Bye Bye Boris!

[Beany]

Tangentially (or tangerinally) Boris' best pal Trump is having a bad week. His accountants of decades have turned around after looking back over their figures (now that the new York attorney general's office is looking over Trumps finances) and basically said:

"er... anything we produced for Trumps businesses between 2010 and 2020 - don't consider it reliable. Also, were immediately cutting ties with Trump"

So, err, that's not good news for him or his network of chums.

Oh dear what a shame never mind

[duncs500]

He'll get away with it, they (almost) always do.

[Jobbo]

Oh dear, broke his own laws: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61083402

[DeskJockey]

Can they just go? Please?

[ZedLeg]

[Beany]

Oh dear, broke his own laws: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61083402

Like he's going to give a fuck.

[MikeHunt]

Lucky there isn't a PMQs tomorrow, it will all have blown over by next week.

[Beany]

Can't discuss possible chemical weapons use in Ukraine, might get embarrassing questions.

Bojo is Ukraine's wartime hero.... Until it might be politically inconvenient.

[Broccers]

Still going strong

[MikeHunt]

I never thought I’d every say this, but can we hear more from Nigel!

[dinny_g]

Given the details of this “Party” have started to emerge (9 mins, standing the entire time, no booze, no cake, eating a salad, people comming to where he was etc), the “He HAS to Go!” response is a little over the top IMO

Yeah I get how people who couldn’t see loved ones in hospital etc might feel (and if he’d broken the rules by visiting someone in Hospital while telling others not to, I’d be the first one calling for his head)

But many people, myself included, dropped in on mates during lockdown, some indoors etc.

I mean, It’s not like he waged an illegal war, based on falsified intelligence reports which cost the lives of 179 British Military Personal, is it??

[Beany]

He either didn't understand the rules, in which case he's incompetent.

Or he did understand the rules, and he broke them, in which case he's a lying cunt.

Neither are desirable from the people who wrote the laws that were broken.

[duncs500]

You make some valid points @dinny_g, and people up and down the country did similar things. I guess we just demand higher standards from our elected officials. I don't know why, throughout history almost all of them seem more bent than the rest of us.

I also think it's hard for people to separate their politics from the conversation and take a balanced position.

I think he should go, but then I don't know where we go from there as I just don't really like the look of many other Tory MPs in the top job either. So I think it's probably a case of being careful what you wish for.

Equally I'm ok with Rishi, so I wouldn't want him to have to go, so am I taking a fair and balanced position on it either or taking other BoJo blunders into account?

[dinny_g]

I suppose it's the "Black and White" vs "Grey" view...

'Apparently...' In between visiting a school and hosting a COVID Response meeting he went to the Cabinet room to each some lunch - he was then joined by a group of people - many of whom he had, by necessity in running the government, met with indoors over the lockdown. All very unplanned. Supermarket sandwich's were consumed, wishes exchanged, no alcohol, a cake left opened etc. and it was all over very quickly. He then went to meet, indoors again, with many of the people who had joined him for this "party"

This, if it is to be believed, is a world away from a "Party" in the sense that it's being portrayed on one side of the media for further a certain agenda. But as you say, impossible to get a balanced position these days...

But that side of the media is expecting him to have said "NO, Out all of you while I eat this Salad!" and then 5 minutes later "Right, you 10 from my cabinet, who I asked not to come in 5 minutes ago, come back in please while we discuss COVID"

[duncs500]

You're right, and I hadn't read those details. It's very hard to picture what it's like to do the job, no doubt you're a bit of a passenger as your aides whisk you from engagement to meeting to next engagement. Maybe he didn't really have much time to consider whether this constituted work or a party or lunch.

[DeskJockey]

Isn't the bigger point that he's been proven (again) to have lied? And there's no valid excuse about "I didn't know", he knew full well and decided it was beneath him to follow the rules.

The people that run the country and set the rules should and must be held to a higher standard.

[duncs500]

Well the point we're contemplating is whether or not he did knowingly break the rules on the basis of @dinny_g's description above.

The PM is probably working near constantly, so the lines of what is work and what is social are probably more blurred than they are for most of us.

I don't know, I'm just playing devil's advocate as someone without deep rooted political leanings.

[Simon]

The two things are that:

1) This is just one of many events that they are investigating and
2) He lied repeatedly to everyone, including parliament.

He's gotta go. Maybe not at the peak of the Ukraine crisis, but definitely soon after.

[MikeHunt]

The PM and Chancellor were handed 6 fixed penalties yesterday, not sure if that's 3 each or 5 to one of them. The birthday party misdirection story above only explains one third of the FNPs already dished out to 2 of the countries most powerful people, with more expected before the investigation concludes.

We have previously swapped PM while actually at war, including Thatcher/Major and Chamberlin/Churchill.

[dinny_g]

I'm sure he's done many things that mean "He should go"...

It's just in my opinion, this isn't one of them - but perhaps this is like getting Capone on Tax Evasion despite everything else he did ??

Like Duncs I don't have deep rooted political leanings either way. At present, i find myself aligned to the Conservative way of thinking but it certainly hasn't always been that way.