Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Options

Trump at a 25% chance looks value for the WH2024 GOP nomination – politicalbetting.com

1246789

Comments

  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,002
    edited June 2021

    isam said:

    The media have this as their main story and they will not let this go

    Rightly so. Boris has to sack him & will suffer in the polls/elections if he doesn’t
    Bounce if he does?
    Probably. He should do, it’s such a no brainer - it gives him a massive out from the Cummings revelations and the ‘Hancock never told Boris how good the vaccines were vs Delta in the meetings ‘ news too.

    Come to think of it, that could be why this story has come out
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,020
    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,517
    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582
    tlg86 said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    Have to think that HMS Defender's journey the other day was to demonstrate to Biden who his closest ally really is.
    The presence of HNLMS Evertsen (Royal Netherlands Navy) makes it something more than just a UK decision.

    I smell a NATO vs EU issue on this - the German "East Politics" grouping has always prioritised relations with Russia. Ever since the 19th cent.....

    Some of the East European states think that the traditional "sacrifice for the greater good of the EU" will mean that they are the sacrifice.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,002
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941
    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
    Indeed, but the reliance on Russian gas was a clear policy choice by the Germans, when they closed their nuclear plants without sufficient alternative energy sources in place.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    Good that Hancock has apologised.

    I wonder how many people who said Cummings should have apologised will graciously accept Hancock's apology?

    It is not enough

    Even Burley left Sky for 6 months when she breached covid rules

    And this is the person who is responsible for them

    I cannot see how any conservative can defend him and this conservative does not
    Where do you stand on the argument he is only playing follow the leader, so how can the leader sack him?
    The issue is breaking the rules. Not having an affair.
    What about the argument it is the affair if the story becomes damaging? Wall to wall days of media shouting sleaze and hypocrisy could impact the by election?

    Take the Telegraph for example, since last week election defeat a marked shift in tone to now supporting the Conservative Party, not the Boris Party. Does number 10 need momentum to that theme, by ignoring what Conservatives think about the affair, not just the little rule breach.
    We're not in the 19th century anymore. I don't think anyone is naive enough to think sex is an issue in this day and age.

    Telling the rest of us to lockdown while he doesn't. That's the story and that's serious.

    Affairs? Couldn't care less. People have tried to destroy politicians like Truss and Boris over affairs before and nobody cares anymore. Quite right too!
    Call me naive then. Libertarian minds like yours may smirk into the waiting lips of adulterery, but Conservatives believe in the sanctity of marriage and think of the children. Leader of the Conservative Party has to think like this.
    "Conservatives" like you are an outdated laughing stock.

    The leader of the Conservative Party is a twice divorced serial adulterer.

    One of the best Conservative Cabinet Ministers is the adulterer Liz Truss whom Turnip Taliban idiots like you tried to destroy before she was even an MP. As discussed on here by @bunnco our man on the spot at the time.

    People like you need to join the rest of us in the 21st century.
  • Options
    gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    edited June 2021
    eek said:

    isam said:

    The media have this as their main story and they will not let this go

    Rightly so. Boris has to sack him & will suffer in the polls/elections if he doesn’t
    Bounce if he does?
    Unlike, more like another slight delay in an inevitable decline in the polls...

    Mainly because I really cannot see any more votes that Boris can grab the Tories already have every possible vote that Boris can win them.
    Reform and Lib Dem’s may now become their biggest polling danger; especially when belt tightening and pasty taxes kicks in.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582
    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
    Call me stupid, but I would, if had been German Chancellor for a few years, tried exploring alternatives....
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,517

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Sandpit said:

    German health minister: 'Delta variant will have the upper hand over the summer'
    The more infectious Delta coronavirus variant will become dominant in Germany over the summer, health minister Jens Spahn said this morning.

    “The Delta variant will have the upper hand over the summer, it’s more a matter of weeks than months,” Spahn told a news conference, adding the variant currently makes up more than 15% of coronavirus cases reported in Germany.

    ---

    But its ok, everybody to the beaches and nightclubs of Southern Europe to intermingle.....

    Crowding the unvaccinated youth of Europe in the 10,000 capacity nightclubs of Ibiza, definitely isn’t going to result in a massive new wave of infection all over the continent.
    But hey - lets quarantine the Brits.......
    So who are they going to blame when it demonstrably can't be our fault?
    At a wild guess - us still......
    Germany doesn't let us in anyway. So they must have got Delta some other way.
    Germany tried to bully the Club Med countries into quarantining the UK. Portugal made meek and compliant noises, but the Spanish told the Germans to fuck off, they want UK tourists and UK money

    Y Viva Espana

    I suggest all PB-ers get out to Spain ASAP as a mark of respect, and to show camaraderie against the Hun. Also, the Balearics are Going Green
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,517
    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    Gosh

    Hm

    Prayers for David, it was a little ominous
  • Options
    FishingFishing Posts: 4,561
    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
    They did it long before they needed the gas - see Brandt's shady Ostpolitik during the Cold War. And if we really want to go further back, the Rapallo area.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,618
    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
    But that doesn't make any sense either, Germany has got other import options as it could build a few LNG terminals on the North Sea coast and import gas from Qatar, Norway and the US just as we do. Nord Stream is a weak excuse.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 28,013
    159 missing, 4 dead in Miami.
    This will be a massive scandal.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,292
    edited June 2021
    Sandpit said:

    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
    Indeed, but the reliance on Russian gas was a clear policy choice by the Germans, when they closed their nuclear plants without sufficient alternative energy sources in place.
    Another idiotic decision by Merkel.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,990

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,048
    edited June 2021
    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    Good that Hancock has apologised.

    I wonder how many people who said Cummings should have apologised will graciously accept Hancock's apology?

    It is not enough

    Even Burley left Sky for 6 months when she breached covid rules

    And this is the person who is responsible for them

    I cannot see how any conservative can defend him and this conservative does not
    Where do you stand on the argument he is only playing follow the leader, so how can the leader sack him?
    The issue is breaking the rules. Not having an affair.
    What about the argument it is the affair if the story becomes damaging? Wall to wall days of media shouting sleaze and hypocrisy could impact the by election?

    Take the Telegraph for example, since last week election defeat a marked shift in tone to now supporting the Conservative Party, not the Boris Party. Does number 10 need momentum to that theme, by ignoring what Conservatives think about the affair, not just the little rule breach.
    We're not in the 19th century anymore. I don't think anyone is naive enough to think sex is an issue in this day and age.

    Telling the rest of us to lockdown while he doesn't. That's the story and that's serious.

    Affairs? Couldn't care less. People have tried to destroy politicians like Truss and Boris over affairs before and nobody cares anymore. Quite right too!
    Call me naive then. Libertarian minds like yours may smirk into the waiting lips of adulterery, but Conservatives believe in the sanctity of marriage and think of the children. Leader of the Conservative Party has to think like this.
    We know the leader doesnt.

    Edit:I don't think people need to relax their own morals on how they view adulterers, but it isnt the bar it used to be and that has to be acknowledged.

    If it ever was.
  • Options
    RogerRoger Posts: 18,898
    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Excuse me Matt can I borrow your dictaphone?

    No. Use your finger like everyone else
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
  • Options
    MattWMattW Posts: 18,715
    dixiedean said:

    "Ultimately, this is a personal matter...it is for him to decide."
    Appears to be the line to spin. In case anyone is unsure.

    The "it's difficult to argue that MH is not in a social bubble with a senior colleague at work who advises him every day" line was ... contextual.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941
    MaxPB said:

    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
    But that doesn't make any sense either, Germany has got other import options as it could build a few LNG terminals on the North Sea coast and import gas from Qatar, Norway and the US just as we do. Nord Stream is a weak excuse.
    Even worse, once the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline goes live, the existing pipeline through Ukraine becomes redundant - with all the political implications of that.
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582
    MaxPB said:

    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    @DaveKeating
    Angela #Merkel confirms at her closing #EUCO press conference that part of her reason for wanting an EU summit with Putin was for EU sovereignty, to show #Biden’s summit wasn’t speaking for the EU.


    https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1408398299913129986

    So they’re more interested in courting Putin than Biden.

    But they wonder why the UK left...
    Putin provides the gas Germany needs to avoid people freezing to death in Winter.

    I find I don't need to understand more than that when looking at how Germany deals with Russia.
    But that doesn't make any sense either, Germany has got other import options as it could build a few LNG terminals on the North Sea coast and import gas from Qatar, Norway and the US just as we do. Nord Stream is a weak excuse.
    I suggest you look at the "Importing LNG via ship is impossible/evil/insane" strain in German politics/media. The source of it is generally the East Politics types....
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,517

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
    TSE or OGH would surely have some of his details - email addy etc?
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Very seriously probably.

    People are able to compartmentalise their own mistakes quite easily without it affecting their general views or principles.

    You've still not given a reason you think as to why he wanted lockdown to be extended.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,333

    kinabalu said:

    isam said:

    Boris will probably be seen as strong and decisive and get a poll boost if he sacks Hancock for this - but if he doesn’t it could be the end of him

    Johnson sacking somebody for philandering would lay him wide open to the charge of being a rank hypocrite.
    There is absolutely no reason somebody should be sacked for philadering.

    The bigger charge is that Hancock broke the law he introduced. That makes it more complicated if the action was illegal.
    Cummings did that when he actually had the actual virus. So that ship has sailed. If Johnson sacks him it will be for shoddy, low rent reasons. Ditto if he doesn't sack him.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,002
    Roger said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Excuse me Matt can I borrow your dictaphone?

    No. Use your finger like everyone else
    A Bernard Manning joke Roger? My oh my
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 28,013
    edited June 2021

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Raises lots of questions.
    They have known each other for over 20 years.
    Did she become his advisor, work closely together, and then, suddenly, without any inkling or prior inclination, whatsoever, mutually decide to play tongue hockey in front of a CCTV camera?
    After 2 decades of it not crossing either of their minds?
  • Options
    DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 24,539

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
    I'd imagine that @TheScreamingEagles and others know or could easily look up his contact details at his Chambers.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,333

    God we are a country of lily-livered aren't we...its 10 sodding days, watch sodding Netflix, piss about on the internet. It hardly like you are in solitary Steve McQueen stylee.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9724613/Couple-forced-eat-cold-wet-difficult-digest-food-stuck-stuffy-room.html

    The food situation in the quarantine hotels does seem to be awful. I heard from my colleague who went through it that they would hear people in other rooms shouting out at midnight that they still hadn't received any food for the evening.

    There's no excuse for not being able to run the places properly, but some mate of the government has the contract and their determined to wring as much money from it as possible.
    Intermittent fasting, great for losing some holiday love handles....

    I personally have done 16/8 for 5+ years now, never felt better.
    I can't go very long without a nibble.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,990

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Yes, that's hypocrisy, but to argue that it was his motivation for the restrictions in the first place is quite frankly absurd.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,403

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Very seriously probably.

    People are able to compartmentalise their own mistakes quite easily without it affecting their general views or principles.

    You've still not given a reason you think as to why he wanted lockdown to be extended.
    I think @contrarian's is a good point. Like we have all discussed about the fire and brimstone preachers who preach fervently against homosexuality only to find out that they themselves are homosexual.

    Take a moment to ponder. He was responsible for a policy which we were told was vital to save lives and the country's assets (NHS, etc). I mean does it get more important than that?

    And he ignored it. He is a person of super discipline otherwise he wouldn't be in the position he is in today (for the moment) and yet those huge concerns of national importance were, in the end, not that important for him. Should they be for us, in which case?
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,205
    dixiedean said:

    159 missing, 4 dead in Miami.
    This will be a massive scandal.

    If I lived in a building like that in Florida, I would be so much more worried than if I lived in a building with Grenfell style cladding.
  • Options
    pingping Posts: 3,733
    edited June 2021
    dixiedean said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Raises lots of questions.
    They have known each other for over 20 years.
    Did she become his advisor, work closely together, and then, suddenly, without any inkling or prior inclination, whatsoever, mutually decide to play tongue hockey in front of a CCTV camera?
    Yeah. Odds on it’s been going on for a loooong time.

    Poor wifey. Poor kids.

    Awarding taxpayer-funded non exec directorships to his mistress is probably what should bring him down.

    I couldn’t give a damn about the social distancing rule breaking, tbh
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,403
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
    I'm assuming OGH and Robert do as a requirement to sign up.

    It's bonkers. We don't know each other on here, we all might have walked past each other a thousand times on the high street, and what is PB, it is an internet chat room, an anonymous one at that and yet this is extremely worrying and I feel the situation as though it was a friend.
    We are friends, let's face it. We're a bunch of old gits, gathering every day in a rickety pub to exchange village gossip and well-known opinions. We have in-jokes and backstory, we have feuds and alliances, we are a weird community of characters. Virtual, but real

    If a PB-er gets ill I feel it

    I was genuinely sad to hear about Plato, yet I never met her
    No you fuck off.



    :smile:
  • Options
    BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,489
    If anybody what's a change of subject here is an extract form the debate last night in the B and S By election hustings:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XePHj5MZaSI&t=250s

    Whatever you think of his opinions, I think GG is a better debater, (as you would expect with 50 years experience).
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,177
    In every political career comes a moment when the politician discovers how well he treated people on the way up (it’s usually a he.) How many colleagues rush to his defence on air? How hard do journalists put the boot in? How many people urge a sense of proportion on Twitter?
    https://twitter.com/NickBoles/status/1408395577176596480
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,517
    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
    I'm assuming OGH and Robert do as a requirement to sign up.

    It's bonkers. We don't know each other on here, we all might have walked past each other a thousand times on the high street, and what is PB, it is an internet chat room, an anonymous one at that and yet this is extremely worrying and I feel the situation as though it was a friend.
    We are friends, let's face it. We're a bunch of old gits, gathering every day in a rickety pub to exchange village gossip and well-known opinions. We have in-jokes and backstory, we have feuds and alliances, we are a weird community of characters. Virtual, but real

    If a PB-er gets ill I feel it

    I was genuinely sad to hear about Plato, yet I never met her
    No you fuck off.



    :smile:
    Haha

    Yes I was tempted to exclude you from the bonhomie, but no, I'd even be upset if something bad happened to a typical south Londoner like you
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,177
    No10 confirm @BorisJohnson is not sacking @MattHancock
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,333

    Fervently hope there isn't footage to verify the 'eat out' component


    Sorry in advance but I was wondering if the same camera 2 minutes later captured him nailing her in that 'up against the wall' configuration that's far more common in steamy dramas than it is in real life.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    TOPPING said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Very seriously probably.

    People are able to compartmentalise their own mistakes quite easily without it affecting their general views or principles.

    You've still not given a reason you think as to why he wanted lockdown to be extended.
    I think @contrarian's is a good point. Like we have all discussed about the fire and brimstone preachers who preach fervently against homosexuality only to find out that they themselves are homosexual.

    Take a moment to ponder. He was responsible for a policy which we were told was vital to save lives and the country's assets (NHS, etc). I mean does it get more important than that?

    And he ignored it. He is a person of super discipline otherwise he wouldn't be in the position he is in today (for the moment) and yet those huge concerns of national importance were, in the end, not that important for him. Should they be for us, in which case?
    I think everyone agrees the hypocrisy and breaking his own rules is a serious problem.

    But to pretend this shows that he doesn't actually have any reason to implement these rules? As opposed to just being a hypocrite which is bad enough?

    That's conspiracy theory nonsense. The truth is bad enough.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 28,013
    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    159 missing, 4 dead in Miami.
    This will be a massive scandal.

    If I lived in a building like that in Florida, I would be so much more worried than if I lived in a building with Grenfell style cladding.
    Indeed. At least you mitigate with sprinklers, alarms, fire doors, marshals and exit plans, etc..
    None much use if the whole shebang just falls down without warning.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,333
    Scott_xP said:

    Hancock...

    “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances. I have let people down and am very sorry. I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”

    So the Queen had it right. He's full of ...
  • Options
    MattWMattW Posts: 18,715
    Wishing David well.

    If anyone is doing some tracing, I recall that recently he wrote his first (?) article and put his full name on the byeline.

    I have to go out on a call, however.
  • Options
    FloaterFloater Posts: 14,195
    kinabalu said:

    God we are a country of lily-livered aren't we...its 10 sodding days, watch sodding Netflix, piss about on the internet. It hardly like you are in solitary Steve McQueen stylee.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9724613/Couple-forced-eat-cold-wet-difficult-digest-food-stuck-stuffy-room.html

    The food situation in the quarantine hotels does seem to be awful. I heard from my colleague who went through it that they would hear people in other rooms shouting out at midnight that they still hadn't received any food for the evening.

    There's no excuse for not being able to run the places properly, but some mate of the government has the contract and their determined to wring as much money from it as possible.
    Intermittent fasting, great for losing some holiday love handles....

    I personally have done 16/8 for 5+ years now, never felt better.
    I can't go very long without a nibble.
    You are Matt Hancock and I claim my £5
  • Options
    StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,571
    There's going to be a time when the PM says this and the public collectively says "no, we'll be the judge of that..."

    NEW: No 10: "The Prime Minister has accepted the Health Secretary's apology and considers the matter closed".

    🤨🤨🤨


    https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1408402314407428096?s=19
  • Options
    MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578
    MaxPB said:

    MrEd said:

    Fenman said:

    Hancock has been an arse. He should be sacked. But Boris doesn't want to set a precedent. After all, if being an arse gets you sacked..

    Who cares? It's not as though he was a manipulating older man seducing some fresh young thing. They are both married and both have kids. Nor did she exactly need the job, given who her husband is, so it's not as though Hancock is taking advantage of someone vulnerable. It is two married people who thought they could get away with a fling and now find it plastered across the papers.
    Well done for completely missing the actual story which is Hancock breaking his own rules that he imposed on the rest of the country. Rules for thee, not for me. I really don't care that he had an affair, that's his and his wife's business. The rule breaking is the nation's business.
    For Chr1st's sake, do you think people suddenly said "you know what, I'm not going to have an affair because the Government's social distancing rules makes it impossible"? Did Tinder suddenly stop operating?
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    edited June 2021
    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Yes, that's hypocrisy, but to argue that it was his motivation for the restrictions in the first place is quite frankly absurd.
    Maybe in the beginning it wasn't his motivation.

    Now, it undoubtedly is. He is hanging on because he loves the power paradise we have given him.
  • Options
    Scott_xP said:

    No10 confirm @BorisJohnson is not sacking @MattHancock

    The decision not to sack Hancock begs the question of which mistress Johnson was shagging in early May?
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,517
    kinabalu said:

    Fervently hope there isn't footage to verify the 'eat out' component


    Sorry in advance but I was wondering if the same camera 2 minutes later captured him nailing her in that 'up against the wall' configuration that's far more common in steamy dramas than it is in real life.
    The knee trembler. It isn't easy. Better if you are drunk

    I did it once with a sweet Scottish girl in the corridor of an empty train back from Lewes to London: the last train on a hot summer's night

    At least, we thought it was empty. But a middle-aged Indian gentleman came down the corridor, caught us at it, and politely said "Good evening" and then he walked on, entirely unfazed. Very dudely behaviour
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,292
    Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler will miss the remainder of England men's white-ball series against Sri Lanka with a right calf injury.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,990

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Yes, that's hypocrisy, but to argue that it was his motivation for the restrictions in the first place is quite frankly absurd.
    Maybe in the beginning it wasn't his motivation.

    Now, it undoubtedly is. He is hanging on because he loves the power paradise we have given him.
    Again, absurd. You are arguing his sole motivation for continuing the lockdown (which isn't his final decision anyway) is to have an affair.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582
    edited June 2021
    dixiedean said:

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    159 missing, 4 dead in Miami.
    This will be a massive scandal.

    If I lived in a building like that in Florida, I would be so much more worried than if I lived in a building with Grenfell style cladding.
    Indeed. At least you mitigate with sprinklers, alarms, fire doors, marshals and exit plans, etc..
    None much use if the whole shebang just falls down without warning.
    I think the issue of hurricanes is pertinent - every few years, *every building* in a large chunk of Florida gets a serious structural strength test. At the same time....

    Thankfully the actual chance of a fire in a high rise is much much less.
  • Options
    RogerRoger Posts: 18,898
    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Sandpit said:

    German health minister: 'Delta variant will have the upper hand over the summer'
    The more infectious Delta coronavirus variant will become dominant in Germany over the summer, health minister Jens Spahn said this morning.

    “The Delta variant will have the upper hand over the summer, it’s more a matter of weeks than months,” Spahn told a news conference, adding the variant currently makes up more than 15% of coronavirus cases reported in Germany.

    ---

    But its ok, everybody to the beaches and nightclubs of Southern Europe to intermingle.....

    Crowding the unvaccinated youth of Europe in the 10,000 capacity nightclubs of Ibiza, definitely isn’t going to result in a massive new wave of infection all over the continent.
    But hey - lets quarantine the Brits.......
    So who are they going to blame when it demonstrably can't be our fault?
    At a wild guess - us still......
    Germany doesn't let us in anyway. So they must have got Delta some other way.
    Germany tried to bully the Club Med countries into quarantining the UK. Portugal made meek and compliant noises, but the Spanish told the Germans to fuck off, they want UK tourists and UK money

    Y Viva Espana

    I suggest all PB-ers get out to Spain ASAP as a mark of respect, and to show camaraderie against the Hun. Also, the Balearics are Going Green
    A typically enlightened post from the provisional wing of the two world wars and one world cup gang
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818

    There's going to be a time when the PM says this and the public collectively says "no, we'll be the judge of that..."

    NEW: No 10: "The Prime Minister has accepted the Health Secretary's apology and considers the matter closed".

    🤨🤨🤨


    https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1408402314407428096?s=19

    We can but hope.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 28,013
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
    I'm assuming OGH and Robert do as a requirement to sign up.

    It's bonkers. We don't know each other on here, we all might have walked past each other a thousand times on the high street, and what is PB, it is an internet chat room, an anonymous one at that and yet this is extremely worrying and I feel the situation as though it was a friend.
    We are friends, let's face it. We're a bunch of old gits, gathering every day in a rickety pub to exchange village gossip and well-known opinions. We have in-jokes and backstory, we have feuds and alliances, we are a weird community of characters. Virtual, but real

    If a PB-er gets ill I feel it

    I was genuinely sad to hear about Plato, yet I never met her
    We must hope. He went to hospital. Had some tests. And is having a good, long kip under supervision, after a late, frantic night.
    That is what I am praying for anyway.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,002

    I've dropped DavidL an email asking how he is.

    I also have his mobile number and will buzz that later if he doesn't reply to the email.

    I’d say buzz it now
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,002
    Scott_xP said:

    No10 confirm @BorisJohnson is not sacking @MattHancock

    The day the polls turned?
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    There's going to be a time when the PM says this and the public collectively says "no, we'll be the judge of that..."

    NEW: No 10: "The Prime Minister has accepted the Health Secretary's apology and considers the matter closed".

    🤨🤨🤨


    https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1408402314407428096?s=19

    The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care may be a hypocrite but the First Lord of the Treasury isn't. 🤣🤣🤣
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 47,517
    isam said:

    I've dropped DavidL an email asking how he is.

    I also have his mobile number and will buzz that later if he doesn't reply to the email.

    I’d say buzz it now
    Yes, why wait? The worst it can do is interrupt him in a meeting or something

    At best, we will know he is OK, or not. I am sure he is fine but it is unsettling
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,177
    Contemptuous lobby briefing in which No 10 refuses to answer qs on whether Hancock broke the law or ministerial code. Says the PM has accepted his apology and 'considers the matter closed' followed by half an hour of epic stonewalling
    https://twitter.com/JasonGroves1/status/1408402273844269057
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,403
    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    159 missing, 4 dead in Miami.
    This will be a massive scandal.

    If I lived in a building like that in Florida, I would be so much more worried than if I lived in a building with Grenfell style cladding.
    Yep absolutely. It's like the car/plane crash paradox. You are much more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash on average but people would prefer to be involved in the former rather than the latter, given that in the latter, everyone (usually) dies.
  • Options
    BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,489
    dixiedean said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Raises lots of questions.
    They have known each other for over 20 years.
    Did she become his advisor, work closely together, and then, suddenly, without any inkling or prior inclination, whatsoever, mutually decide to play tongue hockey in front of a CCTV camera?
    After 2 decades of it not crossing either of their minds?
    Power, and the sense of power are powerful aphrodisiacs,

    Perhaps, the allure of a man who could shut down a nation, (and save it maybe) was the thing that attracted her to him? and more worrying perhaps the realisation by Hancock, that this is what was attracting her to him influenced the delay to reopening?

    Am I being too cynical here?

  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,333

    kinabalu said:

    isam said:

    Boris will probably be seen as strong and decisive and get a poll boost if he sacks Hancock for this - but if he doesn’t it could be the end of him

    Johnson sacking somebody for philandering would lay him wide open to the charge of being a rank hypocrite.
    I don't think the shagging around is really the problem. I think in general the public don't actually care that much about people having affairs anymore (Justin124 aside).

    I think it is more who is shagging around with in office hours (in the office) in the middle of a pandemic.
    I must be unusual then. For me, cheating on his wife marks him down far more than this 'hypocrisy' bollox. Hypocrisy has to be the most overattacked vice there is. We're all hypocrites. We don't all cheat on our partners.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582
    Roger said:

    Leon said:

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Sandpit said:

    German health minister: 'Delta variant will have the upper hand over the summer'
    The more infectious Delta coronavirus variant will become dominant in Germany over the summer, health minister Jens Spahn said this morning.

    “The Delta variant will have the upper hand over the summer, it’s more a matter of weeks than months,” Spahn told a news conference, adding the variant currently makes up more than 15% of coronavirus cases reported in Germany.

    ---

    But its ok, everybody to the beaches and nightclubs of Southern Europe to intermingle.....

    Crowding the unvaccinated youth of Europe in the 10,000 capacity nightclubs of Ibiza, definitely isn’t going to result in a massive new wave of infection all over the continent.
    But hey - lets quarantine the Brits.......
    So who are they going to blame when it demonstrably can't be our fault?
    At a wild guess - us still......
    Germany doesn't let us in anyway. So they must have got Delta some other way.
    Germany tried to bully the Club Med countries into quarantining the UK. Portugal made meek and compliant noises, but the Spanish told the Germans to fuck off, they want UK tourists and UK money

    Y Viva Espana

    I suggest all PB-ers get out to Spain ASAP as a mark of respect, and to show camaraderie against the Hun. Also, the Balearics are Going Green
    A typically enlightened post from the provisional wing of the two world wars and one world cup gang
    It's also a moot point. The Delta variant is at 15% of cases in Germany. Which means it will be 90% of cases in a matter of weeks.
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Yes, that's hypocrisy, but to argue that it was his motivation for the restrictions in the first place is quite frankly absurd.
    Maybe in the beginning it wasn't his motivation.

    Now, it undoubtedly is. He is hanging on because he loves the power paradise we have given him.
    Again, absurd. You are arguing his sole motivation for continuing the lockdown (which isn't his final decision anyway) is to have an affair.
    No I am arguing that his main motivation for continuing lockdown, against mounting evidence the pandemic is over, is his exalted position. A position that would be significantly denuded were the extraordinary powers to end.

    I know this because we know that whilst people were suffering under the rules he imposed, Hancock was f8cking his mistress.

  • Options
    RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 2,978
    Im not sure what you need to do to be sacked from the government anymore.

    Think not sacking him is a decision that will come back to haunt the Tories. It feels like massive double standards during a period we were consistently told to “be responsible and not to take risks”
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,403
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
    I'm assuming OGH and Robert do as a requirement to sign up.

    It's bonkers. We don't know each other on here, we all might have walked past each other a thousand times on the high street, and what is PB, it is an internet chat room, an anonymous one at that and yet this is extremely worrying and I feel the situation as though it was a friend.
    We are friends, let's face it. We're a bunch of old gits, gathering every day in a rickety pub to exchange village gossip and well-known opinions. We have in-jokes and backstory, we have feuds and alliances, we are a weird community of characters. Virtual, but real

    If a PB-er gets ill I feel it

    I was genuinely sad to hear about Plato, yet I never met her
    No you fuck off.



    :smile:
    Haha

    Yes I was tempted to exclude you from the bonhomie, but no, I'd even be upset if something bad happened to a typical south Londoner like you
    Your graciousness knows no bounds.
  • Options
    Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,584
    kinabalu said:

    God we are a country of lily-livered aren't we...its 10 sodding days, watch sodding Netflix, piss about on the internet. It hardly like you are in solitary Steve McQueen stylee.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9724613/Couple-forced-eat-cold-wet-difficult-digest-food-stuck-stuffy-room.html

    The food situation in the quarantine hotels does seem to be awful. I heard from my colleague who went through it that they would hear people in other rooms shouting out at midnight that they still hadn't received any food for the evening.

    There's no excuse for not being able to run the places properly, but some mate of the government has the contract and their determined to wring as much money from it as possible.
    Intermittent fasting, great for losing some holiday love handles....

    I personally have done 16/8 for 5+ years now, never felt better.
    I can't go very long without a nibble.
    Nor can Hancock, aparently.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,990

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Yes, that's hypocrisy, but to argue that it was his motivation for the restrictions in the first place is quite frankly absurd.
    Maybe in the beginning it wasn't his motivation.

    Now, it undoubtedly is. He is hanging on because he loves the power paradise we have given him.
    Again, absurd. You are arguing his sole motivation for continuing the lockdown (which isn't his final decision anyway) is to have an affair.
    No I am arguing that his main motivation for continuing lockdown, against mounting evidence the pandemic is over, is his exalted position. A position that would be significantly denuded were the extraordinary powers to end.

    I know this because we know that whilst people were suffering under the rules he imposed, Hancock was f8cking his mistress.

    And I'm arguing that is absurd. Since it isn't his final decision anyway.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582
    edited June 2021
    isam said:

    I've dropped DavidL an email asking how he is.

    I also have his mobile number and will buzz that later if he doesn't reply to the email.

    I’d say buzz it now
    Likewise. Had a friend who collapsed and was found via concerned friends/work colleagues trying to reach him.

    At the worst they get an extra text....
  • Options
    Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 2,765
    dixiedean said:

    159 missing, 4 dead in Miami.
    This will be a massive scandal.

    It could have massive implications for the property market in South Florida. Building high-rise on a sand spit could turn out to be a serious mistake. Unfortunately there are hundreds of similar buildings all the way from Miami to Palm Beach.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,333
    isam said:

    kinabalu said:

    isam said:

    Boris will probably be seen as strong and decisive and get a poll boost if he sacks Hancock for this - but if he doesn’t it could be the end of him

    Johnson sacking somebody for philandering would lay him wide open to the charge of being a rank hypocrite.
    Not at all, because the problem here is not morality but the touchy feeliness with skneknd outside his immediate household during the ‘ don’t hug granny’ era
    What are you meant to do with 'skneknd'?

    Having first told me who or what it is.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Scott_xP said:

    Contemptuous lobby briefing in which No 10 refuses to answer qs on whether Hancock broke the law or ministerial code. Says the PM has accepted his apology and 'considers the matter closed' followed by half an hour of epic stonewalling
    https://twitter.com/JasonGroves1/status/1408402273844269057

    And this is why lobby briefings aren't being televised.

    Congratulations to everyone who attacked the idea of televising them. 🤦‍♂️
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,146

    Matt Hancock has behaved exactly as you'd expect a minister in a government led by Boris Johnson to behave.

    He's always behaved like someone trying a bit too hard to be seen as an alpha male.
  • Options
    geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,176
    edited June 2021
    MattW said:

    Wishing David well.

    If anyone is doing some tracing, I recall that recently he wrote his first (?) article and put his full name on the byeline.

    I have to go out on a call, however.

    He works at Terra Firma Chambers, Edinburgh. They might know something.

  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,403

    TOPPING said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Very seriously probably.

    People are able to compartmentalise their own mistakes quite easily without it affecting their general views or principles.

    You've still not given a reason you think as to why he wanted lockdown to be extended.
    I think @contrarian's is a good point. Like we have all discussed about the fire and brimstone preachers who preach fervently against homosexuality only to find out that they themselves are homosexual.

    Take a moment to ponder. He was responsible for a policy which we were told was vital to save lives and the country's assets (NHS, etc). I mean does it get more important than that?

    And he ignored it. He is a person of super discipline otherwise he wouldn't be in the position he is in today (for the moment) and yet those huge concerns of national importance were, in the end, not that important for him. Should they be for us, in which case?
    I think everyone agrees the hypocrisy and breaking his own rules is a serious problem.

    But to pretend this shows that he doesn't actually have any reason to implement these rules? As opposed to just being a hypocrite which is bad enough?

    That's conspiracy theory nonsense. The truth is bad enough.
    It's more than that. If he really, really thought that people should remain socially distanced, even loved ones, parents, children, grandparents, he would not have done that because he would, in so doing, have been instrumental in spreading the virus that he told us could devastate the country.

    So it is possible he thought that social distancing rules weren't absolutely vital to prevent devastation of the country.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,177
    Matt Hancock's survival still changes Conservative party politics in a couple of ways, which I blog about here: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2021/06/matt-hancock-will-survive-tory-politics-will-change-big-way
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Yes, that's hypocrisy, but to argue that it was his motivation for the restrictions in the first place is quite frankly absurd.
    Maybe in the beginning it wasn't his motivation.

    Now, it undoubtedly is. He is hanging on because he loves the power paradise we have given him.
    Again, absurd. You are arguing his sole motivation for continuing the lockdown (which isn't his final decision anyway) is to have an affair.
    No I am arguing that his main motivation for continuing lockdown, against mounting evidence the pandemic is over, is his exalted position. A position that would be significantly denuded were the extraordinary powers to end.

    I know this because we know that whilst people were suffering under the rules he imposed, Hancock was f8cking his mistress.

    And I'm arguing that is absurd. Since it isn't his final decision anyway.
    You are arguing this is absurd with no evidence though. That's because there isn't any. The case against Hancock is overwhelming.
  • Options
    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,615
    Ignoring the private life aspect for a moment, is the suggestion that the S o S has broken a law, or a piece of guidance? SFAICS social distancing as such (a 2 metre rule etc being utterly unenforceable) has never been against the law.

    It is unlikely that a law was broken by two people lawfully in a workplace, or in other premises where they lawfully are. Unlike, say A entering the home of B when that was unlawful except for particular purposes.

    (Whether the distinction is relevant will depend, I think, on how it unfolds. I should have thought survival is unlikely.)
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,403
    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    isam said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    He hasn’t logged in here since 10:25 last night, so that is a little worrying
    This is concerning. Does anyone here have his phone number?
    I'm assuming OGH and Robert do as a requirement to sign up.

    It's bonkers. We don't know each other on here, we all might have walked past each other a thousand times on the high street, and what is PB, it is an internet chat room, an anonymous one at that and yet this is extremely worrying and I feel the situation as though it was a friend.
    We are friends, let's face it. We're a bunch of old gits, gathering every day in a rickety pub to exchange village gossip and well-known opinions. We have in-jokes and backstory, we have feuds and alliances, we are a weird community of characters. Virtual, but real

    If a PB-er gets ill I feel it

    I was genuinely sad to hear about Plato, yet I never met her
    We must hope. He went to hospital. Had some tests. And is having a good, long kip under supervision, after a late, frantic night.
    That is what I am praying for anyway.
    And his phone battery ran out. Not that updating PB would be, I hope, among his top 100 priorities.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,583
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    I am pleased to report that tales of my demise are somewhat exaggerated.
    I took the advice on here last night and called 999. I spent a somewhat uncomfortable night but feel somewhat better today. Still waiting for a scan but it looks like a blood clot.
    Thanks very much for the concern, it was much appreciated.
    Hurrah.
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,791
    Sandpit said:

    RobD said:

    isam said:

    The media have this as their main story and they will not let this go

    Rightly so. Boris has to sack him & will suffer in the polls/elections if he doesn’t
    Bounce if he does?
    Johnson should bury the hatchet with Hunt and appoint him.
    The SoS for health who ignored the recommendations of the 2016 pandemic preparedness exercise?
    That won't be the reason Johnson doesn't appoint him. Proper leaders (eg Mrs T) have no problem having strong subordinates. Weak leaders (eg Johnson) avoid such appointments because they make them look bad.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    I am pleased to report that tales of my demise are somewhat exaggerated.
    I took the advice on here last night and called 999. I spent a somewhat uncomfortable night but feel somewhat better today. Still waiting for a scan but it looks like a blood clot.
    Thanks very much for the concern, it was much appreciated.
    Great to hear from you!
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,166
    Oh dear, Matt Hancock.
    On the affair, people are a bit "am I bovvered" these days. Personally, I think that marriage vows matter, but I know I'm a bit old fashioned in that regard. Whatever.
    He clearly broke social distancing rules. Rules that he drew up and the rest of us have been following diligently, often at great personal sacrifice. So he should go for that.
    And he said he'd have sacked Ferguson for doing the same thing (although Ferguson had the good grace to resign first). So the hypocrisy of that should do for him too.
    Then there are the questions about putting someone on the public payroll when you have an undisclosed romantic relationship. Asking the public to bankroll his mistress, effectively. He should go for that too.
    So overall, I think he should definitely stay. Because every moment he's there he is harming this loathsome regime.
  • Options
    Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 2,765

    Matt Hancock has behaved exactly as you'd expect a minister in a government led by Boris Johnson to behave.

    He's always behaved like someone trying a bit too hard to be seen as an alpha male.
    Now he's a delta male. Si momumentum requiris etc etc
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    I am pleased to report that tales of my demise are somewhat exaggerated.
    I took the advice on here last night and called 999. I spent a somewhat uncomfortable night but feel somewhat better today. Still waiting for a scan but it looks like a blood clot.
    Thanks very much for the concern, it was much appreciated.
    Good to hear from you - all the best.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,177
    Labour: “This matter is definitely not closed, despite the Government’s attempts to cover it up.

    “Matt Hancock appears to have been caught breaking the laws he created while having a secret relationship with an aide he appointed to a taxpayer-funded job."

    https://twitter.com/REWearmouth/status/1408408440469348356
  • Options
    MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578
    Sandpit said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    I am pleased to report that tales of my demise are somewhat exaggerated.
    I took the advice on here last night and called 999. I spent a somewhat uncomfortable night but feel somewhat better today. Still waiting for a scan but it looks like a blood clot.
    Thanks very much for the concern, it was much appreciated.
    Great to hear from you!
    Seconded!
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    justin124 said:

    justin124 said:

    ping said:

    I genuinely feel sorry for Hancock’s family.

    Wiki says he has 3 kids, I assume are school age. That’s gonna be nasty for them.

    Where is the proof that Hancock is actually bonking this lady? Many will get involved to the extent of a good snog - which is all this CCTV shows - without taking things so far as a full physical relationship. At what point does it become adultery? Before or after the people concerned have slept together? Until the mid-1960s many couples engaged in 'courtship' for years and managed to abstain from full sex until the wedding night.
    The proof he broke his own covid rules is in the public domain

    And he has admitted the affair
    Ok - but that still begs the question as to what is meant by 'having an affair'? If it went no further than a good snog, has he committed adultery?
    Who cares?

    The issue is he broke his own distancing rules.

    Whether he did that with his tongue or his penis isn't relevant at all.
    No, the issue is his motivation for appropriating his extraordinary power, wielding it, and most importantly of all, withholding its return.

    It has emerged there are powerful reasons why Matt Hancock might not want to give British people their freedoms back, over and above any issues with regard to disease.

    That is the issue.
    Ah, so lockdowns are nothing to do with Covid? Absurd.
    Now when we get to the nub of the matter, the central office shills appear. Ask Hancock what his motivation for imposing, maintaining and above all extending lockdown was.

    It was the preservation of his extraordinary power. Power he manifestly got off on.
    Yes, nothing at all to do with Covid.
    At the beginning, COVID. Maybe

    But now......FFS grow up.
    Yeah, it's all so he can keep having affairs, or something.
    Well if he was f8cking his mistress while telling you you that you could not hug your granny, or a dying relative, or someone you loved in a care home how seriously do you think he believed in his advice? How seriously did he believed in a policy he imposed without recourse to parliament or an election?
    Very seriously probably.

    People are able to compartmentalise their own mistakes quite easily without it affecting their general views or principles.

    You've still not given a reason you think as to why he wanted lockdown to be extended.
    I think @contrarian's is a good point. Like we have all discussed about the fire and brimstone preachers who preach fervently against homosexuality only to find out that they themselves are homosexual.

    Take a moment to ponder. He was responsible for a policy which we were told was vital to save lives and the country's assets (NHS, etc). I mean does it get more important than that?

    And he ignored it. He is a person of super discipline otherwise he wouldn't be in the position he is in today (for the moment) and yet those huge concerns of national importance were, in the end, not that important for him. Should they be for us, in which case?
    I think everyone agrees the hypocrisy and breaking his own rules is a serious problem.

    But to pretend this shows that he doesn't actually have any reason to implement these rules? As opposed to just being a hypocrite which is bad enough?

    That's conspiracy theory nonsense. The truth is bad enough.
    It's more than that. If he really, really thought that people should remain socially distanced, even loved ones, parents, children, grandparents, he would not have done that because he would, in so doing, have been instrumental in spreading the virus that he told us could devastate the country.

    So it is possible he thought that social distancing rules weren't absolutely vital to prevent devastation of the country.
    It isn;t just possible, it is probable he thought that.

    He got off on making people do what he wanted. In bending them to his will. Obviously. Manifestly.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 28,013
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    I am pleased to report that tales of my demise are somewhat exaggerated.
    I took the advice on here last night and called 999. I spent a somewhat uncomfortable night but feel somewhat better today. Still waiting for a scan but it looks like a blood clot.
    Thanks very much for the concern, it was much appreciated.
    Hurrah!
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    alex_ said:

    Completely O/T - but i don't suppose anyone has had any further news today in relation to DavidL? It's all very concerning if not.

    Yes, was rather concerning about @DavidL. Hope he’s okay and in hospital.
    Yes, that was scary

    Has anyone heard from him?
    I am pleased to report that tales of my demise are somewhat exaggerated.
    I took the advice on here last night and called 999. I spent a somewhat uncomfortable night but feel somewhat better today. Still waiting for a scan but it looks like a blood clot.
    Thanks very much for the concern, it was much appreciated.
    Very glad you're ok! And that you got the help you needed.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,583
    Scott_xP said:

    Labour: “This matter is definitely not closed, despite the Government’s attempts to cover it up.

    “Matt Hancock appears to have been caught breaking the laws he created while having a secret relationship with an aide he appointed to a taxpayer-funded job."

    https://twitter.com/REWearmouth/status/1408408440469348356

    It's the hypocrisy and the fact we paid for her to work for him, that will errr finish Matt Hancock off.
This discussion has been closed.