Let me be the one to say something positive about the Prime Minister. Not many others are doing so and, it’s fair to say, there is plenty of Boris Johnson criticism in the words below.
The emergence of the Allegra Stratton video, obtained by ITV, resulted in the collapse of what was already a very fragile government position: that the rules were complied with respect to whatever happened on 18 December. A succession of ministers had been interviewed in recent days arguing that they had no idea what had happened but they were confident that no rules had been broken. It was an untenable and humiliating position, but that is part of the territory in being a minister in this government.
Once the mock press conference video was out, even this was out of the question, and no minister was foolish enough to defend the government’s position on Wednesday (8 December) morning.
This left space for the lockdown sceptics on the Tory benches to fill the airwaves. Charles Walker (a lovely man but serially wrong-headed on matters relating to Covid-19) argued that all future lockdowns would be voluntary because the government had lost the moral authority to impose restrictions. The anger at the behaviour within No 10 was genuine and justified but the conclusion – that the government was no longer in a position to take action – is a dangerous one.
The timing could not be worse. There is much we do not yet know about Omicron but it is plausible that the next few months could be very difficult indeed. It is clear that the new variant is more transmissible than others, with the evidence suggesting that cases could be doubling every two to three days.
It is true the evidence suggests that people infected by Omicron seem to be protected from severe illness, but it is premature to claim that this variant is itself milder. The prevalence of mild cases may reflect the fact that a large number of these cases were people who already had protection. We cannot be confident that the unvaccinated and uninfected will necessarily have only mild symptoms. And, as we really should have all learned by now, deaths and hospitalisations are lagging indicators.
The risks to public health are great. A very low hospitalisation rate of a very large number of infections can still result in a very high number of hospitalisations. Potentially, this might be enough to overwhelm the NHS – the fear of which was the justification for the original lockdown.
If the government is to act effectively, it needs to act now. The Prime Minister might have delayed action, waiting for the evidence to become clearer and avoided upsetting his backbenchers at a time of political vulnerability. After all, he has done that before – with disastrous consequences. On this occasion, however, he announced a series of significant restrictions.
Personally, I would have gone further on vaccine passports (better to lock down the irresponsible unvaccinated who are making up 90 per cent of those requiring specialist care rather than the population as a whole) but – and here is my positive comment about the Prime Minister – he deserves some credit for swiftly taking action.
This must be tempered by the fact that it was the Prime Minister who got himself into this mess. An unwillingness to confront harsh realities among Conservative MPs was a state of mind Boris Johnson encouraged and exemplified over the Brexit debate, and he is now facing the consequences.
The damage done to the government’s credibility over the various Christmas parties also lies with the Prime Minister. An apparent culture of rule-breaking within No 10 comes from the top (it is inconceivable that other recent Prime Ministers would have allowed parties there given the circumstances of November and December 2020). The extraordinary evasiveness on this issue over the past week has exposed a contemptuous attitude for the public.
Even the resignation of Stratton left a nasty taste in the mouth. She had no choice after Johnson announced that he was “sickened and furious” by the video clip. But why was he “sickened and furious” if, as he maintains, there was no party? Watch the clip again and assume (if you can) that you genuinely think no party occurred. In those circumstances, you might find the exchanges baffling, but not sickening.
The Prime Minister’s position is that he believes no party took place, so how could he be angry? Others might be angry about the evasiveness but Johnson has been evader-in-chief. As for anger about the flippant tone of a private discussion, this does not sit well from Boris “operation last gasp” and let “the bodies pile high in their thousands” Johnson. The unfortunate Stratton (who was one of the better things about this government, in my opinion) has learned that association with Johnson often ends in tears.
This episode further damages his credibility at a time when the credibility of the Prime Minister really matters. His critics are right that he has little moral authority to demand new restrictions, but if that is a real problem the answer is not to dump the restrictions. It is to dump the Prime Minister.
It was already evident in July 2019, well before COVID
He lost credibility way before he was PM. As foreign secretary, the UK was considered an international laughing stock for appointing such an amateur to one of the most important government offices during brexit year. His foreign office civil servants had to debrief almost everyone he interacted with to ensure correct understanding. His only attempt at international diplomacy, Iran releasing zagari-radcliffe, was so clumsy and poorly timed that his action actually ended up with her getting more time on jail not less ! And what has the public done about this person… Voted for more Tory MP’s at the recent local elections, affirming his so called leadership … As the saying goes “you couldn’t make this up”.
The entire Conservative party has no credibility,
Who will replace him, one of the MPs that has failed at any point to stand up and call out the continual lying ?
Who would that be , every single one of them has gone along with every single lie.
John Major said a little then disappeared off.
Not one of them is a honest person, all have been perfectly comfortable to serve up lie after lie to every person in this country.
All are there for self gain, not to do the job of serving the people they represent.
So long has been their contempt for the British public, they do not even consider it necessary to be honest, they do not believe in accountability , why would they there has never been any consequences.
Queue Priti Patel winning the next election via a landslide of middle aged working class voters because she has a “nice fat arse”.
Then we will have to explain when she diamantles the human rights act, that it doesn’t just hurt immigrants because they too are human. That will be a difficult concept to communicate to this lot.
There was a reaction in a different post (lost it now..) which spelled it out. Essentially it came down to “feck off, had enough of your one-way rules”. Kinda sums up my feelings, if there was resistance to lockdown rules before, it will be much greater now.
Between Cummings careful re-interpretation of what “no unnecessary travel” meant and Bojo’ reinterpretation of what “having a party” means it’s so very clear that “one rule for you, another for us” is the mantra of this government.
He didn’t have any credibility to begin with, he’s always been an utter insufferable twat that deserves a punch in the face & bollocks.
I’ve had enough, let’s all go and fuck a pigs head
Booriss Joohnnson… credi-i-biill..
Nope, can’t say that in the same sentence.
He should of been “dead in a ditch” when his oven ready brexit deal was revealed to be a poorly thought out rehash of Theresa Mays brexit deal.
There’s too many fuck ups and blatant lying.
Imagine what labour would have done, probably better than him.
He has just enough credibility to be a backbench MP that no one beyond his constituency really knows about. He loves Churchill and thinks he has won the jackpot by getting a situation where we need a Churchill-style leader to lead us through out. The problem is that Johnson is has no leadership ability whatsoever. Johnson wants all the photo ops and rousing speeches, without having to actually lead the country and make the tough decisions. It is why he delegates so much to other staff, it means he does not have to be the bad guy.
He is incredibly dangerous at a time we need the best of us to lead. No man has done more to undermine public health proections.
Covid is a joke. A blind dog could lead Britain though what is the most pathetic time in their history.
Not the fault of the OP, but the headline writer. Of course, Boris *isn’t* leading Britain through another Covid wave. He’s leading England through another Covid wave. Public health policy is devolved.
He of course wields outsize influence through economic levers (furlough money etc), but he definitely isn’t leading anywhere else.
Boris has always been a clown. What has happened to the UK…
That would infer aforementioned credibility existed in the first place
More people than just Johnson attended the parties. Release the list and dispose of them all. They have all lost their credibility and need to go.
Nah, I’m not buying it.
This article implies that he had credibility at some point in the past in order to be able to lose it.
He never had credibility for anything, let alone steering the country through a pandemic.
Steering tax payers money into the pockets of his and his mates pockets, loosely under the guise of “protecting the public”? Oh, sure, but actually doing something moral, ethical and useful?
Go on…fuck off.
All he needed to do was nothing and he couldn’t even manage that. What a useless man.
Boris hasn’t got the credibility to lead a fucking conga line!
I agree with the sentiment but I keep hearing people say that the party at no10 scandal has “lost credibility” for Boris as if he ever had any. Let’s remember who this man is:
1. A journalist who made a career of throwing bombs at the EU over the fence without having to substantiate anything. A man accused of making quote up bu his historian grandgather and getting sacked by the Times for doing so.
2. The man who lied to his boss Michael Howard about having an extra martital affair and got sacked in 2004
3. A man who was caught out promising to give out the address of a member of the public tennis friend to be beaten up – all a “jolly jape” of course
4. A man who blamed fans for the Hillsborough disaster
5. A man who referred to black people as “picanninies” with “water melon smiles”, guys as “bumboys” and Muslim women as “letterboxes”.
All before he even became PM with the shitshow that has followed. Let’s see….
– New hospitals lie – 40 new hospitals turn out to be mainly extensions and refurbishment of existing hopitals.They would cost around £20bn if actually new hospitals but only £3.7bn allocated.
– Unlawful prorogation of Parliament and lying to the Queen
– Lies about the costs of the EU and the additional spending not being in the EU would result in (£350m per week etc etc). Wales is £300m worse off after the loss of EU funds and Scotland even more so
– the levelling up the North agenda with the promise of trains since cancelled
– Lies about the refurbishment of his flat
– Lies about Barnard Castle and after lying, then sacking his special advisor after publicly backing him
– Lies about the NI protocol and signing it knowing full well that he will need to break it
– Another extra marital affair while PM
– Christmas partygate and allowing Allegra Stratton to take the fall
Described by many overseas as a clown and a poor mans Trump, this latest Boris scandal is just another episode in an historically embarrassing tenure – one that will probably speed up the process of the splitting up the UK.
21 comments
Let me be the one to say something positive about the Prime Minister. Not many others are doing so and, it’s fair to say, there is plenty of Boris Johnson criticism in the words below.
The emergence of the Allegra Stratton video, obtained by ITV, resulted in the collapse of what was already a very fragile government position: that the rules were complied with respect to whatever happened on 18 December. A succession of ministers had been interviewed in recent days arguing that they had no idea what had happened but they were confident that no rules had been broken. It was an untenable and humiliating position, but that is part of the territory in being a minister in this government.
Once the mock press conference video was out, even this was out of the question, and no minister was foolish enough to defend the government’s position on Wednesday (8 December) morning.
This left space for the lockdown sceptics on the Tory benches to fill the airwaves. Charles Walker (a lovely man but serially wrong-headed on matters relating to Covid-19) argued that all future lockdowns would be voluntary because the government had lost the moral authority to impose restrictions. The anger at the behaviour within No 10 was genuine and justified but the conclusion – that the government was no longer in a position to take action – is a dangerous one.
The timing could not be worse. There is much we do not yet know about Omicron but it is plausible that the next few months could be very difficult indeed. It is clear that the new variant is more transmissible than others, with the evidence suggesting that cases could be doubling every two to three days.
It is true the evidence suggests that people infected by Omicron seem to be protected from severe illness, but it is premature to claim that this variant is itself milder. The prevalence of mild cases may reflect the fact that a large number of these cases were people who already had protection. We cannot be confident that the unvaccinated and uninfected will necessarily have only mild symptoms. And, as we really should have all learned by now, deaths and hospitalisations are lagging indicators.
The risks to public health are great. A very low hospitalisation rate of a very large number of infections can still result in a very high number of hospitalisations. Potentially, this might be enough to overwhelm the NHS – the fear of which was the justification for the original lockdown.
If the government is to act effectively, it needs to act now. The Prime Minister might have delayed action, waiting for the evidence to become clearer and avoided upsetting his backbenchers at a time of political vulnerability. After all, he has done that before – with disastrous consequences. On this occasion, however, he announced a series of significant restrictions.
Personally, I would have gone further on vaccine passports (better to lock down the irresponsible unvaccinated who are making up 90 per cent of those requiring specialist care rather than the population as a whole) but – and here is my positive comment about the Prime Minister – he deserves some credit for swiftly taking action.
This must be tempered by the fact that it was the Prime Minister who got himself into this mess. An unwillingness to confront harsh realities among Conservative MPs was a state of mind Boris Johnson encouraged and exemplified over the Brexit debate, and he is now facing the consequences.
The damage done to the government’s credibility over the various Christmas parties also lies with the Prime Minister. An apparent culture of rule-breaking within No 10 comes from the top (it is inconceivable that other recent Prime Ministers would have allowed parties there given the circumstances of November and December 2020). The extraordinary evasiveness on this issue over the past week has exposed a contemptuous attitude for the public.
Even the resignation of Stratton left a nasty taste in the mouth. She had no choice after Johnson announced that he was “sickened and furious” by the video clip. But why was he “sickened and furious” if, as he maintains, there was no party? Watch the clip again and assume (if you can) that you genuinely think no party occurred. In those circumstances, you might find the exchanges baffling, but not sickening.
The Prime Minister’s position is that he believes no party took place, so how could he be angry? Others might be angry about the evasiveness but Johnson has been evader-in-chief. As for anger about the flippant tone of a private discussion, this does not sit well from Boris “operation last gasp” and let “the bodies pile high in their thousands” Johnson. The unfortunate Stratton (who was one of the better things about this government, in my opinion) has learned that association with Johnson often ends in tears.
This episode further damages his credibility at a time when the credibility of the Prime Minister really matters. His critics are right that he has little moral authority to demand new restrictions, but if that is a real problem the answer is not to dump the restrictions. It is to dump the Prime Minister.
It was already evident in July 2019, well before COVID
He lost credibility way before he was PM. As foreign secretary, the UK was considered an international laughing stock for appointing such an amateur to one of the most important government offices during brexit year. His foreign office civil servants had to debrief almost everyone he interacted with to ensure correct understanding. His only attempt at international diplomacy, Iran releasing zagari-radcliffe, was so clumsy and poorly timed that his action actually ended up with her getting more time on jail not less ! And what has the public done about this person… Voted for more Tory MP’s at the recent local elections, affirming his so called leadership … As the saying goes “you couldn’t make this up”.
The entire Conservative party has no credibility,
Who will replace him, one of the MPs that has failed at any point to stand up and call out the continual lying ?
Who would that be , every single one of them has gone along with every single lie.
John Major said a little then disappeared off.
Not one of them is a honest person, all have been perfectly comfortable to serve up lie after lie to every person in this country.
All are there for self gain, not to do the job of serving the people they represent.
So long has been their contempt for the British public, they do not even consider it necessary to be honest, they do not believe in accountability , why would they there has never been any consequences.
Queue Priti Patel winning the next election via a landslide of middle aged working class voters because she has a “nice fat arse”.
Then we will have to explain when she diamantles the human rights act, that it doesn’t just hurt immigrants because they too are human. That will be a difficult concept to communicate to this lot.
There was a reaction in a different post (lost it now..) which spelled it out. Essentially it came down to “feck off, had enough of your one-way rules”. Kinda sums up my feelings, if there was resistance to lockdown rules before, it will be much greater now.
Between Cummings careful re-interpretation of what “no unnecessary travel” meant and Bojo’ reinterpretation of what “having a party” means it’s so very clear that “one rule for you, another for us” is the mantra of this government.
He didn’t have any credibility to begin with, he’s always been an utter insufferable twat that deserves a punch in the face & bollocks.
I’ve had enough, let’s all go and fuck a pigs head
Booriss Joohnnson… credi-i-biill..
Nope, can’t say that in the same sentence.
He should of been “dead in a ditch” when his oven ready brexit deal was revealed to be a poorly thought out rehash of Theresa Mays brexit deal.
There’s too many fuck ups and blatant lying.
Imagine what labour would have done, probably better than him.
He has just enough credibility to be a backbench MP that no one beyond his constituency really knows about. He loves Churchill and thinks he has won the jackpot by getting a situation where we need a Churchill-style leader to lead us through out. The problem is that Johnson is has no leadership ability whatsoever. Johnson wants all the photo ops and rousing speeches, without having to actually lead the country and make the tough decisions. It is why he delegates so much to other staff, it means he does not have to be the bad guy.
He is incredibly dangerous at a time we need the best of us to lead. No man has done more to undermine public health proections.
Covid is a joke. A blind dog could lead Britain though what is the most pathetic time in their history.
Not the fault of the OP, but the headline writer. Of course, Boris *isn’t* leading Britain through another Covid wave. He’s leading England through another Covid wave. Public health policy is devolved.
He of course wields outsize influence through economic levers (furlough money etc), but he definitely isn’t leading anywhere else.
Boris has always been a clown. What has happened to the UK…
That would infer aforementioned credibility existed in the first place
More people than just Johnson attended the parties. Release the list and dispose of them all. They have all lost their credibility and need to go.
Nah, I’m not buying it.
This article implies that he had credibility at some point in the past in order to be able to lose it.
He never had credibility for anything, let alone steering the country through a pandemic.
Steering tax payers money into the pockets of his and his mates pockets, loosely under the guise of “protecting the public”? Oh, sure, but actually doing something moral, ethical and useful?
Go on…fuck off.
All he needed to do was nothing and he couldn’t even manage that. What a useless man.
Boris hasn’t got the credibility to lead a fucking conga line!
I agree with the sentiment but I keep hearing people say that the party at no10 scandal has “lost credibility” for Boris as if he ever had any. Let’s remember who this man is:
1. A journalist who made a career of throwing bombs at the EU over the fence without having to substantiate anything. A man accused of making quote up bu his historian grandgather and getting sacked by the Times for doing so.
2. The man who lied to his boss Michael Howard about having an extra martital affair and got sacked in 2004
3. A man who was caught out promising to give out the address of a member of the public tennis friend to be beaten up – all a “jolly jape” of course
4. A man who blamed fans for the Hillsborough disaster
5. A man who referred to black people as “picanninies” with “water melon smiles”, guys as “bumboys” and Muslim women as “letterboxes”.
All before he even became PM with the shitshow that has followed. Let’s see….
– New hospitals lie – 40 new hospitals turn out to be mainly extensions and refurbishment of existing hopitals.They would cost around £20bn if actually new hospitals but only £3.7bn allocated.
– Unlawful prorogation of Parliament and lying to the Queen
– Lies about the costs of the EU and the additional spending not being in the EU would result in (£350m per week etc etc). Wales is £300m worse off after the loss of EU funds and Scotland even more so
– the levelling up the North agenda with the promise of trains since cancelled
– Lies about the refurbishment of his flat
– Lies about Barnard Castle and after lying, then sacking his special advisor after publicly backing him
– Lies about the NI protocol and signing it knowing full well that he will need to break it
– Another extra marital affair while PM
– Christmas partygate and allowing Allegra Stratton to take the fall
Described by many overseas as a clown and a poor mans Trump, this latest Boris scandal is just another episode in an historically embarrassing tenure – one that will probably speed up the process of the splitting up the UK.