In one leap Boris was free! But we now face the amazing possibility that Sir Keir will be forced to resign as LOTO in a few weeks. How smug would Boris feel if that happened - everyone was rounding on him over flouting Covid restrictions, but it's Labour who are plunged into crisis over it.
I will probably rupture my spleen with laughter if Sir Beer Korma has to resign after his solemn vow of Deep Personal Honesty. For the record, I don't think he will get a FPN, but if he did: CHORTLE
Also, Labour might then elect Rayner as leader, and she'd be much more fun and interesting and would be good for the country
You havn’t been following it. She would have to resign too.
Starmer was very good today, very Primeministerial.
Unfortunately for Tories, what today tells us is partygate isn’t going away as a millstone on them, it’s hard to even see how they can turn a page and put it behind them.
The way the police messed up the investigation just hadn’t helped the party at all.
Has she also promised to resign? I must have missed that
Shame, if so. I like her. She'd be a good Labour leader
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
I'm not sure the gas engineer's employer would agree with you.
Private organisations are perfectly within their rights to reach private decisions.
As discussed yesterday my concern with my example was the employee must have been over legal limits and thus breaking the law, while working, which DavidL confirmed the countback principle for.
If they were under legal limits, that is not a problem in my eyes. If it is for others, that's their prerogative, we have a free market and people are free to make their own rules that go above and beyond the law, but there is no reason to encourage such puritanism.
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
I chuckled - I can imagine what the meeting was like where they came up with that line.
Here is the problem - context. Had that been thrown out during PMQ knockabout then it would have been great! But this was Bonzo's humble apology. In response to Starmer pointing out that whilst he hasn't been found to break any rules he will do the right thing and resign if the police find otherwise.
So having decided to be humble and say sorry, all Bonzo can do is call him "Sir Beer Korma" because actually all this is Starmer's fault actually and I'm the victim here.
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
Yes, hilarious piece of wit from a PM. Sure.
I preferred Bryant’s line about self-entitled narcissists.
Or alternatively one of @ydoethur ’s less successful efforts.
The government quickly backed down in tussle with Roman, as many on here predicted. Maybe clearing the decks of as much contention as possible at the moment.
Chelsea now have a £200M transfer dowry to blow - number 1 target Declan Rice, number 2 target Oliver Watkins.
Since made PBs minister for sport, I’m all over these things. 🫡
When the Tories bomb in the polls in June, the interesting measures to look at will be those measuring economy matters. The Tories were way ahead on growing economy in one last week. Voters are quite shrewd in how they rate growing economy so important, and for so long used it to shape their vote.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
Winston Churchill says hi
As do a trillion actors, writers, artists, sculptors, dancers. For some of them, booze - or other intoxicants - can actually improve the work. Byron insisted he did his best work "with a light champagne hangover" and a hooker nearby, or, as he put it, more politely:
There's a whore on my right For I rhyme best at night When a C*nt is tied close to my inkstand
I completely agree with you. Under normal circumstances.
But this is a government that shuttered the pubs and prevented people from meeting up to socialise for months on end. Then when they finally did start opening things up it was with stupid, pointless things like one way systems, having to put a mask on when you get up to go to the loo, or closing all the pubs early so everyone ends up on the street/public transport at the same time.
The government made these silly laws, knowing damn well they were silly, then proceeded to ignore the laws themselves.
That is what is at question here. I have no problem with Boris or anyone else having a beer at work at lunchtime. It's the way he banned the rest of us from doing it that's the problem.
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Officially, "services to law and criminal justice".
This won’t change anything, just as Sandy Hook didn’t. In America, women are less important than babies, and babies are less important than guns, and money is more important than all of it combined. https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1529351599189008384
Even moderate(ish) Republican Mitt Romney….
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1529231584217468928 Grief overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Lives extinguished. Parents’ hearts wrenched. Incomprehensible. I offer prayer and condolence but know that it is grossly inadequate. We must find answers...
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
Yes, hilarious piece of wit from a PM. Sure.
I preferred Bryant’s line about self-entitled narcissists.
Or alternatively one of @ydoethur ’s less successful efforts.
Chris Bryant of selfie-in-my-underpants fame? Accusing others of narcissism?
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
I chuckled - I can imagine what the meeting was like where they came up with that line.
Here is the problem - context. Had that been thrown out during PMQ knockabout then it would have been great! But this was Bonzo's humble apology. In response to Starmer pointing out that whilst he hasn't been found to break any rules he will do the right thing and resign if the police find otherwise.
So having decided to be humble and say sorry, all Bonzo can do is call him "Sir Beer Korma" because actually all this is Starmer's fault actually and I'm the victim here.
I could understand why the Boris "isn't he a good laugh" Johnson act won him the Mayor of London elections, but what I find baffling about his contemporary success with it is that it seems to appeal so strongly to the oldies, who I would have thought would be less approving of this sort of carry on.
One word that particularly struck me earlier was "duty". Johnson said he saw it as his duty to attend gatherings that broke Covid regulations to say goodbye to departing staff. We're about to celebrate 70 years of the Queen's dutiful service to the nation as Head of State.
It's the sort of contrast that I'd expect to play badly among the older generation. And yet it doesn't.
It's this sort of thing that makes me think that those predicting Johnson's defeat at the next election are guilty of projecting their own desires onto the electorate. There's something about Boris that defies the normal rules of politics.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
Winston Churchill says hi
As do a trillion actors, writers, artists, sculptors, dancers. For some of them, booze - or other intoxicants - can actually improve the work. Byron insisted he did his best work "with a light champagne hangover" and a hooker nearby, or, as he put it, more politely:
There's a whore on my right For I rhyme best at night When a C*nt is tied close to my inkstand
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
Winston Churchill says hi
As do a trillion actors, writers, artists, sculptors, dancers. For some of them, booze - or other intoxicants - can actually improve the work. Byron insisted he did his best work "with a light champagne hangover" and a hooker nearby, or, as he put it, more politely:
There's a whore on my right For I rhyme best at night When a C*nt is tied close to my inkstand
Is that really "more politely"?
Aristos can get away with anything, of course.
Including, in his case, tupping hundreds of young boys, a thousand Venetian whores, all the children of Lady Harley (“the Harleian Miscellany”) and his own sister, on his honeymoon night, as his new wife slept upstairs
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
Winston Churchill says hi
As do a trillion actors, writers, artists, sculptors, dancers. For some of them, booze - or other intoxicants - can actually improve the work. Byron insisted he did his best work "with a light champagne hangover" and a hooker nearby, or, as he put it, more politely:
There's a whore on my right For I rhyme best at night When a C*nt is tied close to my inkstand
Is that really "more politely"?
Aristos can get away with anything, of course.
Including, in his case, tupping hundreds of young boys, a thousand Venetian whores, all the children of Lady Harley (“the Harleian Miscellany”) and his own sister, on his honeymoon night, as his new wife slept upstairs
He posted here a while back under the name "Byronic". You'd have got along well with him.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
I understand what you mean, but:
1) Alcohol affects people in many different ways. It make me maudlin; it reduces the inhibitions of others and makes others violent. I certainly noticed the effect a couple of lunchtime pints would have on my work in the afternoon. It did not improve it (admittedly from a low base)...
2) Many workplaces ban all alcohol; for some, if you are working, you cannot have drunk alcohol for a certain number of hours beforehand. Anecdotally, this is becoming increasingly common, even for roles that are not safety critical.
1) The liberal thing to do is have the individual responsible for their own actions. If somebody is violent after drinking then they shouldn't be drinking, if somebody is a perfectly responsible and reasonable individual they can be.
2) That is a puritanical and retrograde step and not something to be encouraged or celebrated.
1) The problem is that individuals are all too often not responsible for their own actions.
2) The thinking is this: if some roles are banned from drinking on duty, then all roles should be, from the bottom of the organisation to the top. It seems better than the situation where (say) the bigwigs in their offices have long boozy lunches, but the plebs on the shop floor will get sacked if they had a drink six hours before they started their shift (because of safety issues). One rule for all.
I'm not saying drinking should be banned in parliament; I'm just wondering if there's a connection between the infamously boozy culture there (is that as bad as made out?) and some of the things that happen. IMO it cannot help.
So was that it? All the past six months over that? "Meh" sums it up completely.
Time to move on from Partygate, Beergate and all these other trivial and puritanical -gates and concentrate on real issues like the Economy.
And the first thing to do to fix the Economy is the Conservatives should oust Boris Johnson and replace him with someone prepared to trim back the state and cut taxes rather than expand it and raise them.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
Winston Churchill says hi
As do a trillion actors, writers, artists, sculptors, dancers. For some of them, booze - or other intoxicants - can actually improve the work. Byron insisted he did his best work "with a light champagne hangover" and a hooker nearby, or, as he put it, more politely:
There's a whore on my right For I rhyme best at night When a C*nt is tied close to my inkstand
Is that really "more politely"?
Aristos can get away with anything, of course.
Including, in his case, tupping hundreds of young boys, a thousand Venetian whores, all the children of Lady Harley (“the Harleian Miscellany”) and his own sister, on his honeymoon night, as his new wife slept upstairs
He posted here a while back under the name "Byronic". You'd have got along well with him.
I never seem to be around when these more interesting posters are here. I feel like I am constantly missing the PB Golden Age
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
I chuckled - I can imagine what the meeting was like where they came up with that line.
Here is the problem - context. Had that been thrown out during PMQ knockabout then it would have been great! But this was Bonzo's humble apology. In response to Starmer pointing out that whilst he hasn't been found to break any rules he will do the right thing and resign if the police find otherwise.
So having decided to be humble and say sorry, all Bonzo can do is call him "Sir Beer Korma" because actually all this is Starmer's fault actually and I'm the victim here.
I could understand why the Boris "isn't he a good laugh" Johnson act won him the Mayor of London elections, but what I find baffling about his contemporary success with it is that it seems to appeal so strongly to the oldies, who I would have thought would be less approving of this sort of carry on.
One word that particularly struck me earlier was "duty". Johnson said he saw it as his duty to attend gatherings that broke Covid regulations to say goodbye to departing staff. We're about to celebrate 70 years of the Queen's dutiful service to the nation as Head of State.
It's the sort of contrast that I'd expect to play badly among the older generation. And yet it doesn't.
It's this sort of thing that makes me think that those predicting Johnson's defeat at the next election are guilty of projecting their own desires onto the electorate. There's something about Boris that defies the normal rules of politics.
Your final point was made by Andrew Neil a few days ago - the "normal rules" simply don't seem to apply to Boris or his counterpart north of the border. He parties and dissembles, while Sturgeon smugly decimates Scottish education. But a significant number of people just don't care.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
Winston Churchill says hi
As do a trillion actors, writers, artists, sculptors, dancers. For some of them, booze - or other intoxicants - can actually improve the work. Byron insisted he did his best work "with a light champagne hangover" and a hooker nearby, or, as he put it, more politely:
There's a whore on my right For I rhyme best at night When a C*nt is tied close to my inkstand
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Why is *anyone* a Sir? Starmer is a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Which is the third most senior in the orders of chivalry.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
I understand what you mean, but:
1) Alcohol affects people in many different ways. It make me maudlin; it reduces the inhibitions of others and makes others violent. I certainly noticed the effect a couple of lunchtime pints would have on my work in the afternoon. It did not improve it (admittedly from a low base)...
2) Many workplaces ban all alcohol; for some, if you are working, you cannot have drunk alcohol for a certain number of hours beforehand. Anecdotally, this is becoming increasingly common, even for roles that are not safety critical.
1) The liberal thing to do is have the individual responsible for their own actions. If somebody is violent after drinking then they shouldn't be drinking, if somebody is a perfectly responsible and reasonable individual they can be.
2) That is a puritanical and retrograde step and not something to be encouraged or celebrated.
1) The problem is that individuals are all too often not responsible for their own actions.
2) The thinking is this: if some roles are banned from drinking on duty, then all roles should be, from the bottom of the organisation to the top. It seems better than the situation where (say) the bigwigs in their offices have long boozy lunches, but the plebs on the shop floor will get sacked if they had a drink six hours before they started their shift (because of safety issues). One rule for all.
I'm not saying drinking should be banned in parliament; I'm just wondering if there's a connection between the infamously boozy culture there (is that as bad as made out?) and some of the things that happen. IMO it cannot help.
1) Yes they are.
2) Is utterly preposterous. "One rule for all" should mean that health and safety regulations apply to all where they are appropriate not all at all times even when inappropriate.
If the rule is that you must wear a hard hat if on a construction site then everyone in the construction site should be wearing a hardhat, whether they be bigwigs or not. But its not a reason to say that office workers need to wear a hardhat while in the office, nor does it mean that construction workers who are in the office can't take their hardhat off while in the office.
The rule is not for the worker based on job title, but what they are doing. If health and safety is an issue, the rule applies, if it is not, it does not.
So was that it? All the past six months over that? "Meh" sums it up completely.
Time to move on from Partygate, Beergate and all these other trivial and puritanical -gates and concentrate on real issues like the Economy.
And the first thing to do to fix the Economy is the Conservatives should oust Boris Johnson and replace him with someone prepared to trim back the state and cut taxes rather than expand it and raise them.
What parts of the State do you propose to cut back on?
Brexit added x,000 new civil service jobs because we now have to do piles of things we never had to worry about as the EU did it.
In fact most departments have valid arguments to increase staff numbers rather than cut them due to Governmental demands.
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Why is *anyone* a Sir? Starmer is a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Which is the third most senior in the orders of chivalry.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
It is indeed a nonsense, and Boris has just successfully used it to skewer his opponents and deflate a potentially threatening critique
Starmer should have refused the knighthood, surely. I can see Boris using it mercilessly in an election
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
I chuckled - I can imagine what the meeting was like where they came up with that line.
Here is the problem - context. Had that been thrown out during PMQ knockabout then it would have been great! But this was Bonzo's humble apology. In response to Starmer pointing out that whilst he hasn't been found to break any rules he will do the right thing and resign if the police find otherwise.
So having decided to be humble and say sorry, all Bonzo can do is call him "Sir Beer Korma" because actually all this is Starmer's fault actually and I'm the victim here.
I could understand why the Boris "isn't he a good laugh" Johnson act won him the Mayor of London elections, but what I find baffling about his contemporary success with it is that it seems to appeal so strongly to the oldies, who I would have thought would be less approving of this sort of carry on.
One word that particularly struck me earlier was "duty". Johnson said he saw it as his duty to attend gatherings that broke Covid regulations to say goodbye to departing staff. We're about to celebrate 70 years of the Queen's dutiful service to the nation as Head of State.
It's the sort of contrast that I'd expect to play badly among the older generation. And yet it doesn't.
It's this sort of thing that makes me think that those predicting Johnson's defeat at the next election are guilty of projecting their own desires onto the electorate. There's something about Boris that defies the normal rules of politics.
Your final point was made by Andrew Neil a few days ago - the "normal rules" simply don't seem to apply to Boris or his counterpart north of the border. He parties and dissembles, while Sturgeon smugly decimates Scottish education. But a significant number of people just don't care.
I think in Boris case its quite simple. He gives off a positive vision (however unrealistic it is) , its a more subtle Make America Great Again....its plays on nostalgia for oldies and for people who have a bit of a shit life that things could get better.
In comparison, Starmer is going to spend the next 12hrs droning on about how UK is down the toilet and even if we do x, y and z, still going to be shit.
Where Boris runs out of road is when we get the situation like now, where all the boosterism isn't going to work when everything around you is getting more expensive by the day.
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
I chuckled - I can imagine what the meeting was like where they came up with that line.
Here is the problem - context. Had that been thrown out during PMQ knockabout then it would have been great! But this was Bonzo's humble apology. In response to Starmer pointing out that whilst he hasn't been found to break any rules he will do the right thing and resign if the police find otherwise.
So having decided to be humble and say sorry, all Bonzo can do is call him "Sir Beer Korma" because actually all this is Starmer's fault actually and I'm the victim here.
I could understand why the Boris "isn't he a good laugh" Johnson act won him the Mayor of London elections, but what I find baffling about his contemporary success with it is that it seems to appeal so strongly to the oldies, who I would have thought would be less approving of this sort of carry on.
One word that particularly struck me earlier was "duty". Johnson said he saw it as his duty to attend gatherings that broke Covid regulations to say goodbye to departing staff. We're about to celebrate 70 years of the Queen's dutiful service to the nation as Head of State.
It's the sort of contrast that I'd expect to play badly among the older generation. And yet it doesn't.
It's this sort of thing that makes me think that those predicting Johnson's defeat at the next election are guilty of projecting their own desires onto the electorate. There's something about Boris that defies the normal rules of politics.
Yes, his duty to attend a leaving event. In the real world these are not necessary for work. People stop work. Leave their desks. Gather together in a room to hear a manager do a little speech and then the leaver open a present and say bye. Then people go back to their desks and back to work.
Duty? I have both had to fill in and do the manager bit when the actual manager couldn't be arsed, and seen people slip quietly out the door with nothing. It is neither work nor essential.
So was that it? All the past six months over that? "Meh" sums it up completely.
Time to move on from Partygate, Beergate and all these other trivial and puritanical -gates and concentrate on real issues like the Economy.
And the first thing to do to fix the Economy is the Conservatives should oust Boris Johnson and replace him with someone prepared to trim back the state and cut taxes rather than expand it and raise them.
What parts of the State do you propose to cut back on?
Brexit added x,000 new civil service jobs because we now have to do piles of things we never had to worry about as the EU did it.
In fact most departments have valid arguments to increase staff numbers rather than cut them due to Governmental demands.
Welfare for the elderly might be the first starting point. That takes up the majority of the welfare state nowadays and has only been featherbedded further and further since the turn of the century.
Time to cut back the welfare state and reduce the burden that people who are not working impose on those who are.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
You fired someone for having been drunk and behind the wheel. So you already know where are situations where drinking and work shouldn't mix. Don't condemn others for having similar view.
Absolutely, I stand by that. Being behind the wheel and drinking don't mix - and that's true whether working or not working.
So long as you're not driving, having dinner and drinking absolutely can mix, whether that be at home, or Starmer, or Johnson.
It's not just driving though, is it? Would you be happy if your kids' teacher was rat-arsed in the classroom? Do you want a gas engineer having a liquid lunch before tackling your boiler? There are quite sensible views that revolve around not drinking on the job. It feels to me that the business of government is serious enough to warrant a view against drinking on the job. It's not a wildly puritan view to think so.
Rat arsed? No, that's a safety issue.
If the gas engineer is within legal limits and perfectly safe to tackle the boiler then I couldn't give less of a shit at what he or she had for lunch. If OTOH its a safety issue, then that is different, just like with driving.
I completely and 100% disagree that drinking on the job is not acceptable for "serious" jobs, quite the opposite in fact.
Winston Churchill says hi
As do a trillion actors, writers, artists, sculptors, dancers. For some of them, booze - or other intoxicants - can actually improve the work. Byron insisted he did his best work "with a light champagne hangover" and a hooker nearby, or, as he put it, more politely:
There's a whore on my right For I rhyme best at night When a C*nt is tied close to my inkstand
I completely agree with you. Under normal circumstances.
But this is a government that shuttered the pubs and prevented people from meeting up to socialise for months on end. Then when they finally did start opening things up it was with stupid, pointless things like one way systems, having to put a mask on when you get up to go to the loo, or closing all the pubs early so everyone ends up on the street/public transport at the same time.
The government made these silly laws, knowing damn well they were silly, then proceeded to ignore the laws themselves.
That is what is at question here. I have no problem with Boris or anyone else having a beer at work at lunchtime. It's the way he banned the rest of us from doing it that's the problem.
Yes, the fun with this particular circus is it gives everyone - cavalier or roundhead - reason to get grumpy and indignant.
This won’t change anything, just as Sandy Hook didn’t. In America, women are less important than babies, and babies are less important than guns, and money is more important than all of it combined. https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1529351599189008384
Even moderate(ish) Republican Mitt Romney….
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1529231584217468928 Grief overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Lives extinguished. Parents’ hearts wrenched. Incomprehensible. I offer prayer and condolence but know that it is grossly inadequate. We must find answers...
…. $13.5m in NRA donations.
Weird isn’t it how Republicans support changing laws to stop foetuses being killed but won’t change laws to stop schoolchildren being killed.
Maybe they want more foetuses to grow up to be children so they can be shot in classrooms by bullets made by the people who bankroll the NRA.
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Why is *anyone* a Sir? Starmer is a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Which is the third most senior in the orders of chivalry.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
It is indeed a nonsense, and Boris has just successfully used it to skewer his opponents and deflate a potentially threatening critique
Starmer should have refused the knighthood, surely. I can see Boris using it mercilessly in an election
Wikipedia says "he prefers that people do not use the title "Sir"."
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Why is *anyone* a Sir? Starmer is a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Which is the third most senior in the orders of chivalry.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
It is indeed a nonsense, and Boris has just successfully used it to skewer his opponents and deflate a potentially threatening critique
Starmer should have refused the knighthood, surely. I can see Boris using it mercilessly in an election
Well, the current PM is hardly going to be able to run on his record, is he? Or his character?
This all seems like Fair Comment from the BoJo the Bozzmeister
"Boris Johnson is responding to Keir Starmer.
He says that during Covid Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines and veering from one position to the next”.
In his response today, Starmer failed to show “common sense”, he claims. He says Starmer failed to appreciate the context of what happened. He says the boundaries between work and socialisting became blurred.
He accuses Starmer of being “sanctimonious”, and he descibes him as a “gaseous Zeppelin”, saying his pomposity has been punctured.
He goes on:
Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards he demanded of me.
Johnson says Starmer said that Johnson should resign when he was being investigated by the police. But Starmer is being investigated by the police, and he has not resigned.
Starmer IS a sanctimonious prick. He also wanted to cancel British democracy. Well said, Boris Bojo "Boz-boz" The Bozzington Bozzles Johnson, Bozmeister General
Did Johnson actually say that or have you made it up?
He said it. And, I confess, I laughed out loud
It's the sheer chutzpah of delivering a clever pun (tho not one he made himself) during THIS most solemn of occasions, what an insult to the 7 trillion dead of plague, blah blah whatever
It's puerile ffs. Shape up.
Of all the humourless pricks I expected not to laugh at Boris's deft and superbly funny pun, you are the humourless-est, and the prick-est, so thanks for fulfilling my priors
‘Deft and superbly funny’ ….
AKA pretty lame piece of nose thumbing. It might raise a smile if you’d said it; pitiful from a prime minister.
"Deft and superbly funny" was me trolling PB's very own Pomposity-Monger @kinabalu
"Sir Beer Korma" IS a good pun, tho. The measure of it is: would it make a more memorable Sun front page? And yes, it would. It raises a smile and maybe a chuckle
You need the "Sir" bit tho. That's the funny part. The contrast between the Sir - why the F does this supercilious idiot Starmer have a fucking knighthood anyway, and for what? - and the Beer and Korma is the essence of the tension and thus the humour
I chuckled - I can imagine what the meeting was like where they came up with that line.
Here is the problem - context. Had that been thrown out during PMQ knockabout then it would have been great! But this was Bonzo's humble apology. In response to Starmer pointing out that whilst he hasn't been found to break any rules he will do the right thing and resign if the police find otherwise.
So having decided to be humble and say sorry, all Bonzo can do is call him "Sir Beer Korma" because actually all this is Starmer's fault actually and I'm the victim here.
I could understand why the Boris "isn't he a good laugh" Johnson act won him the Mayor of London elections, but what I find baffling about his contemporary success with it is that it seems to appeal so strongly to the oldies, who I would have thought would be less approving of this sort of carry on.
One word that particularly struck me earlier was "duty". Johnson said he saw it as his duty to attend gatherings that broke Covid regulations to say goodbye to departing staff. We're about to celebrate 70 years of the Queen's dutiful service to the nation as Head of State.
It's the sort of contrast that I'd expect to play badly among the older generation. And yet it doesn't.
It's this sort of thing that makes me think that those predicting Johnson's defeat at the next election are guilty of projecting their own desires onto the electorate. There's something about Boris that defies the normal rules of politics.
Yes, his duty to attend a leaving event. In the real world these are not necessary for work. People stop work. Leave their desks. Gather together in a room to hear a manager do a little speech and then the leaver open a present and say bye. Then people go back to their desks and back to work.
Duty? I have both had to fill in and do the manager bit when the actual manager couldn't be arsed, and seen people slip quietly out the door with nothing. It is neither work nor essential.
Or, as pointed out by others, be done with in the time of covid by zoom, and/or by a whipround for bunches of flowers and pressies sent to the home of the person in question.
Ergo, what Mr J et al did was neither work nor necessary for work.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
I understand what you mean, but:
1) Alcohol affects people in many different ways. It make me maudlin; it reduces the inhibitions of others and makes others violent. I certainly noticed the effect a couple of lunchtime pints would have on my work in the afternoon. It did not improve it (admittedly from a low base)...
2) Many workplaces ban all alcohol; for some, if you are working, you cannot have drunk alcohol for a certain number of hours beforehand. Anecdotally, this is becoming increasingly common, even for roles that are not safety critical.
1) The liberal thing to do is have the individual responsible for their own actions. If somebody is violent after drinking then they shouldn't be drinking, if somebody is a perfectly responsible and reasonable individual they can be.
2) That is a puritanical and retrograde step and not something to be encouraged or celebrated.
1) The problem is that individuals are all too often not responsible for their own actions.
2) The thinking is this: if some roles are banned from drinking on duty, then all roles should be, from the bottom of the organisation to the top. It seems better than the situation where (say) the bigwigs in their offices have long boozy lunches, but the plebs on the shop floor will get sacked if they had a drink six hours before they started their shift (because of safety issues). One rule for all.
I'm not saying drinking should be banned in parliament; I'm just wondering if there's a connection between the infamously boozy culture there (is that as bad as made out?) and some of the things that happen. IMO it cannot help.
1) Yes they are.
2) Is utterly preposterous. "One rule for all" should mean that health and safety regulations apply to all where they are appropriate not all at all times even when inappropriate.
If the rule is that you must wear a hard hat if on a construction site then everyone in the construction site should be wearing a hardhat, whether they be bigwigs or not. But its not a reason to say that office workers need to wear a hardhat while in the office, nor does it mean that construction workers who are in the office can't take their hardhat off while in the office.
The rule is not for the worker based on job title, but what they are doing. If health and safety is an issue, the rule applies, if it is not, it does not.
Like Prime Ministers in hospitals needing to obey the regs on face masks and infection control?
This won’t change anything, just as Sandy Hook didn’t. In America, women are less important than babies, and babies are less important than guns, and money is more important than all of it combined. https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1529351599189008384
Even moderate(ish) Republican Mitt Romney….
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1529231584217468928 Grief overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Lives extinguished. Parents’ hearts wrenched. Incomprehensible. I offer prayer and condolence but know that it is grossly inadequate. We must find answers...
…. $13.5m in NRA donations.
Weird isn’t it how Republicans support changing laws to stop foetuses being killed but won’t change laws to stop schoolchildren being killed.
Maybe they want more foetuses to grow up to be children so they can be shot in classrooms by bullets made by the people who bankroll the NRA.
I think it was PJ O"Rourke who commented that in American politics, people are either
1) Pro-abortion and anti-death penalty 2) Anti-abortion and pro-death penalty
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Why is *anyone* a Sir? Starmer is a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Which is the third most senior in the orders of chivalry.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
It is indeed a nonsense, and Boris has just successfully used it to skewer his opponents and deflate a potentially threatening critique
Starmer should have refused the knighthood, surely. I can see Boris using it mercilessly in an election
I went to school with a boy whose father turned down a peerage.
Mind you, he turned it down on the grounds that his existing title was ancient - one the longest continuously held titles - and he esteemed it more than a political life peerage.
So was that it? All the past six months over that? "Meh" sums it up completely.
Time to move on from Partygate, Beergate and all these other trivial and puritanical -gates and concentrate on real issues like the Economy.
And the first thing to do to fix the Economy is the Conservatives should oust Boris Johnson and replace him with someone prepared to trim back the state and cut taxes rather than expand it and raise them.
What parts of the State do you propose to cut back on?
Brexit added x,000 new civil service jobs because we now have to do piles of things we never had to worry about as the EU did it.
In fact most departments have valid arguments to increase staff numbers rather than cut them due to Governmental demands.
Welfare for the elderly might be the first starting point. That takes up the majority of the welfare state nowadays and has only been featherbedded further and further since the turn of the century.
Time to cut back the welfare state and reduce the burden that people who are not working impose on those who are.
You may be old and infirm yourself one day, Barty.
In one leap Boris was free! But we now face the amazing possibility that Sir Keir will be forced to resign as LOTO in a few weeks. How smug would Boris feel if that happened - everyone was rounding on him over flouting Covid restrictions, but it's Labour who are plunged into crisis over it.
I will probably rupture my spleen with laughter if Sir Beer Korma has to resign after his solemn vow of Deep Personal Honesty. For the record, I don't think he will get a FPN, but if he did: CHORTLE
Also, Labour might then elect Rayner as leader, and she'd be much more fun and interesting and would be good for the country
What does Starmer do if Durham plod take the obvious fudge and say like Big Dom that there could well have been minor breaches of the rules, but in line with policy decline to issue a FPN retrospectively?
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
I understand what you mean, but:
1) Alcohol affects people in many different ways. It make me maudlin; it reduces the inhibitions of others and makes others violent. I certainly noticed the effect a couple of lunchtime pints would have on my work in the afternoon. It did not improve it (admittedly from a low base)...
2) Many workplaces ban all alcohol; for some, if you are working, you cannot have drunk alcohol for a certain number of hours beforehand. Anecdotally, this is becoming increasingly common, even for roles that are not safety critical.
1) The liberal thing to do is have the individual responsible for their own actions. If somebody is violent after drinking then they shouldn't be drinking, if somebody is a perfectly responsible and reasonable individual they can be.
2) That is a puritanical and retrograde step and not something to be encouraged or celebrated.
1) The problem is that individuals are all too often not responsible for their own actions.
2) The thinking is this: if some roles are banned from drinking on duty, then all roles should be, from the bottom of the organisation to the top. It seems better than the situation where (say) the bigwigs in their offices have long boozy lunches, but the plebs on the shop floor will get sacked if they had a drink six hours before they started their shift (because of safety issues). One rule for all.
I'm not saying drinking should be banned in parliament; I'm just wondering if there's a connection between the infamously boozy culture there (is that as bad as made out?) and some of the things that happen. IMO it cannot help.
1) Yes they are.
2) Is utterly preposterous. "One rule for all" should mean that health and safety regulations apply to all where they are appropriate not all at all times even when inappropriate.
If the rule is that you must wear a hard hat if on a construction site then everyone in the construction site should be wearing a hardhat, whether they be bigwigs or not. But its not a reason to say that office workers need to wear a hardhat while in the office, nor does it mean that construction workers who are in the office can't take their hardhat off while in the office.
The rule is not for the worker based on job title, but what they are doing. If health and safety is an issue, the rule applies, if it is not, it does not.
Like Prime Ministers in hospitals needing to obey the regs on face masks and infection control?
It makes me think that releasing the champagne photo was good media management, preventing it from being the headline image today, with today illustrated instead by the Boots meal deal photo, which is a lot less fun and therefore less damaging.
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Why is *anyone* a Sir? Starmer is a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Which is the third most senior in the orders of chivalry.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
It is indeed a nonsense, and Boris has just successfully used it to skewer his opponents and deflate a potentially threatening critique
Starmer should have refused the knighthood, surely. I can see Boris using it mercilessly in an election
I went to school with a boy whose father turned down a peerage.
Mind you, he turned it down on the grounds that his existing title was ancient - one the longest continuously held titles - and he esteemed it more than a political life peerage.
Interesting. Not a baronet, cos they were James vi and I. Clan chief? Irish The wotsit of the Reeks sort of thing?
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes there was less of a drinking culture, and more of an LSD one.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
It makes me think that releasing the champagne photo was good media management, preventing it from being the headline image today, with today illustrated instead by the Boots meal deal photo, which is a lot less fun and therefore less damaging.
You can feel the hand of Lynton Crosby in all of this. Everybody has seen Starmer raise a beer, now the underwhelming meal day photo is front and centre....and then have buried Sunak during this period as well.
It's about time Johnson put an end to this absurdity. He has an opportunity to do so now.
He should say: "I have contacted Durham police and suggested that they cease the investigation into Kier Starmer potentially breaking Covid laws. We need to move on from the pandemic now; in a positive and optimistic way and stop blaming each other and trying to score political points. No leader of a political party should feel obliged to resign from office due to the issuing of a fixed penalty notice".
It's none of Johnson's business.
If Durham are significantly more robust than the Met. which we all hope they are, in investigating when a work event crossed the line to become a social event and they find Starmer, Rayner and Foy even inadvertently guilty, Starmer and Rayner must go.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
To be honest, I'm not sure that 18 year olds downing cans of Tennant's while carrying loaded automatic rifles is a particularly good idea.
It makes me think that releasing the champagne photo was good media management, preventing it from being the headline image today, with today illustrated instead by the Boots meal deal photo, which is a lot less fun and therefore less damaging.
You can feel the hand of Lynton Crosby in all of this. Everybody has seen Starmer raise a beer, now the underwhelming meal day photo is front and centre....and then have buried Sunak during this period as well.
I mean celebrating someone's birthday by filing in to a conference room to grab a prawn and mayo on wholemeal is almost Mayite in its conservatism.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Not sure what you are looking at. Beer Korma isn't trending. But here's everything related to politics that is: 1 - PMQs 4 - #notmovingon 5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied 6 - Tobias Ellwood 9 - No10 16 - Humbled 17 - Theresa May 21 - The Thick of It 22 - General Election 24 - Wine Time Fridays 26 - BoJo 29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
To be honest, I'm not sure that 18 year olds downing cans of Tennant's while carrying loaded automatic rifles is a particularly good idea.
It makes me think that releasing the champagne photo was good media management, preventing it from being the headline image today, with today illustrated instead by the Boots meal deal photo, which is a lot less fun and therefore less damaging.
Did Number 10 have control of which photos were released and when?
If so, then yes. Excellent media management
As soon as I looked at the meal deal images it was WHAT? IS THAT IT??
I thought we were building up to some ultimate snorting-chang-off-a-taut-buttock snap, but no. You could feel the outrage drain away, all around
And the claims by the likes of Bryant - calling number 10 “a cesspit of entitled, arrogant narcissism” - sounded like unhinged hyperbole
As an aside, I couldn't resist a few quid on Aaron Bell as next leader of the Tories. >800/1 at the moment in a very illiquid market on betfair.
I think it's possible he might run because he's a) clearly fed up with Boris Johnson, b) in the kind of seat the Tories might struggle to hold if they get a bad result c) clearly smart, and must be looking round at his colleagues/cabinet and thinking... I could do a much better version of this.
Hard to see him winning certainly, but just being in the race would bring those odds tumbling down.
It is the patriotic duty of every PBer to bring Aaron's odds down, therefore creating a narrative that he is a leading backbencher in the running to replace Boris.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Not sure what you are looking at. Beer Korma isn't trending. But here's everything related to politics that is: 1 - PMQs 4 - #notmovingon 5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied 6 - Tobias Ellwood 9 - No10 16 - Humbled 17 - Theresa May 21 - The Thick of It 22 - General Election 24 - Wine Time Fridays 26 - BoJo 29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes there was less of a drinking culture, and more of an LSD one.
LSD is a productivity killer, cos it requires a whole day set aside, and no responding to emails. DMT's the thing, over and done within a lunch hour and still leaves time to grab a sandwich.
It makes me think that releasing the champagne photo was good media management, preventing it from being the headline image today, with today illustrated instead by the Boots meal deal photo, which is a lot less fun and therefore less damaging.
Did Number 10 have control of which photos were released and when?
If so, then yes. Excellent media management
As soon as I looked at the meal deal images it was WHAT? IS THAT IT??
I thought we were building up to some ultimate snorting-chang-off-a-taut-buttock snap, but no. You could feel the outrage drain away, all around
And the claims by the likes of Bryant - calling number 10 “a cesspit of entitled, arrogant narcissism” - sounded like unhinged hyperbole
Boris Johnson’s greatest ability is to twist reality so that critics of his dishonesty sound as though they’re unhinged
It makes me think that releasing the champagne photo was good media management, preventing it from being the headline image today, with today illustrated instead by the Boots meal deal photo, which is a lot less fun and therefore less damaging.
Did Number 10 have control of which photos were released and when?
If so, then yes. Excellent media management
As soon as I looked at the meal deal images it was WHAT? IS THAT IT??
I thought we were building up to some ultimate snorting-chang-off-a-taut-buttock snap, but no. You could feel the outrage drain away, all around
And the claims by the likes of Bryant - calling number 10 “a cesspit of entitled, arrogant narcissism” - sounded like unhinged hyperbole
I don't think we know who leaked it. But it seems like it was good timing for Bojo. I'm not defending him by the way - I don't really care about partygate, but also I don't care if it ends his Prime Minsiterial career.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Not sure what you are looking at. Beer Korma isn't trending. But here's everything related to politics that is: 1 - PMQs 4 - #notmovingon 5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied 6 - Tobias Ellwood 9 - No10 16 - Humbled 17 - Theresa May 21 - The Thick of It 22 - General Election 24 - Wine Time Fridays 26 - BoJo 29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Not sure what you are looking at. Beer Korma isn't trending. But here's everything related to politics that is: 1 - PMQs 4 - #notmovingon 5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied 6 - Tobias Ellwood 9 - No10 16 - Humbled 17 - Theresa May 21 - The Thick of It 22 - General Election 24 - Wine Time Fridays 26 - BoJo 29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
"Sir Beer Korma" will stick. It will be a particularly valuable weapon for Johnson to beat him with, should Starmer survive. The most remarkable take- away (pun intended) is the absolute conviction Johnson still holds that he has done absolutely nothing wrong.
If he can calm the troops this afternoon Johnson has completed an excellent day's work (for himself).
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
To be honest, I'm not sure that 18 year olds downing cans of Tennant's while carrying loaded automatic rifles is a particularly good idea.
Also a bit bemused that Barty doesn't understand the reason for this. Hint: 2nd amendment says one thing, 18th said another
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
To be honest, I'm not sure that 18 year olds downing cans of Tennant's while carrying loaded automatic rifles is a particularly good idea.
Also a bit bemused that Barty doesn't understand the reason for this. Hint: 2nd amendment says one thing, 18th said another
I understand that, I just think the 2nd amendment should get the same treatment as the 21st amendment gave to the 18th.
Conversely to the header, I suspect today was the day Boris won his second majority. I can’t be the only one feeling a bit silly for getting so cross now Sue Gray has done her worst and published a photo of a whisky tumbler filled with fruit juice next to a sad pre-made sandwich.
Starmer’s overplayed his hand on this and I think he knows it, hence PMQs today focusing on cost of living. The real line of attack should be against profligate public sector spending and the national insurance jobs tax. But I just don’t think he has it in him to deliver a knockout punch on that territory.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
"Sir Beer Korma" will stick. It will be a particularly valuable weapon for Johnson to beat him with, should Starmer survive. The most remarkable take- away (pun intended) is the absolute conviction Johnson still holds that he has done absolutely nothing wrong.
If he can calm the troops this afternoon Johnson has completed an excellent day's work (for himself).
Conversely to the header, I suspect today was the day Boris won his second majority. I can’t be the only one feeling a bit silly for getting so cross now Sue Gray has done her worst and published a photo of a whisky tumbler filled with fruit juice next to a sad pre-made sandwich.
Starmer’s overplayed his hand on this and I think he knows it, hence PMQs today focusing on cost of living. The real line of attack should be against profligate public sector spending and the national insurance jobs tax. But I just don’t think he has it in him to deliver a knockout punch on that territory.
Tory MPs remain strapped in to the Johnson rollercoaster - and no amount of co-ordinated tweets from supportive cabinet ministers can change the fact that, as things currently stand, it is heading for a major derailment come the next election.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Not sure what you are looking at. Beer Korma isn't trending. But here's everything related to politics that is: 1 - PMQs 4 - #notmovingon 5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied 6 - Tobias Ellwood 9 - No10 16 - Humbled 17 - Theresa May 21 - The Thick of It 22 - General Election 24 - Wine Time Fridays 26 - BoJo 29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
Conversely to the header, I suspect today was the day Boris won his second majority. I can’t be the only one feeling a bit silly for getting so cross now Sue Gray has done her worst and published a photo of a whisky tumbler filled with fruit juice next to a sad pre-made sandwich.
Starmer’s overplayed his hand on this and I think he knows it, hence PMQs today focusing on cost of living. The real line of attack should be against profligate public sector spending and the national insurance jobs tax. But I just don’t think he has it in him to deliver a knockout punch on that territory.
Are you Boris Johnson perchance?
Just saying it how I see it. You may have missed my post this morning saying I am signing up to the Lib Dems.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
To be honest, I'm not sure that 18 year olds downing cans of Tennant's while carrying loaded automatic rifles is a particularly good idea.
Also a bit bemused that Barty doesn't understand the reason for this. Hint: 2nd amendment says one thing, 18th said another
I understand that, I just think the 2nd amendment should get the same treatment as the 21st amendment gave to the 18th.
Its not going to happen, but it should.
The bar for amending the constitution is massive. 2/3rds of states ! The Dems will never reach in a thousand years.
Conversely to the header, I suspect today was the day Boris won his second majority. I can’t be the only one feeling a bit silly for getting so cross now Sue Gray has done her worst and published a photo of a whisky tumbler filled with fruit juice next to a sad pre-made sandwich.
Starmer’s overplayed his hand on this and I think he knows it, hence PMQs today focusing on cost of living. The real line of attack should be against profligate public sector spending and the national insurance jobs tax. But I just don’t think he has it in him to deliver a knockout punch on that territory.
Are you Boris Johnson perchance?
Just saying it how I see it. You may have missed my post this morning saying I am signing up to the Lib Dems.
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Not sure what you are looking at. Beer Korma isn't trending. But here's everything related to politics that is: 1 - PMQs 4 - #notmovingon 5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied 6 - Tobias Ellwood 9 - No10 16 - Humbled 17 - Theresa May 21 - The Thick of It 22 - General Election 24 - Wine Time Fridays 26 - BoJo 29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
Really? Why is Beer Korma, SIR Beer Korma? What did he do? Why is he a knight and so much better - and more honest - than the rest of us? How did he get to be SO incredibly honest they made him a duke?
Why is *anyone* a Sir? Starmer is a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Which is the third most senior in the orders of chivalry.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
It is indeed a nonsense, and Boris has just successfully used it to skewer his opponents and deflate a potentially threatening critique
Starmer should have refused the knighthood, surely. I can see Boris using it mercilessly in an election
I went to school with a boy whose father turned down a peerage.
Mind you, he turned it down on the grounds that his existing title was ancient - one the longest continuously held titles - and he esteemed it more than a political life peerage.
Also - he couldn't be blamed for the existing title.
It makes me think that releasing the champagne photo was good media management, preventing it from being the headline image today, with today illustrated instead by the Boots meal deal photo, which is a lot less fun and therefore less damaging.
Did Number 10 have control of which photos were released and when?
If so, then yes. Excellent media management
As soon as I looked at the meal deal images it was WHAT? IS THAT IT??
I thought we were building up to some ultimate snorting-chang-off-a-taut-buttock snap, but no. You could feel the outrage drain away, all around
And the claims by the likes of Bryant - calling number 10 “a cesspit of entitled, arrogant narcissism” - sounded like unhinged hyperbole
I don't think we know who leaked it. But it seems like it was good timing for Bojo. I'm not defending him by the way - I don't really care about partygate, but also I don't care if it ends his Prime Minsiterial career.
I suggested as such at the time. That it was leaked by Boris to spike the Gray report.
This won’t change anything, just as Sandy Hook didn’t. In America, women are less important than babies, and babies are less important than guns, and money is more important than all of it combined. https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1529351599189008384
Even moderate(ish) Republican Mitt Romney….
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1529231584217468928 Grief overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Lives extinguished. Parents’ hearts wrenched. Incomprehensible. I offer prayer and condolence but know that it is grossly inadequate. We must find answers...
…. $13.5m in NRA donations.
Weird isn’t it how Republicans support changing laws to stop foetuses being killed but won’t change laws to stop schoolchildren being killed.
Maybe they want more foetuses to grow up to be children so they can be shot in classrooms by bullets made by the people who bankroll the NRA.
I think it was PJ O"Rourke who commented that in American politics, people are either
1) Pro-abortion and anti-death penalty 2) Anti-abortion and pro-death penalty
I just wish I wasn't reminded of the local estate where I used to do forestry work on in my student vacs. There were pheasants all over the place and large feeders here and there in the woods and gamekeepers to protect them. It used to breed pheasants for ...
One Conservative MP this afternoon: “Today is the day the Prime Minister is safe. Today is also the day the Conservatives lost the next general election .”
Sir Beer Korma is quite witty, although I can’t raise a smile. It’s clear Boris doesn’t do humility.
Personally I don’t think it helps Boris if it sticks, it merely reminds us of the whole Partygate affair in which Boris was caught bang to rights partying and lying about it (according to the vast majority of voters).
Twitter is full of OUTRAGED Boris haters banging on and on about how childish and puerile and unfunny “Sir Beer Korma” is, alongside an undertone of professional comedians sheepishly saying “objectively it is quite clever, and funny, sorry, but obviously the wrong time, Boris is evil”
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Not sure what you are looking at. Beer Korma isn't trending. But here's everything related to politics that is: 1 - PMQs 4 - #notmovingon 5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied 6 - Tobias Ellwood 9 - No10 16 - Humbled 17 - Theresa May 21 - The Thick of It 22 - General Election 24 - Wine Time Fridays 26 - BoJo 29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
I can't believe the Prime Minister has the sheer effrontery to remain in office when there is now a photo, in the public domain, of him standing eating a sad meal 2 metres from the Chancellor, and all of this right next to a table, during the working day! - a table, no less, on which you can clearly see a plastic jug three-quarters-filled with cheap orange juice
There is no end to the squalor and the lies. AND THE DEBAUCHERY
They had a social gathering when they'd made it illegal for anyone else to do so. And then they lied about it.
You've got no self-respect for yourself if you tolerate that.
lol. We can all see the photos
We can see a selection of the photos.
But neatly done by Boris, dragging this out for three months and turning into a debate over the adequacy of the entertainment in No10, rather than his presiding over regular breach of his own rules and lying about it to the Commons.
There's no lie. The photos don't show a lie.
Do you sandwiches at work at lunchtime to be a Party? I don't. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Do you consider saying goodbye to a colleague at work during work hours to be a Party? I don't and the Police didn't either. If he didn't, he hasn't lied.
Being wrong isn't a lie, saying something you know to be untrue is a lie and there's no evidence of that here.
IMV there is a central question that underlines partygate, beergate, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of people in parliament: is there too much of a drinking culture in politics - not just the politicians, but SPADs, civil servants, workers, and journos?
I can understand why there might be a drinking culture for many of these roles: they are stressful and multifaceted, and can involve long periods away from home and family.
But that doesn't necessarily make it right.
This is the thing I dislike about this 'scandal', a deep puritanism as if alcohol is verboten rather than what the law was about.
Drinking doesn't cause abuse, abusers cause abuse and any abusers should be treated with zero tolerance but alcohol is not the cause it is not even an excuse.
Sir Beer Korma drinking beer isn't verbally, physically or sexually abusing anyone in doing so. The PM having an Estrella as a refreshment isn't either.
Alcohol is an acceptable and legal drink. People banging on about alcohol is as pathetic puritanism as Americans insisting that 18 year olds can't legally drink, but they can buy automatic rifles.
To be honest, I'm not sure that 18 year olds downing cans of Tennant's while carrying loaded automatic rifles is a particularly good idea.
Also a bit bemused that Barty doesn't understand the reason for this. Hint: 2nd amendment says one thing, 18th said another
I understand that, I just think the 2nd amendment should get the same treatment as the 21st amendment gave to the 18th.
Its not going to happen, but it should.
The bar for amending the constitution is massive. 2/3rds of states ! The Dems will never reach in a thousand years.
Certainly they won't if they never try to win the argument.
At the time the 18th was passed, nobody would have guessed the 21st would be passed just a few years later. In just a few years the public opinion went from 2/3rds of states in one extreme direction, to 2/3rds in the opposite extreme.
The problem is all the pussyfooting about refusing to spell out the argument because the 2nd has taken on a quasi-religious status, or pretending that sufficiently tight laws can be passed while the 2nd stands.
The Overton Window needs shifting and that needs people being honest and saying that the 2nd must go.
One Conservative MP this afternoon: “Today is the day the Prime Minister is safe. Today is also the day the Conservatives lost the next general election .”
How dare they have these insane booze-soaked, coke and Ecstasy fuelled, pet-play hookers-on-trampolines midget sex Korean dwarf ice skating free love dope-on-motorbike orgies when the rest of us were….
Oh.
That is the most dull looking event, but Gray only published photos by the official photographer.
Here's a description of the 18 June 2020 event: "The event lasted for a number of hours. There was excessive alcohol consumption by some individuals. One individual was sick. There was a minor altercation between two other individuals." Dry civil service language, but clearly more of a piss up.
Comments
As discussed yesterday my concern with my example was the employee must have been over legal limits and thus breaking the law, while working, which DavidL confirmed the countback principle for.
If they were under legal limits, that is not a problem in my eyes. If it is for others, that's their prerogative, we have a free market and people are free to make their own rules that go above and beyond the law, but there is no reason to encourage such puritanism.
Here is the problem - context. Had that been thrown out during PMQ knockabout then it would have been great! But this was Bonzo's humble apology. In response to Starmer pointing out that whilst he hasn't been found to break any rules he will do the right thing and resign if the police find otherwise.
So having decided to be humble and say sorry, all Bonzo can do is call him "Sir Beer Korma" because actually all this is Starmer's fault actually and I'm the victim here.
I preferred Bryant’s line about self-entitled narcissists.
Or alternatively one of @ydoethur ’s less successful efforts.
But this is a government that shuttered the pubs and prevented people from meeting up to socialise for months on end. Then when they finally did start opening things up it was with stupid, pointless things like one way systems, having to put a mask on when you get up to go to the loo, or closing all the pubs early so everyone ends up on the street/public transport at the same time.
The government made these silly laws, knowing damn well they were silly, then proceeded to ignore the laws themselves.
That is what is at question here. I have no problem with Boris or anyone else having a beer at work at lunchtime. It's the way he banned the rest of us from doing it that's the problem.
In reality, an automatic gong for being DPP.
https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1529351599189008384
Even moderate(ish) Republican Mitt Romney….
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1529231584217468928
Grief overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Lives extinguished. Parents’ hearts wrenched. Incomprehensible. I offer prayer and condolence but know that it is grossly inadequate. We must find answers...
…. $13.5m in NRA donations.
Interesting move
One word that particularly struck me earlier was "duty". Johnson said he saw it as his duty to attend gatherings that broke Covid regulations to say goodbye to departing staff. We're about to celebrate 70 years of the Queen's dutiful service to the nation as Head of State.
It's the sort of contrast that I'd expect to play badly among the older generation. And yet it doesn't.
It's this sort of thing that makes me think that those predicting Johnson's defeat at the next election are guilty of projecting their own desires onto the electorate. There's something about Boris that defies the normal rules of politics.
Aristos can get away with anything, of course.
2) The thinking is this: if some roles are banned from drinking on duty, then all roles should be, from the bottom of the organisation to the top. It seems better than the situation where (say) the bigwigs in their offices have long boozy lunches, but the plebs on the shop floor will get sacked if they had a drink six hours before they started their shift (because of safety issues). One rule for all.
I'm not saying drinking should be banned in parliament; I'm just wondering if there's a connection between the infamously boozy culture there (is that as bad as made out?) and some of the things that happen. IMO it cannot help.
Time to move on from Partygate, Beergate and all these other trivial and puritanical -gates and concentrate on real issues like the Economy.
And the first thing to do to fix the Economy is the Conservatives should oust Boris Johnson and replace him with someone prepared to trim back the state and cut taxes rather than expand it and raise them.
It - like all of this medieval nonsense we cling to - is a nonsense.
2) Is utterly preposterous. "One rule for all" should mean that health and safety regulations apply to all where they are appropriate not all at all times even when inappropriate.
If the rule is that you must wear a hard hat if on a construction site then everyone in the construction site should be wearing a hardhat, whether they be bigwigs or not. But its not a reason to say that office workers need to wear a hardhat while in the office, nor does it mean that construction workers who are in the office can't take their hardhat off while in the office.
The rule is not for the worker based on job title, but what they are doing. If health and safety is an issue, the rule applies, if it is not, it does not.
Brexit added x,000 new civil service jobs because we now have to do piles of things we never had to worry about as the EU did it.
In fact most departments have valid arguments to increase staff numbers rather than cut them due to Governmental demands.
Starmer should have refused the knighthood, surely. I can see Boris using it mercilessly in an election
In comparison, Starmer is going to spend the next 12hrs droning on about how UK is down the toilet and even if we do x, y and z, still going to be shit.
Where Boris runs out of road is when we get the situation like now, where all the boosterism isn't going to work when everything around you is getting more expensive by the day.
Duty? I have both had to fill in and do the manager bit when the actual manager couldn't be arsed, and seen people slip quietly out the door with nothing. It is neither work nor essential.
Time to cut back the welfare state and reduce the burden that people who are not working impose on those who are.
Maybe they want more foetuses to grow up to be children so they can be shot in classrooms by bullets made by the people who bankroll the NRA.
Good luck!
Its' going to be 'No case, abuse the opposition!'
Ergo, what Mr J et al did was neither work nor necessary for work.
1) Pro-abortion and anti-death penalty
2) Anti-abortion and pro-death penalty
[ TTs UK🇬🇧 13:59 ]
"Sir Beer Korma" entered the Top Trends => 4⃣
Genius
Of course it is possible further photos will emerge this week
Resign: 59%
Remain: 30%
via @YouGov, 25 May
Mind you, he turned it down on the grounds that his existing title was ancient - one the longest continuously held titles - and he esteemed it more than a political life peerage.
So whatever you think of it, the joke has done the job. People are arguing about a pun
Three quarters of British people thing he lied
Half of Tory voters think he lied
More than half of leave voters think he lied
Going well for the Tories. All in the past now and his entirely honest apology has been accepted.
If Durham are significantly more robust than the Met. which we all hope they are, in investigating when a work event crossed the line to become a social event and they find Starmer, Rayner and Foy even inadvertently guilty, Starmer and Rayner must go.
1 - PMQs
4 - #notmovingon
5 - #toriespartiedwhilepeopledied
6 - Tobias Ellwood
9 - No10
16 - Humbled
17 - Theresa May
21 - The Thick of It
22 - General Election
24 - Wine Time Fridays
26 - BoJo
29 - #politicslive
Combine that with the YouGov snap poll and he will need more than one gag to get him out of this.
If so, then yes. Excellent media management
As soon as I looked at the meal deal images it was WHAT? IS THAT IT??
I thought we were building up to some ultimate snorting-chang-off-a-taut-buttock snap, but no. You could feel the outrage drain away,
all around
And the claims by the likes of Bryant - calling number 10 “a cesspit of entitled, arrogant narcissism” - sounded like unhinged hyperbole
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pms-superpower-is-to-trivialise-everything-cjxrq2tvs
Boris has had some lame jokes of late. Maybe he’s hired a talented newbie
If he can calm the troops this afternoon Johnson has completed an excellent day's work (for himself).
Its not going to happen, but it should.
Starmer’s overplayed his hand on this and I think he knows it, hence PMQs today focusing on cost of living. The real line of attack should be against profligate public sector spending and the national insurance jobs tax. But I just don’t think he has it in him to deliver a knockout punch on that territory.
But enough. Time to move on.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/analysis-boris-johnson-humble-act-partygate-safe_uk_628e2328e4b0933e736d65fb
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/david-canzini-the-key-player-in-westminster-youve-never-heard-of-5t7fftckm
1) Lied to Parliament
or
2) Too stupid to realise he was at parties
Our enemies like Putin will be licking their lips at the UK having such a gullible Prime Minister.
The Dems will never reach in a thousand years.
Vladimir Corbyn was neither "a clever piece of wordplay" nor particularly topical. A bit s***, really.
https://twitter.com/BenKentish/status/1529454545801252865
Pretty much the "received wisdom".....which I'm usually sceptical about....
Personally I don’t think it helps Boris if it sticks, it merely reminds us of the whole Partygate affair in which Boris was caught bang to rights partying and lying about it (according to the vast majority of voters).
At the time the 18th was passed, nobody would have guessed the 21st would be passed just a few years later. In just a few years the public opinion went from 2/3rds of states in one extreme direction, to 2/3rds in the opposite extreme.
The problem is all the pussyfooting about refusing to spell out the argument because the 2nd has taken on a quasi-religious status, or pretending that sufficiently tight laws can be passed while the 2nd stands.
The Overton Window needs shifting and that needs people being honest and saying that the 2nd must go.
Here's a description of the 18 June 2020 event: "The event lasted for a number of hours. There was excessive alcohol consumption by some individuals. One individual was sick. There was a minor altercation between two other individuals." Dry civil service language, but clearly more of a piss up.
And now she’s saying they’re NOT going to scrap the NIP?
The government are all over the place, like a mad woman’s breakfast.