It seems like the longer Russia wait, the more support flows to Ukraine. At this time I'm not sure it would make a substantive difference, but it sort of begs the question of whether the Russians are really here for the show as much as anything.
I've been struggling to understand why people have been telegraphing Russia invading Ukraine at the end of January since about, approximately, mid-November? If you're seriously planning to invade a country don't you want some sort of element of surprise?
Maybe I'm grasping at straws out of hope here but...
That's what I've wondered too. It's not his usual pattern, which has tended to involve rather a lot of surprise. So what does that mean?
- That they're bluffing - That this is a feint, and they're about to do something unexpected - That they have blundered?
You surely don't muster so many troops without some goal in mind, but if it is a threat what does he think can be achieved without blood being shed, and if it were a distraction what could possibly slip by that would be worth such a furore?
“A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish PM a happy birthday. He was there for less than 10 minutes.”
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 2m EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, ITV News has learnt.
Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where Carrie Johnson surprised him with a cake, we're told.
Why the heck would he not have come clean with that if that is true? It was bound to come up.
What is curious is why is this being revealed now and not after the Gray report came out?
I guess there most be another (worse) story ready to go for when the Gray report actually arrives
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 2m EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, ITV News has learnt.
Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where Carrie Johnson surprised him with a cake, we're told.
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 5m ITV News has learnt that Lulu Lytle - who was redecorating the Prime Minister's flat at the time - also came down to the party.
It lasted for 20-30 mins we're told, Later that night ITV News understands family friends also celebrated upstairs in the PM's flat.
So it's not a works party if someone from elsewhere is there.
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
LOL. Most of Johnson's "big stuff" in London came to nothing and simply wasted everyone's time and lots of our money.
One of the interesting thing about the fixed-term limits to the mayoralty (London, in this case), is that it shows how little power a mayor has to change things in their period in power.
Take the Olympics. Delivered under Johnson, but got under Livingstone. Who takes most of the credit for its success? Johnson, obviously, but much of the groundwork (literally) was under his predecessor.
Eight years, and particularly four years, is little time to change things for the better as most impactful projects take much longer to come to fruition. All a mayor can do is influence the direction of policy travel.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 2m EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, ITV News has learnt.
Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where Carrie Johnson surprised him with a cake, we're told.
It was a work birthday do, obviously.
Cummings is raiding the library again. He knows the story will always stall without new revelations, particularly now Russia is moving towards the agenda.
Bad poll for his project ? No problem, here's his solution an hour afterward, and hey presto, the first revelation in several days.
We don't know it's Dom. Well, it could be someone else. Theoretically.
For all I wish he had never entered public life, and had maxed out at having a chain of disappointing nightclubs in the North East, one can't help admire the relentlessness of the plan. It's like a python toying with a dazed hamster. Every time little Hammie thinks he's wriggled free...
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 2m EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, ITV News has learnt.
Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where Carrie Johnson surprised him with a cake, we're told.
Why the heck would he not have come clean with that if that is true? It was bound to come up.
What is curious is why is this being revealed now and not after the Gray report came out?
I guess there most be another (worse) story ready to go for when the Gray report actually arrives
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
It is your Tory Brexiteer nationalist friends removing our rights to protest and free speech. And I like a bit of Dua Lipa.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
LOL. Most of Johnson's "big stuff" in London came to nothing and simply wasted everyone's time and lots of our money.
One of the interesting thing about the fixed-term limits to the mayoralty (London, in this case), is that it shows how little power a mayor has to change things in their period in power.
Take the Olympics. Delivered under Johnson, but got under Livingstone. Who takes most of the credit for its success? Johnson, obviously, but much of the groundwork (literally) was under his predecessor.
Eight years, and particularly four years, is little time to change things for the better as most impactful projects take much longer to come to fruition. All a mayor can do is influence the direction of policy travel.
True, but at least the projects Livingstone started, such as the bikes and the olympics, came to be seen as successes. With Johnson there was the (non) island airport, the (non) garden bridge, the cable car to nowhere (number of regular users = zero), the Olympic stadium scandal, the expensive bus, the income-generating helter-skelter that costs Londoners £10,000 a week, the Olympic village sold for half what it cost to build, the (non) new Crystal Palace, etc.
Even the bike scheme, which Johnson promised would be self funding with private investment, has ended up costing £millions in annual subsidy.
I have seen it estimated that the total waste and overspending on Johnson’s follies across his mayoralty adds up to not far short of a wasted £billion. He did however break a fair few records - the most expensive cable car in the world, the most expensive bus (or mobile sauna, in summer) in the world, etc.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
It seems like the longer Russia wait, the more support flows to Ukraine. At this time I'm not sure it would make a substantive difference, but it sort of begs the question of whether the Russians are really here for the show as much as anything.
I've been struggling to understand why people have been telegraphing Russia invading Ukraine at the end of January since about, approximately, mid-November? If you're seriously planning to invade a country don't you want some sort of element of surprise?
Maybe I'm grasping at straws out of hope here but...
That's what I've wondered too. It's not his usual pattern, which has tended to involve rather a lot of surprise. So what does that mean?
- That they're bluffing - That this is a feint, and they're about to do something unexpected - That they have blundered?
You surely don't muster so many troops without some goal in mind, but if it is a threat what does he think can be achieved without blood being shed, and if it were a distraction what could possibly slip by that would be worth such a furore?
This is the confusing thing. Something doesn't add up. It feels like either a tactical blunder, or some kind of genius masterstroke of which we are not yet aware.
I do tend to think the troop build up is in order to get leverage over the Western powers and try to extract concessions. Otherwise there are other, easier things he could surely have done. No.1 being a palace coup in Kiev supported by some deniable little green men, like the kind of thing the Americans used to get up to in Central America. But perhaps the judgment was there's just not enough popular pro-Russian support in Ukraine anymore to make this sustainable.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 2m EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, ITV News has learnt.
Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where Carrie Johnson surprised him with a cake, we're told.
Why the heck would he not have come clean with that if that is true? It was bound to come up.
What is curious is why is this being revealed now and not after the Gray report came out?
I guess there most be another (worse) story ready to go for when the Gray report actually arrives
Anyone think there was no wedding reception?
I thought there was? We saw photos of Petacci as poundshop Galadriel, surely?
Thought there might have been a reason why ITV were keen on asking the PM this morning in the pool interview if he could guarantee that no more embarrassing allegations would come out before the Gray inquiry reported 😏
For those wondering...
Rep - Can you guarantee no more allegations about breaches before that report is published?
PM - What I can guarantee is that this government is focussed 100% on dealing with the big problems that we have (goes onto talk about NHS etc).
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 2m EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, ITV News has learnt.
Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where Carrie Johnson surprised him with a cake, we're told.
Why the heck would he not have come clean with that if that is true? It was bound to come up.
You’re not trying hard enough to get into the Johnson mindset.
As for family friends going up to the PM's flat, No 10 deny this:
"This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
We have approached Lulu Lytle for comment.
WTF was Lulu Lytle doing working in the No 10 / No 11 flat during June 2020 - work from home was still a requirement and redirecting isn't the sort of life and death repair works that were allowed to be done.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I am wondering how Johnson gets the payments to you, out in Dubai? Surely there’s a trail that one day will come to light.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
This was a cake in the office, for people who were all working there anyway, not a party where invitations were sent to outsiders, no?
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I am wondering how Johnson gets the payments to you, out in Dubai? Surely there’s a trail that one day will come to light.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
Also it doesn't count as a works do because 2 different sets of workers were in room at the same time (No 10 staff and the decorators of the No 10 flat).
“A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish PM a happy birthday. He was there for less than 10 minutes.”
It's an odd one. Why do we put the in front of a handful of countries and not others? Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon. Congo I can kind of understand, because it's a river basin. And obviously others do actually officially start with a the, like the UK, the US etc. But why that handful?
Biden calling UVDL, Macron, German and Italy leaders tonight over Russia threat to Ukraine
And for the avoidance of doubt Boris will also be in the call
I expect in the next couple of days Boris to stand at the dispatch box all Churchillian and the the letters will melt away
Is he a lucky general so to speak
Will you melt?
Not me but I do expect this story could have a big influence over conservative mps
Are you actually serious ??
Yes
To the extent that at least some Conservative MPs are working really hard to avoid confronting the issue, War (albeit with Russia, not France or Spain) gives them an excuse for a bit more procrastination.
it shouldn't- see Gulf War I in 1990, but any port in a storm.
But then what? He's still being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar on lockdown parties. He still has a crazed ferret determined to kill him. Even on this R+W poll, his ratings are grim, before everyone realises that the government has made him poorer.
The Ukraine crisis buys him time, but what can he do with it?
It's an odd one. Why do we put the in front of a handful of countries and not others? Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon. Congo I can kind of understand, because it's a river basin. And obviously others do actually officially start with a the, like the UK, the US etc. But why that handful?
As for family friends going up to the PM's flat, No 10 deny this:
"This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
We have approached Lulu Lytle for comment.
WTF was Lulu Lytle doing working in the No 10 / No 11 flat during June 2020 - work from home was still a requirement and redirecting isn't the sort of life and death repair works that were allowed to be done.
To be fair, decorating does require a few site visits.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
Here's a tale of a sad old man who flies to the other side of the world in a beautiful destination and then hangs around half the day on a UK based political betting forum, winding people up, railing at anyone who isn't, like him, a baby boomer drug taker who boasts of multiple sexual encounters including teenage Thai prostitutes, not to mention inappropriate remarks about Emma Raducanu.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
I did tell you all that worse to come but the birthday party isn't even in the top 5 worst ones.
The fact it was the cabinet room does indicate it was work related but the problem with these stories is that everyone believes parties were held and they become less effective in adding to the story
Sue Gray's report is the key and without something that is unequivocally negative I expect Boris to carry on for now
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
Ageing lecher wishes the young would get drunk or stoned more often? Not a good look, pal.
It's an odd one. Why do we put the in front of a handful of countries and not others? Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon. Congo I can kind of understand, because it's a river basin. And obviously others do actually officially start with a the, like the UK, the US etc. But why that handful?
Wasn't aware of it for Yemen or Lebanom. Changing convention perhaps.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
This was a cake in the office, for people who were all working there anyway, not a party where invitations were sent to outsiders, no?
Cake for two different groups of people who shouldn't have mixed together.
Parties are important, but of equal concern for some should be the resignation of the Lords Treasury Minister Lord Agnew over the billions in furlough fraud.
Biden calling UVDL, Macron, German and Italy leaders tonight over Russia threat to Ukraine
And for the avoidance of doubt Boris will also be in the call
I expect in the next couple of days Boris to stand at the dispatch box all Churchillian and the the letters will melt away
Is he a lucky general so to speak
Will you melt?
Not me but I do expect this story could have a big influence over conservative mps
Are you actually serious ??
Yes
To the extent that at least some Conservative MPs are working really hard to avoid confronting the issue, War (albeit with Russia, not France or Spain) gives them an excuse for a bit more procrastination.
it shouldn't- see Gulf War I in 1990, but any port in a storm.
But then what? He's still being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar on lockdown parties. He still has a crazed ferret determined to kill him. Even on this R+W poll, his ratings are grim, before everyone realises that the government has made him poorer.
The Ukraine crisis buys him time, but what can he do with it?
The bastard is looking for (potentially) thousands of Russian and Ukrainian casualties to save his ;political skin.
Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV · 2m EXCLUSIVE: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, ITV News has learnt.
Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where Carrie Johnson surprised him with a cake, we're told.
Why the heck would he not have come clean with that if that is true? It was bound to come up.
What is curious is why is this being revealed now and not after the Gray report came out?
I guess there most be another (worse) story ready to go for when the Gray report actually arrives
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
This was a cake in the office, for people who were all working there anyway, not a party where invitations were sent to outsiders, no?
Look at the rules, it was against the rules.
Otherwise the rest of the country could have set up their own limited companies, hire their mates, and use 'work' events to hold parties, that too would have been against the law.
To use another principle, they had to be wholly, exclusively, and necessarily for work reasons.
My youngest's birthday falls in the middle of June, so I was fairly aware of what was permissible in June 2020 for birthday parties.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
Ageing lecher wishes the young would get drunk more often? Not a good look, pal.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
This was a cake in the office, for people who were all working there anyway, not a party where invitations were sent to outsiders, no?
Look at the rules, it was against the rules.
Otherwise the rest of the country could have set up their own limited companies, hire their mates, and use 'work' events to hold parties, that too would have been against the law.
To use another principle, they had to be wholly, exclusively, and necessarily for work reasons.
My youngest's birthday falls in the middle of June, so I was fairly aware of what was permissible in June 2020 for birthday parties.
Parties are important, but of equal concern for some should be the resignation of the Lords Treasury Minister Lord Agnew over the billions in furlough fraud.
A blow to Sunak's leadership ambitions?
Now there’s an actual story, that journalists could be spending their time usefully working through. But no, the PM got a birthday cake from his wife.
As for family friends going up to the PM's flat, No 10 deny this:
"This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
We have approached Lulu Lytle for comment.
WTF was Lulu Lytle doing working in the No 10 / No 11 flat during June 2020 - work from home was still a requirement and redirecting isn't the sort of life and death repair works that were allowed to be done.
To be fair, decorating does require a few site visits.
At the time our decorator was working at Morrisons as decorating wasn't allowed...
I suspect he would have preferred to be decorating as it earnt about £50 more a day than he was getting at the time.
The Russia Ukraine crisis is now leading the media and increasingly so
1) The Sue Gray report is presented to the HOC by Boris and lots of sounds of fury but his mps fail to send in the letters. Boris stands firm against Russia, Rishi announces the suspension of the NI rise, abolishes vat on energy and implements a generous grant scheme to all standard rate taxpayer households, Gove announces the levelling up schemes and Boris carries on praying for some respite in May
Or
2) He is gone by the end of the week
If I was betting on that I think 1 is favourite
Apart frrom "Tory Minister resigns in Covid fraud". which happens to be leading the news but I am surprised. This sort of thing is so commonplace with this government It's odd that they bother to report it
I have no idea which news you are watching but it is Russia Ukraine and right now a live NATO conference
It did briefly flash up on the BBC website.
The entire bounce back loans debarcle was entirely known about and could be seen coming down the line a year ago. I regularly frequent AccountingWeb/AnyAnswers forum (a riviting read for accountants and non-accountants alike.... okay, I jest; its as dry as anything) and every accountant on there was reporting that they felt for sure they had to file SARs (Suspicious Activity Reports, rather than Subject Access Requests) for a good number of their clients who'd taken the maximum bounceback loan of £50k, whizzed it up the wall on a new motor for themselves then filed DS01 a week later to strike their company off.
I doubt even half of bounceback loans will ever be repaid.
Agnew's account of his struggles to get it taken seriously are damning.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/jan/24/uk-politics-boris-johnson-conservatives-labour-nusrat-ghani ...The oversight by both BEIS [the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industry Strategy] and the British Business Bank of the panel lenders of BBLs has been nothing less than woeful. They have been assisted by the Treasury, who appear to have no knowledge or little interest in the consequences of fraud to our economy or our society... etc.
The fact that he's (apparently) close to Gove and Truss might account for the timing of this, but he does seem to have resigned for good reason, out of sheer frustration with the government.
I suspect this might be Rishi dished. ...Agnew said, at the start of the pandemic, BEIS had just two counter-fraud officials on its staff, neither of whom were experienced in this area. They refused to enagage with the counter-fraud team at the Cabinet Office reporting to Agnew, Agnrew said.
Schoolboy errors were made, for example allowing over a thousand companies to receive bounceback loans that were not even trading when Covid struck ...
I’ve been arguing with Treasury and Bay’s officials for nearly two years to get them to lift their game. I’ve been mostly unsuccessful.
Agnew said he was particulary worried about how banks had been able to claim back 100% of some Covid loans that were written off. He said three out of the seven main lenders were responsible for 87% of the loans paid out to firms that are now dissolved. And two of the seven lenders were responsible for 81% of loans to firms set up after the pandemic started, he said.
Agnew said, if only the British Business Bank would “wake up”, there was still time to take action on duplicate loans paid out. He went on:
Despite pressing BEIS and BBB for over a year, there is still no single dashboard of management data to scrutinise lender performance. It is inexcusable.
We’ve already paid out nearly £1bn pounds to banks claiming the state guarantee . The percentage of these losses estimated to be from fraud rather than credit failure is 26%. I accept this as only an earlier approximation but a very worrying one.
Agnew said he had at least four differences of opinion with Treasury officials on what the government shoud be doing.
He said there was a failure by Treasury and BEIS officials to understand the “complete disjunction” between the amount of criminal activity in this area, probably hundreds of thousands of cases, and the capacity of the enforcement agencies trying to stop it. For example, Natis, the National Investigation Service, can handle just 200 cases a year, he said....
BEIS is Kwasi iirc. Where does he stand on the succession? Agnew's line that stands out is "no single dashboard" which sounds very Cummingsesque.
And previously Sharma. But this was a Treasury scheme.
Little known fact: he was a connoisseur of Rhône blends, vintage Malmsey and new Balkan whites, was an early enthusiast for English fizz, and kept an exceptional cellar in Qom
Nadine Dorries @NadineDorries Whether it’s a major music festival, sporting event or concert, it's important that people pay a fair price to see the events they love. Please remain vigilant when considering to buy from ticket touts. Guidance is available if you are unsure: http://fanfairalliance.org/faqs/
Nadine must be shitting herself about Johnson getting ousted. No-one but The Clown would put such a numpty in a government job. Anyone know what her majority is? I'd be tempted to go and canvass for any party that has a chance of dislodging her.
24K. Queen Nadine is going nowhere!
Perhaps Martin Bell will come out of retirement to challenge her... worked with getting rid of Neil Hamilton.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
This was a cake in the office, for people who were all working there anyway, not a party where invitations were sent to outsiders, no?
Look at the rules, it was against the rules.
Otherwise the rest of the country could have set up their own limited companies, hire their mates, and use 'work' events to hold parties, that too would have been against the law.
To use another principle, they had to be wholly, exclusively, and necessarily for work reasons.
My youngest's birthday falls in the middle of June, so I was fairly aware of what was permissible in June 2020 for birthday parties.
He wanted his mates round, he couldn't.
Was it not also against the rules to go to the office in the first place? With limited exceptions, like, oh I dunno, working at the heart of government in Downing St?
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
Rishi is teetotal and not Muslim, I know plenty of Muslims who aren't teetotal. Small minded, teetotaller puritans come in all shapes and sizes, someone I worked previously with fit that category and was an older English man, I also know a fair number of Americans who fit that category too!
Yea, but when you attack someone who is a Muslim and is teetotal it is a bit, well perhaps, suspect? A bit like attacking someone for not being one of the lads and enjoying a bacon sandwich when they are Jewish.
I think being teetotal is a bit too common a thing to lead to suspicion it is used as a codeword without something else to back it up - like Goldsmith's attempts to portray Khan as friendly to extremist.
Generational. Over 50 and being teetotal is a bit "suspicious" to many. Under 35s will find it bizarre to think of being teetotal as derogatory. Leon showing his age catching up with him......
Oh I entirely admit that. The sobriety of Millennials and Gen Z is a constant disappointment, likewise their lower IQs, their inability to have sex, inability to breed, inability to defend Free Speech, their inability to make good music, and so on, ad nauseam
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
Here's a tale of a sad old man who flies to the other side of the world in a beautiful destination and then hangs around half the day on a UK based political betting forum, winding people up, railing at anyone who isn't, like him, a baby boomer drug taker who boasts of multiple sexual encounters including teenage Thai prostitutes, not to mention inappropriate remarks about Emma Raducanu.
What a saddo.
Hmm. Fair comment. Hard to argue
OTOH you are much younger, and you ALSO spend half your time on a political betting website. Difficult to know which is more tragic. Possibly you?
Parties are important, but of equal concern for some should be the resignation of the Lords Treasury Minister Lord Agnew over the billions in furlough fraud.
A blow to Sunak's leadership ambitions?
Nope this is a data collection issue which would seem to be in Lord Agnew's remit. His complaint seems to be down to lack of reporting which has to be an easy job to fix if you are a minister with a remit that covers that area
EU foreign ministers are planning to condemn "Russia's continued aggressive actions and threats against Ukraine", while calling for de-escalation at Monday's (24 January) meeting in Brussels.
Can anybody understand or explain the EU's foreign policy approach on is eastern borders? It seems to lack all coherence.
Is the EU hopelessly split or hopelessly united? The spin changes so often one becomes dizzy.
They’re hopelessly split, trying hard to spin being united against Russia, while standing back and letting Putin roll the tanks towards Kiev.
As if they had a choice. They mostly rely on other powers to underwrite any military deterrent. Including powers that, in Britain, they have a rocky relationship with and despise.
Its nuts.
So what do the hawks on this propose? Sending our troops and planes to defend the Ukraine steppe? If so what happens if there is direct and fatal conflict with the Russian Army?
UK will send weapons, drones and probably a few “diplomats” from Hereford to help out. As will most of the West, including the US once Mr President has woken up from his afternoon nap.
The RAF MQ-9A fleet is in Mosul and Kuwait, though with American mercenaries, sorry contractors, doing the launch and recovery element. They can't transit controlled airspace and couldn't be deconflicted even if they could get to Ukraine.
This isn't some Call of Duty DLC with really good textures we're talking about. It's a real shooting war with fucking Russia. I can't believe how naive and blasé people are about involving British forces.
Agreed, though of course there are already UK forces in Ukraine - albeit in limited numbers, and for training purposes only.
Is there anyone here arguing for committing British forces to fight in Ukraine?
I am. If Ukraine requests them.
Then you are foolish. That risks escalating to WWIII for very little gain over sending equipment.
Appeasement didn't work in 1938 and 1939. The way you prevent wars is by making aggression too expensive. We failed to do that in 2014, which is why we need a different approach. Is equipment enough? Let's hope so. But if it's not we either up the ante or we fold. And if we fold, how do you think things will look in another 8 years? How will Europe enjoy a wave of Ukrainian refugees, with Russian agents provocateurs mixed in with them? I don't like the sound of that, personally.
“ The way you prevent wars is by making aggression too expensive.”
🤣🤣🤣
And how do you know you are achieving that? Surely the main factor it depends how determined or desperate the antagonist is, the very thing you cannot for certain be sure of?
There are certainties in War - Death, misery, destruction....
The outcome isn't on of them. Indeed, it is arguable that every country that *started* a war since 1870 has lost.
Peace is to be preferred. But the question them becomes - Are *you* prepared to be the price of peace?
This got missed. A fascinating conjecture
“Every country that started a war since 1870 has lost”
I can see where you are coming from, but obvious exceptions immediately spring to mind
Israel surely started a couple of wars, then won. Also several wars of independence? Ireland, Vietnam, multiple others
Russia in Crimea, very recently
The devil is in the detail of “starting”. Sensible countries about to invade or overthrow someone else usually invent a casus belli, so they can claim “we didn’t start it”
Israel arguably never started any wars.
Who started the war is very arguable and the victors tend to write that it was the losers that did.
The Six Day War? There was a context to it, but the actual shooting was clearly started by Israel. And they won.
Parties are important, but of equal concern for some should be the resignation of the Lords Treasury Minister Lord Agnew over the billions in furlough fraud.
A blow to Sunak's leadership ambitions?
Yes, and a lot of business bounceback loans too. It was ridiculously easy to get mine.
Biden calling UVDL, Macron, German and Italy leaders tonight over Russia threat to Ukraine
And for the avoidance of doubt Boris will also be in the call
I expect in the next couple of days Boris to stand at the dispatch box all Churchillian and the the letters will melt away
Is he a lucky general so to speak
Will you melt?
Not me but I do expect this story could have a big influence over conservative mps
Are you actually serious ??
Yes
To the extent that at least some Conservative MPs are working really hard to avoid confronting the issue, War (albeit with Russia, not France or Spain) gives them an excuse for a bit more procrastination.
it shouldn't- see Gulf War I in 1990, but any port in a storm.
But then what? He's still being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar on lockdown parties. He still has a crazed ferret determined to kill him. Even on this R+W poll, his ratings are grim, before everyone realises that the government has made him poorer.
The Ukraine crisis buys him time, but what can he do with it?
Time will tell
Sky reporting that the cabinet room event was in fact at the end of day and as it was a surprise Boris was unaware of it
No 10 also rejecting the party in the flat that night saying a few family friends within the regulations met outside in the garden
As for family friends going up to the PM's flat, No 10 deny this:
"This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
We have approached Lulu Lytle for comment.
WTF was Lulu Lytle doing working in the No 10 / No 11 flat during June 2020 - work from home was still a requirement and redirecting isn't the sort of life and death repair works that were allowed to be done.
To be fair, decorating does require a few site visits.
And the singing "Happy Birthday" might have been a reminder of how long to wash your hands for.
"People arriving in England from abroad will no longer have to take Covid tests if they are fully vaccinated, the government has confirmed.
The changes will be introduced from 4am on 11 February "in time for the half term break", said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps."
It’s excellent news for central London, which NEEDS those tourists back
What we really need is a Mayor who can let go of the pandemic as well though. Sadiq seems singularly determined to remind everyone about it and advertise to the world that London is a plague city despite the fact that it isn't really. Lots of media and assorted lefties also need to stop talking the nation down internationally or making bogus comparisons and using idiotic terms like "plague island". It's really dented the confidence of some Europeans from coming to the UK. The conversation I had with my Italian colleague still rings in my ears, loads of them really do believe that people were dying in the streets of London unable to get healthcare, that hasn't been helped by the blue ticks on twitter trying to pretend it is.
I also think we need to wind down the daily COVID dashboard as well, maybe by the end of March. Two years seems fair.
Perhaps Boris can resign and become Mayor of London again. I would happily vote for him. It was probably his ideal job
I mean, he was necessary to win the Brexit referendum and probably the only guy/girl who could have won that majority to force Brett through, but now that’s done, he seems done. Mission Accomplished. What is his ambition now?
If Boris goes back to being Mayor then Sadiq can move to his ideal job which is probably film censor in Rabat
Oh man, I'd take Boris back in an instant. The job of the Mayor is to advertise London on a global scale, whether that's to tech startups, to financial services companies, tourists or top global chefs looking for new restaurant sites. Sadiq is completely incapable of doing any of this. The running of the city happens automatically anyway, it really was the perfect job for Boris.
Yup
Basically, to “run” - or rather promote - a big young global partying vibrant have-fun-and-make-money please-come-here world city like London, you need to be a hedonist. Literally. Boris and Ken were both that, in very different ways
Sadiq is a small minded teetotaller puritan. He’s got the exactly wrong skill set for the job, which is one reason, I think, he is so bad at it. He doesn’t like it. Doesn’t sit well
OTOH I have friends in Tooting who say Khan was an excellent constituency MP. Diligent and caring. Good at the small stuff. He should go back to the small stuff, where he’d probably be happier - and get more things done
..yea and that Muslim stuff, like being teetotal. Makes people feel, well, you know, uncomfortable?
And it wasn't teetotaller Khan who banned having a tinnie on the tube either.
Possibly the best thing Boris did as Mayor. Sure, plenty of people now ignore it - but it improved the tube massively overnight.
Did it? I never noticed a booze problem on the tube (Christmas excepted, perhaps) but perhaps it depended which line you took.
I used to finish work at 10pm. People drinking was a pretty bad problem.
Parties are important, but of equal concern for some should be the resignation of the Lords Treasury Minister Lord Agnew over the billions in furlough fraud.
A blow to Sunak's leadership ambitions?
Yes, and a lot of business bounceback loans too. It was ridiculously easy to get mine.
I can pay mine off shortly though.
The puzzling thing to me is there seem to be forces moving against Johnson in the 1922, but as far as I can see they don't have a candidate.
Sunak, Truss & Co are getting caught in the net, too.
That is a good header. But, in my experience, most parts of the government exist in a perpetual state of crisis. However, most things blow over or are buried successfully. If you lurch in to every crisis with a view to unearthing truth and justice very little will get done, and you prompt overreactions with perverse consequences. That is what we see a lot of time now with policies on crime and justice - lots of new rules and laws hastily bought in, in response to bad things that have happened, whereas such issues were previously absorbed in to the vagaries of the administrative state. The problem with BoJo and the tories is that there is no solution to their crisis: you can 'get him out' to a brief round of applause, but then exactly what? Who can reconstruct and sustain the electoral coalition that BoJo assembled in 2019? It is a perfectly viable course of action to just let him try and ride out the problems he has created, in the hope that his particular style will get him through it.
The best part of the Boris/Tories parties story in the UK is that everytime a new one is revealed you have to ask yourself ‘So the last time they went on air to defend themselves over the last party they knew there was another hidden one that could come out anytime’ 🤦🏽♂️ https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1485684808030298114
One of the things that Tory MPs will be considering tonight. The strong speculation last week was that the most damaging revelations, (in particular photos), have not yet been released, but are actually being held back for after the publication of the Sue Gray report. https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1485685321698267140
Really interesting piece on the 1922 plotting to bring down Johnson in the Telegraph just out. Unfortunately it's behind their subscriber wall but if you read it, it's well worth it.
Are we really now on to “PM’s wife got him a birthday cake” as some sort of scandal?
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
I know you live in Dubai but during that time people in this country were getting fined for having similar birthday parties.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
This was a cake in the office, for people who were all working there anyway, not a party where invitations were sent to outsiders, no?
Look at the rules, it was against the rules.
Otherwise the rest of the country could have set up their own limited companies, hire their mates, and use 'work' events to hold parties, that too would have been against the law.
To use another principle, they had to be wholly, exclusively, and necessarily for work reasons.
My youngest's birthday falls in the middle of June, so I was fairly aware of what was permissible in June 2020 for birthday parties.
He wanted his mates round, he couldn't.
Was it not also against the rules to go to the office in the first place? With limited exceptions, like, oh I dunno, working at the heart of government in Downing St?
Doctors who were working the front line against the pandemic couldn't do what Downing Street did in June 2020 (and May 2020, and December 2020, et al)
The finale of a TV series often sees the separate strands of the story brought together for the denouement. And now we have Downing Street parties, Lulu Lytle and cakeism all in the same scene. https://twitter.com/DavidGauke/status/1485685881776357383
Parties are important, but of equal concern for some should be the resignation of the Lords Treasury Minister Lord Agnew over the billions in furlough fraud.
A blow to Sunak's leadership ambitions?
Yes, and a lot of business bounceback loans too. It was ridiculously easy to get mine.
I can pay mine off shortly though.
The puzzling thing to me is there seem to be forces moving against Johnson in the 1922, but as far as I can see they don't have a candidate.
Sunak, Truss & Co are getting caught in the net, too.
I did tell you all that worse to come but the birthday party isn't even in the top 5 worst ones.
I do hope you are right.
Just an hour ago, fanbois and former fanbois were singing Johnson's Churchillian praises in three part harmony.
I don't care who replaces him anymore. Just get rid of this dangerous clown.
It's tragic but predictable.
And yet in the polls the Tories have narrowed the lead by a pretty dramatic five points or so?
Right now, as in midnight Colombo time, it is conceivable to imagine Boris surviving. This new party won’t change much. We already know of 387 other parties. Eventually the accusations will wither in effect. The new ones you hint at need to be absolutely spectacular and involve Boris yodelling naked in a Swastika-embossed Fez surrounded by 200 interns in iingerie: with all of that on video
And I say that as someone who thinks he should go, as that makes a defeat of Labour/SNP more likely in 2024
MPs are pusillanimous by nature. Their careers depend on choosing the right leader. Boris, for all his monumental and now cruelly- exposed flaws, is a proven winner….. it will make many pause
What's also interesting is how we've now reached the point where No.10 have stopped even trying to claim these events were within the rules. "He was there for less than 10 minutes". But the British people weren't told, "meet for 10 minutes on your Birthday, but that's it". https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1485687206886916099
Biden calling UVDL, Macron, German and Italy leaders tonight over Russia threat to Ukraine
And for the avoidance of doubt Boris will also be in the call
I expect in the next couple of days Boris to stand at the dispatch box all Churchillian and the the letters will melt away
Is he a lucky general so to speak
Will you melt?
Not me but I do expect this story could have a big influence over conservative mps
Are you actually serious ??
Yes
To the extent that at least some Conservative MPs are working really hard to avoid confronting the issue, War (albeit with Russia, not France or Spain) gives them an excuse for a bit more procrastination.
it shouldn't- see Gulf War I in 1990, but any port in a storm.
But then what? He's still being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar on lockdown parties. He still has a crazed ferret determined to kill him. Even on this R+W poll, his ratings are grim, before everyone realises that the government has made him poorer.
The Ukraine crisis buys him time, but what can he do with it?
Time will tell
Sky reporting that the cabinet room event was in fact at the end of day and as it was a surprise Boris was unaware of it
No 10 also rejecting the party in the flat that night saying a few family friends within the regulations met outside in the garden
Not Cummings best attempt by the looks of it
Oh for goodness sake BigG. the Queen had to bury her husband alone. Yet Johnson could celebrate his birthday with impunity.
You were one of the posters who wanted Steve Kinnock's nuts when he placed a birthday cake at Neil's door and withdrew 10 metres. But Boris can enjoy a surprise party organised by his GF for ten minutes (yeah, right).
His response should have been " ffs get out of here now. I know it's my birthday, but for the love of God, get the hell out of here...ALL of you! Carrie wtf were you thinking?"
I did tell you all that worse to come but the birthday party isn't even in the top 5 worst ones.
I do hope you are right.
Just an hour ago, fanbois and former fanbois were singing Johnson's Churchillian praises in three part harmony.
I don't care who replaces him anymore. Just get rid of this dangerous clown.
It's tragic but predictable.
But why? Is it the schoolboy gang scenario where some fairly unlikable oaf gets minions and goons to do his will by raw charisma? The general public (who haven't been in the room with him) have fallen away, so what's holding the guard in place?
It does feel like some are waiting for that scene at the end of Lord of the Flies where a grownup arrives and makes it better- but real life isn't like that.
I did tell you all that worse to come but the birthday party isn't even in the top 5 worst ones.
How many of your top 5 are general (public) knowledge?
The party the night before the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral.
Is there anything that tops that in your eyes or is that Number One?
Hard to imagine anything as viscerally shocking as that. Short of a video of Boris doing Jagerbombs from a hookers belly button.
One of them yes.
Imagine some people holding illegal parties then being too hungover/took ages to clean up the office the next morning to delay an important Covid-19 meeting.
I did tell you all that worse to come but the birthday party isn't even in the top 5 worst ones.
The fact it was the cabinet room does indicate it was work related but the problem with these stories is that everyone believes parties were held and they become less effective in adding to the story
Sue Gray's report is the key and without something that is unequivocally negative I expect Boris to carry on for now
You are absolutely right BIG G - Partygate has run it’s course, adding to the story can not only not harm Boris anymore, but partygate fatigue is now creeping in after the initial angry stage, hence the polls closing up again.
Eagles should know this. 😕. Maybe he is thinking about the money he won’t get back for rejoining the party in lost cause, but he is another still fighting a war that is over.
More seriously now, in Boris transformation from loved to feared, is what happens to the failed rebels - Sunak in particular. If you could guess what they will do to Sunak - hollow him out by pointing out the bad job he has done with tax payers money, then in the relaunch reshuffle offering him foreign Office in straight swap with the well performing Liz, it’s down to Rishi if he accepts that offer or leaves government - if we are second guessing that is what they will do having seen the coup off, then it looks today like they have already started it?
Poor Pork Pie plotters!
And Cummings. They have obviously put the MI5 creeps on him, I can see them jailing him! 😦
Biden calling UVDL, Macron, German and Italy leaders tonight over Russia threat to Ukraine
And for the avoidance of doubt Boris will also be in the call
I expect in the next couple of days Boris to stand at the dispatch box all Churchillian and the the letters will melt away
Is he a lucky general so to speak
Will you melt?
Not me but I do expect this story could have a big influence over conservative mps
Are you actually serious ??
Yes
To the extent that at least some Conservative MPs are working really hard to avoid confronting the issue, War (albeit with Russia, not France or Spain) gives them an excuse for a bit more procrastination.
it shouldn't- see Gulf War I in 1990, but any port in a storm.
But then what? He's still being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar on lockdown parties. He still has a crazed ferret determined to kill him. Even on this R+W poll, his ratings are grim, before everyone realises that the government has made him poorer.
The Ukraine crisis buys him time, but what can he do with it?
Time will tell
Sky reporting that the cabinet room event was in fact at the end of day and as it was a surprise Boris was unaware of it
No 10 also rejecting the party in the flat that night saying a few family friends within the regulations met outside in the garden
Not Cummings best attempt by the looks of it
Oh for goodness sake BigG. the Queen had to bury her husband alone. Yet Johnson could celebrate his birthday with impunity.
You were one of the posters who wanted Steve Kinnock's nuts when he placed a birthday cake at Neil's door and withdrew 10 metres. But Boris can enjoy a surprise party organised by his GF for ten minutes (yeah, right).
His response should have been " ffs get out of here now. I know it's my birthday, but for the love of God, get the hell out of here...ALL of you! Carrie wtf were you thinking?"
I have no idea about Kinnock and if the rules about family gathering outside were followed then many others would have done the same
To be fair I do not know the rules on family gatherings at the time but I am fairly certain my family could come into our garden
Rowena @JustRowena When a seasoned criminal is caught, they know after a certain point additional offences don't add to the sentence and ask for them all to be taken into consideration. Cos it's worse if they come out later in a separate trial.
Comments
“A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish PM a happy birthday. He was there for less than 10 minutes.”
Yet interior designer Lulu Lytle - not No 10 staff - was invited.
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1485678846007463945
I guess there most be another (worse) story ready to go for when the Gray report actually arrives
They are utterly useless. Cowardly and drug-free. They probably all WANT to live in Xi’s China
The number of positive Covid-19 cases in the Premier League has fallen for the fourth week in a row.
In the seven days up to and including Sunday 23 January, there were 16 new positive cases among players and staff, from 6,221 tests.
It is the lowest number of positives in a week since 5 December.
Probably a good indication of wider infection rates.
For all I wish he had never entered public life, and had maxed out at having a chain of disappointing nightclubs in the North East, one can't help admire the relentlessness of the plan. It's like a python toying with a dazed hamster. Every time little Hammie thinks he's wriggled free...
https://twitter.com/JamesAALongman/status/1485680510525489153
https://twitter.com/darrenmccaffrey/status/1485678755649662989
No other notes from me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine#Etymology_and_orthography
Even the bike scheme, which Johnson promised would be self funding with private investment, has ended up costing £millions in annual subsidy.
I have seen it estimated that the total waste and overspending on Johnson’s follies across his mayoralty adds up to not far short of a wasted £billion. He did however break a fair few records - the most expensive cable car in the world, the most expensive bus (or mobile sauna, in summer) in the world, etc.
I do tend to think the troop build up is in order to get leverage over the Western powers and try to extract concessions. Otherwise there are other, easier things he could surely have done. No.1 being a palace coup in Kiev supported by some deniable little green men, like the kind of thing the Americans used to get up to in Central America. But perhaps the judgment was there's just not enough popular pro-Russian support in Ukraine anymore to make this sustainable.
I did tell you all that worse to come but the birthday party isn't even in the top 5 worst ones.
Spending 10 minutes slicing a cake for the staff and contractors who were in the office, really doesn’t tally with most people’s idea of a party. If this is all Dom has, from his meticulous record-keeping…
✅ Wallpaper woman
✅ Martin Reynolds
✅ Party gathering against rules
✅ Singing happy birthday
It could only more perfectly sum up the last two years if Dominic Cummings burst out of the cake dressed as Marilyn Monroe, and Matt Hancock tried to chat him up.
https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1485681393682235396
For those wondering...
Rep - Can you guarantee no more allegations about breaches before that report is published?
PM - What I can guarantee is that this government is focussed 100% on dealing with the big problems that we have (goes onto talk about NHS etc).
https://twitter.com/robpowellnews/status/1485681309204815872
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1485677114200403975
As for family friends going up to the PM's flat, No 10 deny this:
"This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
We have approached Lulu Lytle for comment.
WTF was Lulu Lytle doing working in the No 10 / No 11 flat during June 2020 - work from home was still a requirement and redirecting isn't the sort of life and death repair works that were allowed to be done.
Why do you think the government was messaging this?
The week before the party, the PM told us all: "meeting inside other people's homes - that remains against the law".
The Queen had rearranged her birthday, as had millions more. For some, it would be their last.
it shouldn't- see Gulf War I in 1990, but any port in a storm.
But then what? He's still being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar on lockdown parties. He still has a crazed ferret determined to kill him. Even on this R+W poll, his ratings are grim, before everyone realises that the government has made him poorer.
The Ukraine crisis buys him time, but what can he do with it?
Josephine sets a great example to us all by postponing her birthday party until we have sent coronavirus packing.
Together we can beat this. In the meantime let's all wish her happy birthday (twice) whilst washing our hands. #BeLikeJosephine #StayHomeSaveLives https://twitter.com/LocksHeathCC/status/1241103836292530176 https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1241348429546217475/photo/1
What a saddo.
Just a shame your penises are LITERALLY TINY NOW
https://news.sky.com/story/human-penises-are-shrinking-because-of-pollution-warns-scientist-12255106
Sue Gray's report is the key and without something that is unequivocally negative I expect Boris to carry on for now
A blow to Sunak's leadership ambitions?
Like I said, bastard!
Otherwise the rest of the country could have set up their own limited companies, hire their mates, and use 'work' events to hold parties, that too would have been against the law.
To use another principle, they had to be wholly, exclusively, and necessarily for work reasons.
My youngest's birthday falls in the middle of June, so I was fairly aware of what was permissible in June 2020 for birthday parties.
He wanted his mates round, he couldn't.
I suspect he would have preferred to be decorating as it earnt about £50 more a day than he was getting at the time.
But this was a Treasury scheme. Qom Perignon ?
OTOH you are much younger, and you ALSO spend half your time on a political betting website. Difficult to know which is more tragic. Possibly you?
I can pay mine off shortly though.
Suppose BoJo resigned tonight. He won't, but suppose.
Would you-know-who keep on leaking... just for the LOLs?
Just an hour ago, fanbois and former fanbois were singing Johnson's Churchillian praises in three part harmony.
I don't care who replaces him anymore. Just get rid of this dangerous clown.
Sky reporting that the cabinet room event was in fact at the end of day and as it was a surprise Boris was unaware of it
No 10 also rejecting the party in the flat that night saying a few family friends within the regulations met outside in the garden
Not Cummings best attempt by the looks of it
The man's a national treasure, really.
The headlines write themselves
(Edit: I am available for £3 an hour as the joke has already been made)
Sunak, Truss & Co are getting caught in the net, too.
https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1485684808030298114
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1485685321698267140
“This is yet more evidence that we have got a Prime Minister who believes that the rules that he made don’t apply to him.
"And so we have got a Prime Minister and a government who spend their whole time mopping up sleaze and deceit.” https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1485685935043973126/photo/1
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/24/1922-coup-members-tory-partys-influential-group-mobilising-against/
Fascinating stuff.
https://twitter.com/DavidGauke/status/1485685881776357383
Going into work w/ regular wine-fuelled gatherings in the garden with colleagues/friends is better for mental health than living alone & Zooming gran
https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1481358243574263812
You are wrong to do so as it is part of a political dialogue not an expression of support for Boris
Indeed as a betting site I assume expressing an opinion on a possible outcome may be of assistance
Hard to imagine anything as viscerally shocking as that. Short of a video of Boris doing Jagerbombs from a hookers belly button.
(…checks book.)
Right now, as in midnight Colombo time, it is conceivable to imagine Boris surviving. This new party won’t change much. We already know of 387 other parties. Eventually the accusations will wither in effect. The new ones you hint at need to be absolutely spectacular and involve Boris yodelling naked in a Swastika-embossed Fez surrounded by 200 interns in iingerie: with all of that on video
And I say that as someone who thinks he should go, as that makes a defeat of Labour/SNP more likely in 2024
MPs are pusillanimous by nature. Their careers depend on choosing the right leader. Boris, for all his monumental and now cruelly- exposed flaws, is a proven winner….. it will make many pause
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1485687206886916099
You were one of the posters who wanted Steve Kinnock's nuts when he placed a birthday cake at Neil's door and withdrew 10 metres. But Boris can enjoy a surprise party organised by his GF for ten minutes (yeah, right).
His response should have been " ffs get out of here now. I know it's my birthday, but for the love of God, get the hell out of here...ALL of you! Carrie wtf were you thinking?"
It does feel like some are waiting for that scene at the end of Lord of the Flies where a grownup arrives and makes it better- but real life isn't like that.
Imagine some people holding illegal parties then being too hungover/took ages to clean up the office the next morning to delay an important Covid-19 meeting.
According to Octopus, I used £857.46 of electricity and £177.36 of gas between 1 Oct and 28 Dec, and I now owe them £734.93 of debt.
Time for some investigation. That's more than my entire bill last year, and prices have not quadrupled.
The electricity estimate for the 3 months is double last year's entire use.
Eagles should know this. 😕. Maybe he is thinking about the money he won’t get back for rejoining the party in lost cause, but he is another still fighting a war that is over.
More seriously now, in Boris transformation from loved to feared, is what happens to the failed rebels - Sunak in particular. If you could guess what they will do to Sunak - hollow him out by pointing out the bad job he has done with tax payers money, then in the relaunch reshuffle offering him foreign Office in straight swap with the well performing Liz, it’s down to Rishi if he accepts that offer or leaves government - if we are second guessing that is what they will do having seen the coup off, then it looks today like they have already started it?
Poor Pork Pie plotters!
And Cummings. They have obviously put the MI5 creeps on him, I can see them jailing him! 😦
To be fair I do not know the rules on family gatherings at the time but I am fairly certain my family could come into our garden
@JustRowena
When a seasoned criminal is caught, they know after a certain point additional offences don't add to the sentence and ask for them all to be taken into consideration. Cos it's worse if they come out later in a separate trial.
No idea why that popped into my head.