The great cover up continues – politicalbetting.com
The great cover up continues – politicalbetting.com
NEW: Sue Gray report now to be stripped of details of No10 parties after request by policeStatement from the Met Police: pic.twitter.com/sRs4tTNMrS
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This is failed African state stuff
The Met Police is a complete and utter disgrace. Never been their biggest fan, but my god somehow my opinion of them has managed to get even lower than it was before.
Hope Sue Gray just released the report tbh and tells the Met to go and do one.
The Cabinet Office and the Met are working together, and amazingly they come to a politically convenient working solution! What are the odds!
The only way to make good-faith sense of this is that the Met appears to believe that the people under investigation won’t know they’re under investigation unless Sue Gray tells them. I think they probably know, Constable.
https://twitter.com/xtophercook/status/1486987696392347650
Also, for the first time in a while, I’m intrigued to hear what Starmer has to say about this. Hopefully, hopefully, it won’t be a bland, vanilla response. Especially given his background in the law.
Anyone know why the quoted cost for hiring a car in the US through the Avis.co.uk site is over double the cost on the Avis.com site (with all the same details, and declaring country of residence as the UK, both quotes in £)?
Why can't I just book using the US site, using the drop down menu to declare that I am UK resident?
They should've axed him late last year, and the craven approach a few weeks ago was even worse.
That presented the window of opportunity for the Dick move.
Huge cost saving.
Huge benefits too.
Probably why they don't go there.
I tipped a 25% return in just over a fortnight that should pay out on Tuesday.
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2022/01/16/will-boris-johnson-announce-his-resignation-before-the-end-of-january/
I just cannot believe how disgusting this is
Except they haven't published anything. His lawyers have played a blinder. Nothing in the nationals, the Oxford Mail, anything. There's some allusions on a university newspaper website but that's it.
So "outed" how? Al-Jazeera. Big long feature investigation, accompanying podcast, all of that. They don't give a crap. They're sufficiently far from the reach of UK lawyers that they feel they can publish with impunity.
Just saying in case there are any would-be CO leakers reading this...
Seems to have just stalled and obfuscated. Tory MPs deference to authority has done the rest.
I've been posting for years the rozzers, The Met in particular, are absolute twats.
Lest we forget, just under a decade ago, the Downing Street rozzers tried to frame a serving cabinet minister. If they can do that to a serving cabinet what chance us plebs?
Indeed it is reported Sue Gray demanded everything he had on this matter including photos
To my mind the event this morning dilutes the whole debacle and maybe buys Boris some time
Or posted on a Tory MPs WhatsApp group. Which is all it will need to get Boris facing a VoNC.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
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Cressida Dick is one of the worst appointments to major public office in British history. And that's a very high-bar we're talking here.
I would suggest looking at the price comparison sites and / or Expedia to see which ones (if any) provides a different booking mechanism that provide you something close to the US price.
Good morning. The Metropolitan Police have asked Sue Gray to remove references to the eight incidents the force is investigating from her report into lockdown-breaking parties, in order to avoid prejudicing their inquiries.
Relief for Boris Johnson? That’s the consensus among many Conservatives this morning: it means that Gray’s report will either be further delayed or published missing some of its biggest hits, and the Metropolitan Police’s investigation may not yet conclude their is sufficient evidence to prosecute.
Just one problem, though: are the British public really waiting for Sue Gray, or indeed for the Metropolitan Police, to tell them whether or not the rules were broken? The evidence from the polls and indeed every focus group I have seen is that the public is pretty clear that rules were broken. What they are waiting for is justice, and what they expect is a cover-up.
The Conservative party is doing what political parties in trouble often do: mistaking its own rhythms for the heartbeat of the nation. An abandoned investigation and a gutted report would, I’m convinced, combine all the political pain of the Owen Paterson vote with all the discomfort of the last few months.
I have no idea how Starmer, especially with his lawyer hat on, deals with this
As Omicron is more than 90% of cases since 1st Jan then it is likely that most deaths are now Omicron.
Certainly it is quite a lottery. I am on day 2 and not bad at all, but one of our junior doctors (fully vaxxed and boosted, 30ish and pregnant) has been off for weeks, including a brief admission for oxygen and fluids.
As @Cyclefree rightly pointed out in last thread, it isn't just the Met.
I think there has to be another agency/force involved when the integrity of politicians or the CPS/Crown office is in question.
A separate, UK wide force might help, or at least they should have officers from other forces involved.
There is very little more the Labour Party can do its up to Parliament (when Boris's half truths finally unravel into the obvious lies that they were) and Tory MPs to deal with this mess.
And if they don't the Tory brand will continue to be slowly destroyed. But it is being destroyed anyone because at the moment it stands for nothing, no levelling up up North, no "prudent running" of the economy down South.
I'd just resign with a short explanation.
It would have looked a lot less strange if this had happened immediately the police investigation was announced. As it is, it looks like a last-minute emergency manoeuvre perhaps prompted by an indication that the report would be more damaging than Johnson had hoped.
Had Johnson fallen on his sword as any other non-Trumpian Prime Minister would have done at the sniff of this scandal, Sunak would now have his feet under the table and be onward with the business of Government on the brink of a war.
Instead we have this never ending cavalcade of chaos.
"An internal disciplinary report could certainly be concluded and action taken. But the problem here is that if you uncover evidence of a potential crime and you report it to the police then the police will want their investigation to take precedence.
We had just this issue in the Adoboli case. Disciplinary proceedings against some of his colleagues could only take place once it was confirmed that the police would not be charging them. The final FCA report into the bank was not published until after the conclusion of the criminal trial etc.
When the original Case investigation was set up I suspect little thought was given to the implications hence the current mess."
There is a good faith explanation and it is this. If a potential crime is under investigation, the potential defendant has all sorts of rights etc, rights that don't apply when it comes to an employment disciplinary hearing. The police want evidence that has been properly collected ie a good chain of evidence, they want admissions which cannot be challenged etc. and they need to make sure that they are investigating allegations of crimes not breaches of guidelines or internal management instructions, which Gray would also be looking at. Having a report which mixes all these up in the public domain would not help. Some of those under investigation will complain mightily and the risk of the Met getting the prosecutions wrong - as has happened with other ones (see what the CPS had to do with many other Covid prosecutions) is increased.
There may also be bad faith stuff going on as well. I have zero trust in the Met.
The original Case investigation was set up in a hurry, handed over to Gray in a hurry and now everyone is scrabbling around to sort a mess out as the crisis deepens. No wonder we are where we are. It is no good for anyone. But it was predictable - especially by those who understand the difference between employment disciplinaries and criminal investigations, between internal investigations and criminal ones and the difference between laws and guidelines etc which, to be fair, does not include the vast majority of journalists.
The public, ultimately, will have its revenge, if they think they are being taken for a ride.
This is the key sentence: "What they are waiting for is justice, and what they expect is a cover-up."
I mentioned previously - due to actions/inaction by the police, everyone (who was paying attention) who went to Oxford University from the 90s through to the 2000s will have come away with the impression that the police are corrupt.
Given the source of most politicians (it seems) that shouldn't cause a problem. No.
What was it Boris said, ' he is a lawyer not a leader'
Seems prescient
Waiting for Gray's report was always an exercise in procrastination. If they'd acted on the evidence of dishonesty that was in the public domain a couple of weeks ago then the Conservatives would now be deep into a leadership election and able to start looking to the future.
OR The Met have reasonable suspicion of serious wrongdoing that Sue Gray cannot or will not investigate to a criminal standard.
Any other plausible explanation for the request to remove sections of the report?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/28/boris-johnson-fraud-minister-covid-loan-lord-agnew
The public will be understandably angry if they think there is a cover up. Many of us were unable to see dying relatives and friends during the pandemic and stuck to the rules by and large. That the government thought it ok for their employees to have frivolous knees-ups (for that is what the public believe) that was completely against the rules that they set is an outrage.
But ultimately two things - 1) if you are dead, it doesn't matter if delta or micron killed you, you are still dead and 2) if we are not routinely sequencing these cases we won't ever know.
Lastly - we probably should be sequencing those most ill, but maybe there are other priorities.
Never attribute to conspiracy what can easily be explained as incompetence.
It is the last thing I wanted but I did caution it could happen once the police are involved
It has real dangers for Boris as if at the end of this he has been fined or has a serious charge against him, then it is all over
It's easy to see emotive videos attacking the Tories have a major impact on their share of the votes, it's equally possible that the videos won't work but we probably won't know until the election itself.
However the Tory party have created a lot of easy attack vectors that really shouldn't exist - failure to level up, a rail network fit for the 21st Century for the West of the Country ignoring the east and one rule for you that we utterly ignored.
Any of those could have a big impact when focussed on, equally they may not swing a single vote (although the latter I suspect is unlikely). Especially if it starts to look likely that Labour will be in a position to be in power.
Of a room of about 50 people, the bulk of people were happy to clap and cheer the speakers for making brief reference to Boris and what a, and I quote, 'bastard' he is. A few sat there stony faced and not clapping, but not many, which I thought was quite brave of them.
So on that admittedly self-selecting audience who, to be fair, probably mostly weren't Tory voters anyway - but a fair proportion of them will have been Leave voters and they leaned towards the older age groups, I'm 43 and most people were older than me - the court of public opinion seems to have made up its mind. Can that be changed? Who knows!
It was my first time I've been to something like that since lockdown. It was fantastic to be amongst people again!
This is of a different order.
He could have come on here at any point over the last few years and read anyone of the - at the last count - half a dozen headers or so I've written about the utter uselessness of the Met, the police and Ms Dick to know that. Not to mention BTL comments.
What the hell do these journalists do all day?
Whereas the covid restrictions dominated everyday life for over a year.
Was widely pooh-poohed.
This guy is Trump and Nixon with added people skills.
Especially if you wrote it (or signed it off) yourself
"The thing about Boris Johnson is that he’s like a rat,” a former ally said last week. “He bumbles on amiably enough until he’s trapped. Then he’ll chew through bone, kill anyone, do anything to get free.”
He's quite prepared to crash and burn the entire edifice to keep in Number 10. And he's obviously persuaded himself, with the help of Carrie and the bubble, that he's done nothing wrong, and this is just pygmies trying to bring him down. Delusional, but there we are. Hence the determination to escalate and face down his enemies rather than conciliate. The danger is that they think they've been very clever with the Gray inquiry and Met intervention. In a way, they have. But nemesis beckons.
Fined or charged, it is over - no action on Boris, he stays
1) Not tell the police, and publish a report accusing people (in effect) of law breaking
2) Tell the police.
I'm not sure what ethical rules etc she is working under, but there might well be a requirement to report potential offences to the police. Certainly, publishing the full details of such potential offences would make them unprocurable - I think (calling PB lawyers)
Once reported to the police, the police would be obliged (I think, again PB lawyers) to ask that the details of such offences be redacted while they investigate and until any charges go through.
In other words - did Sue Gray and the police have any other options?
The only way that I could see full publication taking place immediately, would be if the police (and prosecutors) decided that all offences involved would be NFA'd. Which would be a blanket pardon/cover up.
BTW did I miss you testing positive?
He was sent off twice but VAR correctly saved him.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jan/28/alisson-sent-off-twice-in-brazil-draw-with-ecuador-and-saved-both-times-by-var
They always support each other.
Similar reason to why Dom made for a terrible adviser, as he clearly loves attention.
Unless, of course, the secret service has decided that our country isn't safe in the hands of the clown and the real plot is to get rid of him. That would make a good storyline for Spooks.
It is my understanding that the nature, "officialness" and the distribution of such a report is what is considered.
So an official government report, which will be splashed in every newspaper and every news channel in the UK, would be seen as prejudicial.
Some stuff on a barely noticed website, by some random people, wouldn't have that effect.
I remember sitting in Bishopsgate Police station with the DCI and his team on the Adoboli case. There were lots of investigations going on - by the FCA, the SEC, the Swiss regulator and others, internal investigation, ones by auditors etc. And the DCI just sat there and said that he had told all of these to "go and do one" because his criminal investigation took precedence. Nothing else mattered until this one was done and dusted. And nothing else would be published until it was. And they weren't.
Also as plenty of us have said, Tory MPs have long had all the evidence they need to take action against Boris. Waiting for Sue Gray was rationalising their own fear of taking action. Serves them right.
A bloody great shame for the rest of us that we have to put up with this shambles of a government.
Still, we get to hear our PM use phrases like "total rhubarb" when talking about saving pets.
So there is that, I suppose.