by Bill White
[Transcript]
I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you. Surely, no one will have seen this one coming… Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, have been given fixed penalty notices or fines by the Metropolitan Police for breaking COVID19 restrictions that BoJo’s own government had imposed on the filthy masses.
This comes as the Metropolitan Police announced 30 additional fines yesterday in relation to Operation Hillman, which is looking into breaches of COVID regulations by Government officials. Police have now handed out over 50 fixed penalty notices in their “Partygate” probe.
But first a little history… After a press conference video was leaked, on 8 December 2021 Boris Johnson announced a Cabinet Office inquiry would be undertaken by the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, to investigate whether COVID19 restrictions were broken at that or any other staff events. Case stepped back from the inquiry on 17 December, amid reports that his own office had also held a party in December 2020, and responsibility for the inquiry was handed to Sue Grey. During this period, Boris Johnson repeatedly denied that any rules were broken.
In January 2022, the Metropolitan Police opened its own investigation into potential breaches of COVID19 regulations in government buildings, leading to uncertainty over the timing and possible content of Gray's report.
An update on Gray's investigation was published at the end of January, which found some behaviour related to the gatherings "difficult to justify", and the report said that the gatherings representing a failure of leadership and to uphold standards expected of the government and public. Her report also stated that "excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time".
As I mentioned, since last December, Prime Minister Boris Johnson categorically denied that any COVID19 rules had been broken by him or anyone at Number 10; saying quite clearly in the House of Commons and elsewhere that “No rules were broken”. He repeated this claim a number of times.
But the details of party after party, work gathering after boozy work gathering, not to forget the Prime Minister’s own birthday party were being dripped into public view by a disgruntled Number 10 special adviser, Dominic Cummings, who felt as many millions of people feel that the Prime Minister broke the rules and lied about it because he believes that these rules simply don’t apply to him. The Prime Minister knew then what we know now, that the rules and restrictions were simply unnecessary.
BoJo did what BoJo does, he ‘kicked the can’ down the road, refusing to comment further than to lie that “No rules were broken” because he knew that the investigation would eventually reveal his true involvement but that by then, rising energy costs, the war in Ukraine, the threat of nuclear war and just the passage of time would divert people’s attention from his lies.
This recent behaviour is merely a pattern of this Prime Minister’s entire life. He’s a serial liar and when caught, he denies the obvious, points a finger elsewhere, and keeps dancing, confident that a disheveled haircut, a jolly demeanour, and a quick whit will carry the day. And it seems to work, not least of which because a majority of the Ministers of Parliament are more concerned for their job than they are the integrity of their office.
In the end, the investigation was a waste of the taxpayer’s money, a stalling tactic used by BoJo… who refuses to go despite obvious breaches of the Ministerial Code. He refuses to resign even though anyone else with any degree of integrity would have resigned already but this Prime Minister is not concerned that his behaviour continues to erode the public’s trust in government. Boris Johnson doesn’t care about that... The rules are for you and me, they don’t apply to him.
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