I, m not condoning any rule breaking at all but for goodness sake. It's a year ago, we are getting upwards of 50,000 infections daily, Omicron is likely to rear its ugly side any time soon, Putin and Xi are flexing their muscles, some unfortunate folk are getting buried under volcanic Lava and at home our social care system seems to have failed a poor little 6 year old to such an extent he's been tortured for years and finally died... Yet, what is Starmer attacking government with... An alledged christmas party 12 months ago. And some media and usual culprits are jumping on band wagon... I find it quite appalling that powers that be can waste so much time on stuff like this when things are so terribly wrong in oh so many places.Might not have the legs to really cause a problem but:
Raab has admitted it would have been a breach of Covid restrictions if a Christmas party was held in No 10 Downing Street in the run up to last Christmas; a party the prime minister does not deny took place.
That follows reports Boris Johnson’s staff held the gathering on 18 December last year, when London was under Tier 3 restrictions.
Despite the prime minister’s deliberate and public refusal to deny those reports, Raab has described them as “unsubstantiated claims all on the basis of anonymous sources”. Nevertheless, the justice secretary admitted, if true, they would describe a breach of the rules the rest of the country was being expected to follow. He told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show:
Until there is something substantiated, until it is more than anonymous sources, I think we are chasing shadows. If there is a breach of the rules there is a breach of the rules. But I don’t know the full facts because I wasn’t there.
Of course, if there was a formal party held, of course that it something that is clearly contrary to the guidance. If anyone held a party that it is contrary to the rules, of course that is the wrong thing to do.
If something unsubstantiated from anonymous sources actually materialised then of course it would be wrong.
So the formal-ness of the party is what matters?
Is there a murder/manslaughter distinction applicable to party-holding? Pre-meditated versus in the heat of the moment.
It isn't Starmer.I, m not condoning any rule breaking at all but for goodness sake. It's a year ago, we are getting upwards of 50,000 infections daily, Omicron is likely to rear its ugly side any time soon, Putin and Xi are flexing their muscles, some unfortunate folk are getting buried under volcanic Lava and at home our social care system seems to have failed a poor little 6 year old to such an extent he's been tortured for years and finally died... Yet, what is Starmer attacking government with... An alledged christmas party 12 months ago. And some media and usual culprits are jumping on band wagon... I find it quite appalling that powers that be can waste so much time on stuff like this when things are so terribly wrong in oh so many places.
Starmer should be sacked if he can't find more critical issues than this. He is utterly useless.
What about the Pfizer secrecy pledge? What about that poor lad? What about paying folk to isolate? List is endless. But what is being discussed. Johnson had a party and didn't wear a mask. Absolutely and utterly ridiculous.
Fiddling whilst Rome burned or what.??
Give up.. Starmer started it. Yes, we know full well they have terrible attitudes. But in scheme of things it's petty and time consuming for both sides. Time neither side has. They should all be working on tasks in hand. Vaccine roll out, sorting Social care out, sorting schemes out for isolating workers,second job scandals, like I said the list is endless...It
It isn't Starmer.
It isn't about the event. It is about the attitude.
We need to trust those in power to act in our interests. This shows numerous issues.
When Johnson was in hospital, there was great concern that there were too few healthy and able to actually keep government going. To then hold an event which could have caused the same sort of situation to occur again is simply couldn't-give-a-damn-incompetence.
They had already delayed doing anything because they were worried about cancelling Christmas (wash my hands, it is because you, the public, demanded we do nothing). Yet when eventually they made decisions, they made further decisions that their decisions didn't apply to them. Nor did they do anything like come out and say "We will carry on regardless because <enter your basis for the decision>".
I fully agree with you..its extremely petty in the great scheme of things and should be flagged up only at the doors in an election canvass. Oyster is also correct in that it displays the same arrogance. ..but again the place to bring it up is at the canvass. Having said that I do believe that there should be special licence for senior public representatives, but not for boondoggles. I see nothing wrong with say a PM flying at public expense by helicopter the length of the island, for any good reason.Give up.. Starmer started it. Yes, we know full well they have terrible attitudes. But in scheme of things it's petty and time consuming for both sides. Time neither side has. They should all be working on tasks in hand. Vaccine roll out, sorting Social care out, sorting schemes out for isolating workers,second job scandals, like I said the list is endless...
What if they are proved guilty, who will benefit? Nobody, but in mean time things that are way more important and deserving of time get left.. All this argument between Nandy, Rayner and Starmer and then this stupid episode... Just goes to show how detached the lot of them, and some of us, are from reality. Will any of this stop one death, save one child, save one infection, make Putin/Xi/Macron/ think more about what they are doing. Honestly, we must look a complete joke to foreigners. Germany in worst state its ever been in regards covid. SA has Omicron raging, Holland having anti vaxx riots, Trump making a comeback, Putin threatening border countries, Chinese imprisoning Uygurs by the million and probably invading Taiwan, Australia investing billions in its defence... And what are Brits arguing about. A fecking Christmas party. A 12 month old one at that. Give over. It's ridiculous. Kids arguing in playground... You said this, he said that.... But he hit me miss. Its utterly pathetic. The lot of them. Tories for holding the damned party and Labour (or who ever) for bringing it up now.
I believe Police have already said they can't take retrospective action for Covid breaches, so it's wasted their time aswell.
All a complete waste of time when all of them should be running country.
Can you imagine any industry anywhere on earth that could afford to pay its workers to argue about last year's Xmas party. No? But our country does.
Our Xmas parties had to be sorted in our own time.. Not if you are Starmer. Brings it up in HoC..Contacts police about it... Whilst being paid for by us.
I have to agree with Zlatan that it's both long out of date and a non issue to boot.It isn't Starmer.
It isn't about the event. It is about the attitude.
We need to trust those in power to act in our interests. This shows numerous issues.
When Johnson was in hospital, there was great concern that there were too few healthy and able to actually keep government going. To then hold an event which could have caused the same sort of situation to occur again is simply couldn't-give-a-damn-incompetence.
They had already delayed doing anything because they were worried about cancelling Christmas (wash my hands, it is because you, the public, demanded we do nothing). Yet when eventually they made decisions, they made further decisions that their decisions didn't apply to them. Nor did they do anything like come out and say "We will carry on regardless because <enter your basis for the decision>".
That would explain why we're having a lengthy confected debate on it on the thread. BTW did you look up the meaning of "irony"?Give up.. Starmer started it. Yes, we know full well they have terrible attitudes. But in scheme of things it's petty and time consuming for both sides. Time neither side has. They should all be working on tasks in hand. Vaccine roll out, sorting Social care out, sorting schemes out for isolating workers,second job scandals, like I said the list is endless...
What if they are proved guilty, who will benefit? Nobody, but in mean time things that are way more important and deserving of time get left.. All this argument between Nandy, Rayner and Starmer and then this stupid episode... Just goes to show how detached the lot of them, and some of us, are from reality. Will any of this stop one death, save one child, save one infection, make Putin/Xi/Macron/ think more about what they are doing. Honestly, we must look a complete joke to foreigners. Germany in worst state its ever been in regards covid. SA has Omicron raging, Holland having anti vaxx riots, Trump making a comeback, Putin threatening border countries, Chinese imprisoning Uygurs by the million and probably invading Taiwan, Australia investing billions in its defence... And what are Brits arguing about. A fecking Christmas party. A 12 month old one at that. Give over. It's ridiculous. Kids arguing in playground... You said this, he said that.... But he hit me miss. Its utterly pathetic. The lot of them. Tories for holding the damned party and Labour (or who ever) for bringing it up now.
I believe Police have already said they can't take retrospective action for Covid breaches, so it's wasted their time aswell.
All a complete waste of time when all of them should be running country.
Can you imagine any industry anywhere on earth that could afford to pay its workers to argue about last year's Xmas party. No? But our country does.
Our Xmas parties had to be sorted in our own time.. Not if you are Starmer. Brings it up in HoC..Contacts police about it... Whilst being paid for by us.
Since 1951 there's always been great concern in the country that there are too few able to run the government properly.there was great concern that there were too fewhealthy andable to actually keep government going.
Touché...That would explain why we're having a lengthy confected debate on it on the thread. BTW did you look up the meaning of "irony"?
I'm just trying to imagine how many of these you'd need in order to replace the capacity of even something modest like, for example, UK internal flights. Although huge, they have limited passenger capacity, are slow so we'd need many of them, and how would they stand up to Arwen?
If only we could vote much more frequently.the place to bring it up is at the canvass
Which ends up depending on whether you accept any particular reason as being "good".I see nothing wrong with say a PM flying at public expense by helicopter the length of the island, for any good reason.
The Americans kept airships in service long after WW2 on coastal patrol duties, but eventually finally gave up as more suitable planes became available. Climate change and the far more frequent occurrences of very powerful winds makes them a dead end now.I'm just trying to imagine how many of these you'd need in order to replace the capacity of even something modest like, for example, UK internal flights. Although huge, they have limited passenger capacity, are slow so we'd need many of them, and how would they stand up to Arwen?
If they were filled with hydrogen and powered by hydrogen fuel cells, they could waft over deserts making it rain?I'm just trying to imagine how many of these you'd need in order to replace the capacity of even something modest like, for example, UK internal flights. Although huge, they have limited passenger capacity, are slow so we'd need many of them, and how would they stand up to Arwen?
I didn't do that. And it is like the widely held view that, for example, police need to avoid criminality and, if they do get sentenced for something, that sentence should take into account their position.And the country has no right to criticise when so many of them did exactly the same and often far worse as I often saw for myself around my area and we all read about in the media.
Touché, but not quite my point. The conservative party is desperate to move the debate on, refocus attention on all the imminent external threats. Instead of the corruption, lies, ferry companies, ppe tenders, billions in embezzled loans that won't be paid back deaths in care homes and elsewhere etc etc. It's a familiar strategy of corrupt governments. Unfortunately denial, consciously or unconsciously, never work. We're at the beginning of an omicron wave, we're not locking down, like say in Ireland, for commercial, populist reasons, by a government that, profoundly, doesn't care. In a few months we'll look back on history having repeated itselfTouché...
We aren't running country tho, I, ve got plenty of time to kill these days. I would have hoped far more than MPs, but it seems they have time to report silly incidents to police and spend valuable time arguing about mentioned incident.
Well that's exactly what Starmer should be saying. But he doesn't, he reports Boris to Police and moans about a year old covid rule breach...Touché, but not quite my point. The conservative party is desperate to move the debate on, refocus attention on all the imminent external threats. Instead of the corruption, lies, ferry companies, ppe tenders, billions in embezzled loans that won't be paid back deaths in care homes and elsewhere etc etc. It's a familiar strategy of corrupt governments. Unfortunately denial, consciously or unconsciously, never work. We're at the beginning of an omicron wave, we're not locking down, like say in Ireland, for commercial, populist reasons, by a government that, profoundly, doesn't care. In a few months we'll look back on history having repeated itself