The British Politics Thread - The Bear and Badger

monkey

There was some journo saying a source had suggested the report was going for the line that the 'unique' nature of Downing Street - it's a residence and a place of business - means the rules don't really cover it effectively.

acemuzzy

Meanwhile the VIP Lane has been found unlawful. Which is a shame given the literal billions adjust spaffed up it.

poprock

monkey wrote:

There was some journo saying a source had suggested the report was going for the line that the 'unique' nature of Downing Street - it's a residence and a place of business - means the rules don't really cover it effectively.

He’ll have had legal advisors workshopping potential loopholes all night.

And, erm, everybody across the UK working from home would have a pertinent question about that use of the word ‘unique’.

mistercrayon

acemuzzy wrote:

It will say it was a work event not a party. So he'll say he's been vindicated. Or some shite. Even though it wasn't even permitted for work events.

The two mitigations on BBC seem to be
1) it was in his house so he’s safe
2) Downing Street is not a public place so some of the rules don’t apply.

LivDiv

If I ran one of those ambulance chaser law firms I would be combing through that law right now.
Got to be a good chance of a side business in getting fines overturned.

LivDiv

mistercrayon wrote:

It will say it was a work event not a party. So he'll say he's been vindicated. Or some shite. Even though it wasn't even permitted for work events.

The two mitigations on BBC seem to be 1) it was in his house so he’s safe 2) Downing Street is not a public place so some of the rules don’t apply.

People were fined for hosting parties in their homes so neither of those can be right. Or the law wasn't enforced correctly.
If anything it was hosts getting the fines while attendees were moved on.

(not that Im saying the BBC wont be running with them)

monkey

There's the technicalities, which can just be made up to suit him. Then there's what everyone can see with their own eyes. And there's no escape for him from the second one. He's guilty. It's done. There's no way he's fighting the next election with that potentially coming up again and again. It's just now a question of whether they keep him around to absorb a lot of the economic chaos that's coming or they get him out quick.

Yossarian

Conservative MP on BBC politics attempting to defend this, and trying to play dumb just said “I wasn’t invited to the party”. Top work!

monkey

Pretty weird country where the most embarrassing prime minister of the last decade isn't the one that fucked a dead pig.

https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon/status/1481247497926361091

monkey

To stand a chance here, he needed some sort of defence that Tories could have gone out in public and said themselves without being torn to shreds. Unless he gives them that cover, they won't defend him. And if they won't defend him, he's fucked.

poprock

Johnson’s excuse about not realising it was a party very efficiently throws every other person who attended under the metaphorical bus. They’re all ripe for prosecution now, right? Including his own wife.

monkey

“I attended a work meeting with booze and my wife who I don't work with.”

acemuzzy

Armitage_Shankburn wrote:

Monkey is a tory

Yossarian

ahem.. Someone's got in touch to point out that Michael Gove seems to be downloading Signal today

https://twitter.com/BenQuinn75/status/1481242350290616324

Diluted Dante

the party story has cut through because the one thing that motivates tory voters universally is spite at the thought someone might be benefitting from something they aren't allowed to do.

LivDiv

Lol.
Probably true at least to some extent.

I think a universal truth is nobody likes being treated like a thick cunt, which is what Johnson is now doing to the whole population.

acemuzzy

Yossarian wrote:

ahem.. Someone's got in touch to point out that Michael Gove seems to be downloading Signal today

https://twitter.com/BenQuinn75/status/1481242350290616324

What's this meant to suggest? Backstabbing?

monkey

Schemin'

poprock

I think it suggests that Tory MPs are finally realising that their secret WhatsApp groups aren’t as secure as they thought, and some idiot has told them to use Signal instead even though it’ll be no better for them because it’s people who are leaking things, not the apps.

Yossarian

acemuzzy wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

ahem.. Someone's got in touch to point out that Michael Gove seems to be downloading Signal today

https://twitter.com/BenQuinn75/status/1481242350290616324

What's this meant to suggest? Backstabbing?

I’d have assumed backstabbing, although there are some updates from that reporter which might muddy the waters a bit.

monkey

Since the first leaks from Whatsapp groups, where Tories suddenly discovered what screenshots were, the only stuff I've seen are performative rants that the senders are quite keen to have out there.

poprock

Looks like they’re grooming Sunak as Johnson’s replacement then. Making sure he’s not even in the same city while PMQ’s goes on, then responding to all enquiries from the press with “Time constraints prevent Mr Sunak from conducting any interviews today.”

mistercrayon

Sunak is grooming himself in the way that Truss is grooming herself and probably Gove was in the lift the other day.

mistercrayon

If the conservatives end up beating Labour in having leaders from two minority groups it would be kind of funny though.

monkey

Men are the minority group.

davyK

If this goes unpunished (ie he stays) we are doomed to have more and more of this shoddy behaviour from subsequent governments. This will be the start of a downward spiral to banana republic dictator style governance.

Many of our rules and regulations are opaque and open to abuse because historically there has been a trust in the inherent values of those who end up in charge...the old fashioned, "decency" idea.

The problem begins when a jackal gets let in and that's what "we" have done. Imagine someone from Johnson's background lying to the Queen in any other era, and remaining in power.

Funkstain

monkey wrote:

Men are the minority group.

No, he meant sentient Eton-educated horny jiffy mops

Rev

davyK wrote:

If this goes unpunished (ie he stays) we are doomed to have more and more of this shoddy behaviour from subsequent governments. This will be the start of a downward spiral to banana republic dictator style governance. Many of our rules and regulations are opaque because there is a trust in the inherent values of those who end up in charge...the old fashioned, "decency" idea. The problem begins when a jackal gets let in and that's what "we" have done. Imagine someone from Johnson's background lying to the Queen in any other era.

This.
One of the reasons we don't have a written down constitution is because we're expected to act like 'jolly good chaps' and only a 'complete bounder' would come in and upset the apple cart.
We rely on a system that doesn't even allow MPs to call each other out when they lie. All it took was someone like Johnson to come in an openly abuse the system to show it for how much shaky ground it is on.

Yossarian

The longer Johnson stays on, the greater the damage he does to the Conservative brand. If he hangs around to fight the next election, he’ll almost certainly lose and the Tories will be in the wilderness for quite some time.

davyK

I have no doubt that this particular PM and cabinet will be the laughing stock of history. With a fractured union, estranged from Europe and a wrecked trust of government & politics for a further generation as its legacy.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories