Six months of media hysteria.
The opposition’s constant calls – even from drinking beer and chewing curries to Slippery Starmer – to overturn Boris Johnson’s 2019 election mandate.
Even the statement from ITV News political editor Robert Peston seems dispassionate that the UK is heading towards an ‘elected dictatorship’ if the Prime Minister is not immediately forced out and perhaps replaced by someone who loves a more ‘acceptable’ lockdown.
Sue Gray’s report on the so-called ‘Partygate’ must be pretty sensational to justify such ongoing hysteria from our own MSM, right?
Especially at a time of war in Europe, the recovery of a generational pandemic and the unprecedented cost of living crisis…
Hard!
She just offered a wet gun, lacking anything close to a smoke gun that might encourage disloyal Tory MPs to bring down BoJo.
A group of images released by Sue Gray show the Prime Minister’s birthday party in June 2020 – through which he was fined along with Rishi Sunak and his wife Carrie
Sue Gray’s long-awaited report is finally published in full today after months of waiting.
For me, this whole farce is about opinion.
Last December, I was as dumbfounded as anyone when initial reports emerged of officials at 10 Downing Street popping champagne while we were told to cower in our homes.
But I’m not surprised.
Prohibition is the most unprecedented and disgusting theft of our liberties and civil liberties in modern history.
They are inhuman and should be without conscience anywhere but communist China and North Korea.
None of our so-called leaders – be it Boris or Starmer or Sturgeon – followed them.
None of us should follow them.
But somehow today, in the frenzied big-screen analysis on Sly News of the exact locations of orange juice, applesauce, M&S sandwiches and, yes, empty bottles of wine at a “spot” 10’s wretched look, that point was missed.
I have now read all 49 pages of the report.
It paints an unsurprising picture of unconnected government officials unaware of the hardships they cause to ordinary citizens.
But it doesn’t lack anything like the picture of Ibiza-style parties that MSM painted.
For example, The Guardian’s so-called bombshell photo shows the groups in the Downing Street garden on May 15, 2020, in fact, a series of legal outdoor meetings, something that is encouraged. at that time. PM, who was there from 6pm to 7:20pm, brought down cheese and wine from his home, which is as unique as his workplace.
The garden party on May 20, 2020, when we are legally only allowed to meet one person outdoors, is an inexplicable oversight. But the event was clearly not organized with malicious intent – the idea was to celebrate the Number 10 employees, who worked around the clock, outdoors in a ‘socially distant’ manner, provided that good weather.
Photo: Dan Wootton
Like all work events, the Prime Minister was only there for a short time, in this case from 6pm to 6:30pm, to thank up to 40 staff members who gathered at the garden.
But the famous ‘bring your own wine’ letter from the Prime Minister’s Chief Private Secretary Martin Reynolds, who appeared to be the head of the party organisers, has precisely sealed his fate – he is a section of the management at No. 10.
As I read through the various WhatsApp messages and emails, it showed that the staff at Number 10 were unaware of the sacrifices so many of us had to make at the time by locking ourselves in. myself in the house.
However, with the exception of one or two junior employees who can’t handle their alcohol, the ‘parties’ are mostly about letting colleagues leave or Christmas Zoom quizzes, where the staff isn’t working. at home participate directly.
For example, at a meeting for Communications Director Lee Cain to leave on November 13, 2020, Boris was briefly present at 7:07 pm, before joining his wife and five special advisers to Downing Street apartment floor for the so-called Abba- Winner Takes It All themed meeting, following the exit of Dominic Cummings.
At another meeting on November 27, the Prime Minister gave a brief speech between meetings at 6:19 and 6:45. Departure staff left the building on their own at 6.58 pm.
At the Zoom Quiz on December 11, 2020, in which staff were directly ordered to follow social distancing rules, the Prime Minister joined in at 7.50pm to read the questions for one of the rounds. , stayed a total of 12 minutes before returning to work in his office.
Gray’s report made clear to me the need for human contact at work. In normal times, all gatherings would be completely understandable and pose no danger to anyone’s health, since these residents had been working together all day anyway. It is a right that should have been extended to the rest of the country.
Gray’s most cursed quote actually concerns the treatment of cleaners and security guards in Downing Street.
Deploying a ‘meticulous strategy’, the PM will be ‘responsible’ for rule-breaking in Downing Street, which is said to be devastating in the much-anticipated report (pictured Johnson lifting toast during an event in Downing St in November 2020)
She wrote: ‘I have come to recognize many examples of disrespect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This is unacceptable. ‘
Shame on those people who should take a long look at themselves.
But what really matters in the report is the ‘gathering’ in the Cabinet room on 19 June 2020, the only incident where Boris (and his Prime Minister Rishi Sunak) received a fixed penalty notice. from the Met Police.
Published photos make it clear this isn’t a party – there’s no birthday cake in sight.
In fact, all I could see was a sad-looking pile of M&S bread and fruit, and an equally annoyed-looking Prime Minister who certainly just wanted to get on with his next meeting. .
Critically, Gray confirmed Boris and Rishi were ‘not aware of this event in advance’ and that it was not in the official diary of the day.
She explained: ‘(Boris) returned from an outside visit to 10 Downing Street at around 2:20pm and was ushered into the Cabinet Room which had been stocked with bread, snacks, soft drinks and cans of beer. .’
Gray reported the meeting lasted only 20 minutes, attended by Prime Minister’s wife Carrie Johnson.
Rishi was only there ‘briefly’ because he was ‘early early’ for the next meeting.
I’m sorry, if someone is willing to argue that a 20-minute presentation on some sandwiches between meetings is really a reason to throw the country into chaos at a time of economic crisis, they are not. like a partisan.
As this scandal surfaced, it became clear to me that in order to regain his trust, Boris must completely free Britain from the Covid tyranny that has haunted us for the past two years.
So far, he has performed on that front, with Britain being the freest country in the Western world.
I’m really exhausted talking about these low-level rule-breaking gatherings involving a few civil servants, many of whom have fallen on their swords.
Our country deserves more than a mainstream media campaigning, led by the publicly funded BBC, who will stop at nothing to remove the Prime Minister from office.
Of course, scrutiny is required. But no one can tell me what the official oversight of these events is other than comprehensive.
There were no smoking guns in the Met police investigation, nor in Gray’s fully released report today.
Partygate was wrong, but it was also over.
The country and Boris deserve a chance to move on.
