Boris On Trial.

[gulliver1]

Johnson.. to be grilled next week for two days at the Covid inquiry that he set up when he was PM. (Oh dear). Get the popcorn out, if  you have a  fridge  big enough to accomodate him make sure it is firmly locked ,and have a lie detector handy.

[gulliver1]

TSM 11 .34 Looks like you picked the wrong one then .Everyone said how dangerous Jeremy would be as the PM. But not as dangerous and cunning as Boris maybe.

[Ellipsis]

Can you imagine if Corbyn had won, gone through the pandemic (with whatever happened with him as PM) and was still in power, limping on after 4 years, after a pandemic, Ukraine and now Gaza! 

It does show what a clusterfoo politics is right now.

[gulliver1]

How much has it cost the tax payer so far for this inquiry, and the Grand Finale is yet to come .

[gulliver1]

Elippsis 11.51 .I think even Corbyn would not have been such a disaster as Johnson.

[Ellipsis]

He would have been a different kind of disaster ...

[gulliver1]

Apparently Johnson did not turn up at five different emergency covid Cobra meetings. Because he was too busy wtiting a book on Shakespear.

He was probably having a Midsummer Night's Dream.

[New Judge]

"So it is a lie to say that the UK was able to roll out the vaccine program faster that had we been members of the EU."

No it isn’t. And to understand that you have to understand how the EU works, and, reading your analogy @ 10:15 today, clearly you don’t. As well as having a legal stranglehold over its members in many areas, the EU has what it calls “expectations” of them. These expectations do not fit the normal dictionary definition of the word. Normally an expectation would be accompanied by something like “We expect you to do that, but respect your right not to do so if you choose.”

When we were discussing this (what seems like) a hundred years ago, I provided texts from Mrs Von der Leyen’s speeches on the matter. I’m not going to trawl to dig them out again, but it was quite clear what those expectations meant. Whilst no legal sanctions could have been applied to dissident members, it was made quite clear that life would become more difficult for rogue nations (and remember, this was a very difficult time for everybody).  So, to all intents and purposes, whilst it was technically possible it would have been highly ill-advised. You may also recall that when the UK did make its own arrangements, even though it was no longer an EU member, the EU still attempted to make it difficult for the UK to proceed to the point of trying to prevent that procurement being fulfilled (and again, you can look back at what happened if you wish). That would have happened whether we were members or not. So when Mr Johnson suggests it would have been impossible for us to press ahead with our own vaccine rollout, practically speaking he is perfectly correct.

You can keep on and on with this point until the cows come home. But unless you accept the reality of EU membership and continue instead to confine yourself to the narrow legal point, you will not see it how it actually was, only the way it was alleged to be. Your YouTube clip @11:21 merely serves to reinforce that point.

“ However, if a suitable COVID-19 vaccine candidate, with strong supporting evidence of safety,…etc.etc”

Quite so, Corby. And I am not disputing that. But none of the remaining 27 EU members took advantage of that clause. So why do you think that was? To find out, you need to look back at what was actually said at the time. I emphasised then that it was not what the “rules” allowed or prohibited, it was what the EU’s panjandrums wanted of their apparatchiks which would determine what happened. And so it was.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that had the UK still been an EU member, it would have been heavily leaned on to comply with the EU’s collective approach to the vaccine rollout. Deals would have been done in agreeable surroundings to ensure this was so, and the Prime Minister would have appeared on the telly to tell everybody how it was “in the country’s best interests” to become entangled with the EU’s sclerotic rollout. If he’d done that, he really would have been a liar.

[Khandro]

Hymie: Your little cartoon put up at 11:21 does not "explain the facts that demonstrate any claim of a vaccine roll out benefit to the UK gained through Brexit to be a compete lie." & contains no substantiated hard facts. 

I suspect it was ordered by Macron, who was incandescent at the fact that Britain had the vaccines before France. You must have short memory not to remember how he was touting his scare-mongering & dog-in the manger opinion as to how the Astra Zeneca vaccine caused blood-clots.

[gulliver1]

Can not believe what this Covid inquiry is going to cost the tax payer in the end ,if ever it does end. Govt depts are hiring leading law firms on multimillion-pound contracts, alongside specialist firms tasked with sifting through millions of sensitive documents and emails .The dept of health and social care have hired Pinsent and Mason on a £2,2m contract  The Cabinet office has hired the same firm on a £7m Contract It has also hired Burgess Salmon another law firm on a £9.8m contract Wonder who the Tory MPs are going to turn up to be related or to have shares in these firms.Gosh there is going to be a heck of a lot of Tory Trousering done with this one.

[gulliver1]

The cost of this inquiry is now being estimated at around about £100million...but I bet it's more.

[gulliver1]

Wonder how much Boris will make out of this, after all he did call for the inquiry. It's the return of Con Crony Club all over again.

[ynnafymmi]

Wee Burney and her lies next gulliver.

[Khandro]

Mixed metaphors at 15:28: I didn't mean dog-in the manger, that should have been 'sour grapes' 🙁

[newmodarmy]

Gulliver, unless you can show otherwise I'm sure Sir Keir wanted a full enquiry, and I certainly don't remember Labour arguing there shouldn't be one.  

[gulliver1]

It's easy to understand why so many of the present Tory MPs Will not stand at the next GE .They have trousered so much taxpayers money .......They are financed for life.

[Hymie]

Well, you’ve got me hoping Boris does make the claim (that the UK’s roll-out of the vaccine program was faster because of Brexit) – the inquiry would then have to definitely examine this claim.

[New Judge]

“Well, you’ve got me hoping Boris does make the claim (that the UK’s roll-out of the vaccine program was faster because of Brexit) – the inquiry would then have to definitely examine this claim.”

I wouldn’t count on it. Mr Gove raised the issue of the origin of the virus, suggesting (as many epidemiologists do) that it was manufactured in a lab in Wuhan. His question was struck out as being outside the enquiry’s terms of reference. This was probably one of the most important questions that needs answering, but far better to investigate why Dominic Cummings drove to Durham to test his eyes out.

Still, you never know. It will be interesting to hear the enquiry's findings if the question is addressed, but I don't think I can be bothered that much because by the time Baroness Hallett's report is published most people will have forgotten was Covid was. Hopefully she will live ling enough to see the fruits of her labours but since she will be approaching 80 by then you cannot be sure. Still Mr Johnson's appearance will give the telly and the papers something to draw their attention away from Gaza for a day or two.

[gulliver1]

Boris in the dock Wednesday and Thursday ..Supermarkets sold out of popcorn.   Can't wait .

[gulliver1]

Is it possible to make  Johnson take a lie detector test this time. Instead of the Hand on heart rubbish he pledged at the partygate inquiry.