Lord Geidt Ramps Up The Pressure On The Prime Minister

[FatticusInch]

https://news.sky.com/story/partygate-boris-johnsons-ethics-adviser-asks-pm-to-explain-why-he-believes-he-has-not-broken-the-ministerial-code-12624944
Didn’t the Prime Minister make Lord Geidt look foolish recently over some messages because of a new phone number?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-flat-wallpaper-whatsapp-b1987931.html?amp
Maybe Lord Geidt is doing what Dominic Cummings failed to?

[vulcan42]

Something I haven't heard mentioned is the fact that if anybody is considered to be essential workers at the time of a crisis it is the government. It seems it's acceptable for essential workers to work during the pandemic but not to have an occasional glass of wine. I know of a number of companies who were considered to be essential workers and on Fridays they stopped work an hour early and the management provided food and drink as a thank you for making the effort of getting to work under difficult conditions. Would you call that having a party and should these people be fined as well?

[Ellipsis]

The guidelines were not being followed in Number 10 and Boris said they were, in response to a direct question in Parliament about it. It's as simple as that.

[davebro]

and as trivial

[naomi24]

It’s not just Boris’s alleged ‘sins’ I have a problem recognising - it’s Starmer’s too. Something to eat and a beer during or at the end of a working day seems reasonable to me. This country needs stability and I just can’t see the sense in creating this damaging turmoil over something so utterly ridiculous - but then I suppose there are mean spirits, axes to grind and methods in madness so in that respect it figures.

[Ellipsis]

> and as trivial

Lying to Parliament is not trivial, it's a resignation matter for obvious reasons. The thing he was lying about was trivial, but then that makes you wonder what else he'd lie about.

[Redhelen72]

Vulcan - yes I would!
Did the nurses get a wine time at the end of the workingweek?

[naomi24]

Ellipsis, As far as he was concerned the guidelines were being followed. These people were working together all day every day - and as Vulcan says they were essential workers. As for other lies no doubt if you try hard enough you’ll think of something to assist you in throwing this country under a bus leaving it floundering in order to appease your spite. Frankly I don’t think his critics will ever forgive him for getting Brexit done - as was the will of the people - and that, I think, is what this is really all about. Mean spirits abound.

[Ellipsis]

> As far as he was concerned the guidelines were being followed.

No, he claims that he didn't know anything about the events where the guidelines weren't being followed. The ones where people were getting drunk, staying overnight, vomiting, spilling, and abusing security and cleaning staff.

[drmorgans]

You missed out the punch up.

[vulcan42]

Ellipsis, when a potential MP stands on your doorstep promising a wonderful future if you vote for him/her, do you believe them?
I know they can't deliver and more importantly, so do they. In other words they're lying to get your vote, it's all part and parcel of politics.

[naomi24]

Why would he have known, ellipsis? Downing Street is a vast office building and he doesn’t manage staff. We pay other people to do that.

[Ellipsis]

> Ellipsis, when a potential MP stands on your doorstep promising a wonderful future if you vote for him/her, do you believe them?

There is a difference between lying about the future (i.e. events that haven't happened and may never happen) and lying about the past (i.e. events that have happened)! The plain and simple fact is that there are rules and standards in Parliament that say that ministers must not lie. Surely it is obvious why ...

[Ellipsis]

> Why would he have known, ellipsis?

Because he lives and works there every day, and he is the leader that sets the culture of the entire place. Everybody knew. If you're saying that everybody knew except him, then that paints him in a different light completely - an outcast loner that can't even control his own team, let alone the country. I don't have him down as an outcast loner.

[THECORBYLOON]

As "Downing Street is a vast office building", how can you be sure that all those attending the various events "worked together all day every day"?

[vulcan42]

Redhelen, I'm sorry but I don't know any nurses to ask. I doubt they did have a glass of wine after work but would like to think if they had the chance to do so, they would have. All essential workers, especially the nurses, should have been allowed a little perk like that and not be threatened with a fine. And that, in my opinion, applies to Government essential workers as well.

[FatticusInch]

Why would the PM feel the need to block his own ethics adviser from investigating him?
If he’s done nothing wrong he should be open to scrutiny without fear, surely?
Or is because Lord Geidt as an ex Intelligence Corps officer might have a nose for sniffing out what really happened?
It really does make one question the PM’s behaviour, no?

[drmorgans]

A drink after work, at home, with family, fine, within the rules. But a party of maybe 200 people going on until 3 or 4 in the morning when pubs and bars were shut. Isn't that a tad different?

[naomi24]

Ellipsis, I didn’t say everybody knew except him and I doubt ‘everybody’ knew anyway. Do you really think
people at the top of the ladder know what goes on in the typing pool or the post room? Of course they don’t. They never do. They have more important things on their minds - and Boris even more than any CEO you’d care to mention. This is as spiteful as it is irrational.

[FatticusInch]

vulcan42
//Redhelen, I'm sorry but I don't know any nurses to ask. I doubt they did have a glass of wine after work but would like to think if they had the chance to do so, they would have. All essential workers, especially the nurses, should have been allowed a little perk like that and not be threatened with a fine. And that, in my opinion, applies to Government essential workers as well.//

I’ll wager they weren’t getting suitcases of booze, commandeering karaoke machines, engaging in fisticuffs nor puking all over each other though?
It’s always better when you get a sense of perspective.

[ToraToraTora]

ellipsis: "There is a difference between lying about the future " - you can't lie about the future. You lefties really need to lean what words mean.