BREAKING: Both the Prime Minister and his wife have been given guidance by the Metropolitan Police that they will not receive further fines, we understand.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) May 19, 2022
Thoughts and prayers for Brand, Crera, Peston and the other assorted political activists posing as journalists who will now have nothing to write about!
The Met Police have now concluded their investigations into #PartyGate.
They have made 126 referrals for fines in total. 53 were men and 73 were women, some received more than one fine.
As yet Boris has not received another fine.
The Met have said that they have issued another 50 #PartyGate fines to Number 10 (Boris is not on the list this time), bringing the total to 100.
Yesterday Parliament approved a third probe into partygate, this time via the Privileges Committee.
Whilst Starmer and the media are doubtless feeling very smug about this, the wasting of more time debating and investigating what is already being investigated does the people of Britain no good whatsoever.
Those who want to hold the government's feet to the fire should be focussing on a whole host of issues that affect real people including, but not limited to:
- the absurdity of the lockdown/mask rules, and how they caused more harm than good
- inflation
- the war in Ukraine
- migration
- NHS backlog
- housing
- law and order
- education etc etc.
These are the issues that our "esteemed" parliamentarians ought to be focussing on, instead of the theatrics of partygate!
Boris and Rishi received FPNs yesterday for the one event that they didn't actually expect to be fined for.
Not least because the Times reported on it the day after it occurred in 2020, without anyone so much as batting an eyelid!
Given the "methodology" and snail's pace of the Met, it is entirely possible that this won't be the only fine levied on Boris.
The media is fulminating with faux anger and doing its best to whip people up into a frezy over #BYOBGate, when the PM allegedly attended drinks (with crisps and sausage rolls) in the Number 10 garden on 20 May 2020.
Whilst Twitter is going apeshit over this, it is worth remembering that Downing Street is an office to hundreds of advisers and civil servants, and a home to the PM, chancellor and their families. Those who live in No. 10 or No. 11 had a right to use their own garden during lockdown. Work and meetings often took place in the garden throughout the day and well into the evening.
This is not the same as a group of people turning up at someone else's house/garden for a piss up.
That being said, there are a number of points that people need to consider:
1 The optics of this are terrible, anyone with half a political brain could see that this was a bad idea invite people (socially distanced or not) by email (ie provide a written trail of pre planning). Whoever authorised/organised this needs a sound kicking.
2 The fact that the email was sent to 100 people pretty well guarantees that this would leak. Whoever authorised/organised this should have known that.
3 Why has the media.leaker(s) sat on this for 20 months? This is clearly a coordinated attempt by certain people to undermine the government and get rid of Boris.
4 The ITV journalist, Paul Brand, to whom this email (and other partygate type stories) was leaked is married to Joe Cuddeford who (by happenstance) is the Deputy Director at The Cabinet Office.
5 Oddly, ITV have redacted the date on the email. Why?
6 Bournemouth on the day of #BYOBGate
The media are fulminating with faux outrage over #PartyGate and the video of Allegra Strattton practising in the briefing room a year ago.
There is more than a stench of hypocrisy emanating from the "good people" of the outraged media, given that a good handful of them were also on the piss during lockdown last year as well (Kay Burley and Beth Rigby to name but two).
It is also notable that the media operation to fan the flames of hysteria over the party/parties allegedly held by our political masters, was designed to ensure a few political heads would roll. Ironically the only head to roll, thusfar, is that of Allegra Stratton (one of the media's own, and an ex colleague of Peston)!
Media faux outrage aside, there are some key unanswered questions hiding in plain sight:
1 Who leaked the video?
2 Why did it take one year to leak?
3 Why are the media not releasing the names of the people who were at the party/non party (clue - were there were media people there?)?
4 Stratton is an experienced journalist, and well versed in the dirty world of politics. Media professionals and politicians etc know to treat all cameras/microphones as live. She even said it was being recorded. Therefore why did she say what she said? She knew perfectly well it would eventually leak.
5 If the people who organised and attended these parties really thought that Covid was that dangerous, and that the restrictions that they had imposed on the rest of us (eg masks, social distancing, no mixing etc) were necessary to stop it, then they would have followed those rules themselves!
