would have no Scottish MPs at Westminster
Oh, so it's not a colony? Today, we've had Mr Rees Mogg telling us that the Scottish elected politicians don;t count at all and that only the Colonial Exarch appointed by Mr Johnson counts. Today. Specifically for all Scots, including Tories.
If Scotland was a colony we would shut Holyrood, expel Scottish MPs from Westminster and make Rees Mogg Governor General.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 38% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 18% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
Who gives a primate's eructation about what the Americans and the Canadians do? You might as well inquire what the Fon of Bafut, and the Chinese Communist Party, do.
We are here in the UK, whether we like it or not.
And you still won't tell me if you think that the UK giving India independence was a good or bad thing. That's a lot closer to home that some Canadian person.
Where the same principle applies, see the Tories collapse post 1993 after imposing VAT on fuel. Or after May's dementia tax. Conservatives do not like tax rises.
I told you quite clearly Conservatives opposed Indian independence before 1948 but have accepted it since Attlee gave it. I was not born until 40 years after Indian independence view on it beyond factual comment on it is irrelevant
In other words, you would refuse to say that you approved of the abolition of slavery because etc etc.
There were no slaves in British India and Tory PM Wilberforce worked with Pitt to abolish it
Not relevant to my point. YOu still won't say if you think it was good or bad to let India be independent. Always, always, blaming someone else.
It was not Conservative policy at the time. I am not going to say I supported it as I am not going to allow you to say I must therefore also support Scottish independence. The Conservative Party opposed Indian independence until Attlee had granted it, once given post Indian independence they accepted it as do I.
Note too Scotland is not a colony unlike Scotland otherwise we would have no Scottish MPs at Westminster
Oh, so it's not a colony? Today, we've had Mr Rees Mogg telling us that the Scottish elected politicians don;t count at all and that only the Colonial Exarch appointed by Mr Johnson counts. Today. Specifically for all Scots, including Tories.
If Scotland was a colony we would shut Holyrood, expel Scottish MPs from Westminster and make Rees Mogg Governor General.
It's a peculiar colony which actually has more sovereignty than the "imperial nation"
Scots have Holyrood which has multiple reserved powers, and the English (rightly, as we agreed to this) have no say at all in what happens
Yet in Westminster the Scots still have MPs with complete powers, able to vote on English laws even if these laws do not apply to Scotland, cf foxhunting
The "colonial" idea is fucking nonsense, and the Nats know this, and they should be ashamed of this drivel
I understand that the chairman and officers of Sutton Coldfield Conservative association tonight unanimously (10-0) passed a motion calling for Boris Johnson to stand down. This is a large association in a safe Tory seat - and they backed Boris in the leadership contest https://twitter.com/jonwalker121/status/1481747636126650368
But they caught me in the garden (he wasn't there) Saw me drinkin' on the patio (he wasn't there) I even had one in the shower (he wasn't there) Rish even caught me on camera (he wasn't there) She saw the marks on the table (he wasn't there) Heard party in the basement (he wasn't there) Heard the music get louder (he wasn't there) We stayed until it was all Covid
This is shocking and heads need to roll - what on earth was their mindset
Apparently Boris had left to go to Chequers but just adds to the narrative
Boris gone by the end of the month looks very possible
So Boris was at Chequers and not even at No 10 the whole evening!
It was his house man!
His swing ffs!
The Queen or Boris. Let's see where your loyalties lie.
Tell that to TSE who dares use the Queen to make a political point while pushing to abolish her!!
Wrong, I don't want to abolish the Queen, I've said the UK should become a republic upon her death, which I hope is many many years away.
It's not likely to be far off.
Personally, I would make us a Republic, but with Charles as President, and rather than automatic succession an appointment by Parliament from time to time.
No it will be very far off, the Royal family will last long beyond the Queen and Charles, through William to George
This is shocking and heads need to roll - what on earth was their mindset
Apparently Boris had left to go to Chequers but just adds to the narrative
Boris gone by the end of the month looks very possible
So Boris was at Chequers and not even at No 10 the whole evening!
It was his house man!
His swing ffs!
The Queen or Boris. Let's see where your loyalties lie.
Tell that to TSE who dares use the Queen to make a political point while pushing to abolish her!!
Wrong, I don't want to abolish the Queen, I've said the UK should become a republic upon her death, which I hope is many many years away.
It's not likely to be far off.
Personally, I would make us a Republic, but with Charles as President, and rather than automatic succession an appointment by Parliament from time to time.
If you're going to do that keep it a monarchy and just make him have to renew his accession vows or something every five years.
BREAKING: The Metropolitan Police will NOT investigate any of the Downing Street parties unless and until the Sue Gray inquiry finds evidence of criminality.
ie the Met are relying on an internal inquiry to decide for them whether a crime was committed.
The scope of the Grey inquiry specifically excludes criminality and focuses on the guidelines at the time. As I have stated ad nauseam, guidelines are not the same as the law. Sue Grey is no lawyer and in no position to determine whether or not there was evidence of a breach of the law. It is the police's job to determine whether there is evidence of criminality and, if so, to collect that evidence and pass it to the CPS.
This is the police avoiding doing their job. Again.
Too much hope is being placed on this Grey report.
But they caught me in the garden (he wasn't there) Saw me drinkin' on the patio (he wasn't there) I even had one in the shower (he wasn't there) Rish even caught me on camera (he wasn't there) She saw the marks on the table (he wasn't there) Heard party in the basement (he wasn't there) Heard the music get louder (he wasn't there) We stayed until it was all Covid
If my staff behaved this badly it would look bad on me and I'd be looking for a new job.
What does it say about Boris Johnson that he employs people like this and never sacks them?
Yes. I know directors who have been sacked for fostering a ludicrous party team atmosphere where everyone dicks about bringing the company into disrepute.
An inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street, which could determine the fate of Boris Johnson, is expected to lay bare a “farcical” culture of drinking and impromptu socialising, with little oversight from senior officials, the Guardian understands.
Whitehall sources said the investigation, overseen by the senior civil servant Sue Gray, was also likely to unearth other drinks events across government buildings as special advisers and officials were encouraged to “come clean” about breaches of lockdown rules.
This culture comes from the top. There has often been comment about how old he looks. How he sometimes sounds confused. His habitual lateness. His failure to put in the hours. His red face and haggardness. We've generally put it down to long COVID perhaps? We should now ask this question.
That's got to be it. Can't disrespect the Queen in that way and still stay on as PM.
He is hardly going to have personally attended a party where one of the attendees broke his son's swing
Doesn't matter, he's the PM and could have banned all staff parties. He chose to turn a blind eye while the Queen was unable to give her husband a proper send off and not see her family and friends beyond the tiny allowable number.
You're supposed to the monarchist here, even I can see this is terrible news.
Looks like HYUFD's blind loyalty to Boris trumps his blind loyalty to HMQ
Nope, I am loyal to our PM and our Queen
Remember, he's not "our" PM. The government looks after its voters, not those who didn't vote for them. Your logic, not mine. Don't hand him onto all of us now that he's soiled himself. He's all yours.
If my staff behaved this badly it would look bad on me and I'd be looking for a new job.
What does it say about Boris Johnson that he employs people like this and never sacks them?
Yes. I know directors who have been sacked for fostering a ludicrous party team atmosphere where everyone dicks about bringing the company into disrepute.
An inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street, which could determine the fate of Boris Johnson, is expected to lay bare a “farcical” culture of drinking and impromptu socialising, with little oversight from senior officials, the Guardian understands.
Whitehall sources said the investigation, overseen by the senior civil servant Sue Gray, was also likely to unearth other drinks events across government buildings as special advisers and officials were encouraged to “come clean” about breaches of lockdown rules.
This culture comes from the top. There has often been comment about how old he looks. How he sometimes sounds confused. His habitual lateness. His failure to put in the hours. His red face and haggardness. We've generally put it down to long COVID perhaps? We should now ask this question.
How much does the PM personally drink?
More than usual in the last week after seeing the newspaper headlines.
But they caught me in the garden (he wasn't there) Saw me drinkin' on the patio (he wasn't there) I even had one in the shower (he wasn't there) Rish even caught me on camera (he wasn't there) She saw the marks on the table (he wasn't there) Heard party in the basement (he wasn't there) Heard the music get louder (he wasn't there) We stayed until it was all Covid
It will not work
This is terminal
Yes, you're right. The post was an attempt at reworking the song "It wasn't me" by Shaggy. (Spoiler -- it was him).
If my staff behaved this badly it would look bad on me and I'd be looking for a new job.
What does it say about Boris Johnson that he employs people like this and never sacks them?
Yes. I know directors who have been sacked for fostering a ludicrous party team atmosphere where everyone dicks about bringing the company into disrepute.
An inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street, which could determine the fate of Boris Johnson, is expected to lay bare a “farcical” culture of drinking and impromptu socialising, with little oversight from senior officials, the Guardian understands.
Whitehall sources said the investigation, overseen by the senior civil servant Sue Gray, was also likely to unearth other drinks events across government buildings as special advisers and officials were encouraged to “come clean” about breaches of lockdown rules.
This culture comes from the top. There has often been comment about how old he looks. How he sometimes sounds confused. His habitual lateness. His failure to put in the hours. His red face and haggardness. We've generally put it down to long COVID perhaps? We should now ask this question.
How much does the PM personally drink?
Given Carrie's hissy fit, not as much red wine as he used to.....
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
Ridiculous and unfair. Are you sober?
What?
Where on earth is your evidence that dogs were not prioritised over (poor, brown) humans in the Kabul evacuation? After the evidence given to the FASC? I mean, this is in the same class as holocaust denial.
And while I am at it, try developing the theme that NP did not lie his head off with the tick tock bollocks over GE 2015, bearing in mind that he admitted to it himself? Or that he did not use this site as a convenient conduit for penetrating the antisemite Corbyn's arse? You have the floor.
This is obviously a culture. We now have reports of parties from May 2020 to April 2021, pretty regularly. What a breakdown of responsibility, accountability and leadership.
Comments
Shame they were away. Would've put money on it was Johnson who broke the swing. Or that he didn't attend the funeral cos he was going to be hungover.
Did anyone know?
The decision to give two of Tony Blair's closest political aides executive power over Whitehall officials was described by the cabinet secretary yesterday as a "minor and technical development" that would not politicise the civil service.
Giving Mr Blair's press secretary, Alastair Campbell, and his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, powers to issue orders to civil servants was a reflection of the "unusual circumstances" of 10 Downing Street, Sir Richard Wilson, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, told the Neill committee on standards in public life. "The streams of politics and government come together in that building," he said.
As special advisers, Mr Campbell and Mr Powell would normally have no control over permanent civil servants, but an unprecedented privy council order was made just after the 1997 election to give them executive powers.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/jul/16/labour.labour1997to991
Extended in 2005 to a lot more people by the same mechanism.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/jul/20/uk.Whitehall
Okay. Sorry. Okay okay sorry. I’ll play along. When did ‘mummy and daddy’ first learn of these parties when they were away?
Say what you like about Blair, Thatcher, Brown, Major or any other PM of my lifetime.
This would not have happened.
Whether they were there are not.
And if it had, the people responsible wouldn't be around the next day. Which is why it wouldn't.
Truss to say HMQ should wait for Sue Gray’s opinion? Mogg to call Queen a lightweight? Raab going to tell us the PM didnt know about a party in his own basement?
https://twitter.com/fleetstreetfox/status/1481745597334003721
Whereas Sunak is "Boris has done what was needed, the future is conventional(ish) Conservatism", and Hunt is "2019 was a mistake, even if 2016 wasn't, best to fess up".
[smart_man_tapping_side_of_head.jpg]
One party might have been a screwup - and Mr J could have said: OK, no more.
But if he let it happen again and again ...
To this day I honestly thought it was a work meeting. Now the groaning makes sense.
25 minutes and I was done.
Personally, I would make us a Republic, but with Charles as President, and rather than automatic succession an appointment by Parliament from time to time.
Whitehall sources said the investigation, overseen by the senior civil servant Sue Gray, was also likely to unearth other drinks events across government buildings as special advisers and officials were encouraged to “come clean” about breaches of lockdown rules.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/13/no-10-party-inquiry-will-reveal-farcical-culture-say-whitehall-sources
https://twitter.com/jonwalker121/status/1481747636126650368
Can’t think of a PM spoken of with such personal vitriol in my lifetime.
Blair was pilloried for Iraq, but Johnson attracts a very personal moral opprobrium.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/49f49b36-74ab-11ec-aacf-0736e08b15cd?shareToken=a808e0f571471a9693597ece5c4fe7e5 https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1481747636059316232/photo/1
While many of us are not truly anonymous, a veil of pseudo-anonymity is a welcome separation from real life.
Are a sufficient number of Conservative MPs prepared to blackball Boris?
If they are, he goes; if there aren't (and so far, there haven't been), he stays.
Nothing to do with Johnson, I’m sure
But anyway the one-off theory is no good, evidently.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1481745626945761290?s=20
Distraction... levelling up... our great country... better that I leave...
Not as impossible to imagine any more.
We are the party party, the government of good times, Byob Boris and Carrie Oot are leading the way. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Stick a blond wig on this and the resemblance is there.
Expectations are very high but she is unlikely to apportion direct blame, focusing instead on a “drinking culture”
https://www.ft.com/content/8bcc61ce-208d-4e77-9824-69193c40a80d
Tonight's revelations suggest any such report is not going to be helpful to BoZo at this point...
Scots have Holyrood which has multiple reserved powers, and the English (rightly, as we agreed to this) have no say at all in what happens
Yet in Westminster the Scots still have MPs with complete powers, able to vote on English laws even if these laws do not apply to Scotland, cf foxhunting
The "colonial" idea is fucking nonsense, and the Nats know this, and they should be ashamed of this drivel
Lightweight
Nothing to Save
Saw me drinkin' on the patio (he wasn't there)
I even had one in the shower (he wasn't there)
Rish even caught me on camera (he wasn't there)
She saw the marks on the table (he wasn't there)
Heard party in the basement (he wasn't there)
Heard the music get louder (he wasn't there)
We stayed until it was all Covid
Nobody in their right mind would go into politics today.
Just think what she will do to Peppa.
I say go full Shogun on this.
The scope of the Grey inquiry specifically excludes criminality and focuses on the guidelines at the time. As I have stated ad nauseam, guidelines are not the same as the law. Sue Grey is no lawyer and in no position to determine whether or not there was evidence of a breach of the law. It is the police's job to determine whether there is evidence of criminality and, if so, to collect that evidence and pass it to the CPS.
This is the police avoiding doing their job. Again.
Too much hope is being placed on this Grey report.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59243206
11th November 2021. You still in short trousers?
This is terminal
There has often been comment about how old he looks. How he sometimes sounds confused. His habitual lateness. His failure to put in the hours. His red face and haggardness.
We've generally put it down to long COVID perhaps? We should now ask this question.
How much does the PM personally drink?
Your logic, not mine.
Don't hand him onto all of us now that he's soiled himself. He's all yours.
"Andrew Brettler, Amanda Thirsk, Gary Bloxsome, Clare Montgomery QC, Mark Gallagher, Stephen Ferguson"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10396135/The-Prince-Andrew-legal-team-impossible-job.html
The post was an attempt at reworking the song "It wasn't me" by Shaggy. (Spoiler -- it was him).
https://twitter.com/euanmccolm/status/1481749078736261120
(Stolen from the Netflix recap)
They obviously should have invited the Queen to these parties.
Total lack of respect.
Where on earth is your evidence that dogs were not prioritised over (poor, brown) humans in the Kabul evacuation? After the evidence given to the FASC? I mean, this is in the same class as holocaust denial.
And while I am at it, try developing the theme that NP did not lie his head off with the tick tock bollocks over GE 2015, bearing in mind that he admitted to it himself? Or that he did not use this site as a convenient conduit for penetrating the antisemite Corbyn's arse? You have the floor.
He was at Pizza Express in Woking with Andrew Windsor
https://twitter.com/mrjamesob/status/1481747833103568899
https://twitter.com/tony_diver/status/1481741342560686091
The verisimilitude was too good to ignore
Like man bites dog, the more remarkable story would be *not* tipsy on a flight.
https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1481748398424432650?s=20