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© 2022 AFPBritish PM Johnson denies lying about lockdown party
By Jitendra JOSHI and Anna MALPAS LONDON©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2022 AFP
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theResident
Sadly, As a conservative supporter I do think his time is up and he will have to go. Fortunately, there is no General Election required until December 2024 and the Tories have plenty of time to regroup especially with their majority. Labour won't win that election under current leadership anyway. Keir Starmer is a Tory in disguise and was a knee jerk reaction after they ousted the toxic communist combination of Corbyn and Watson (although John McDonnell seem to think he was Deputy Leader). People see to forget that the only Labour leaders to have won an election in living memory for most people are Harold Wilson and Tony Blair!
Hiro
Are they really gonna keep this circus going? Just get over it already.
Fiddlers
He has always been a liar and I was amazed my fellow Brits voted for this loser so they deserve what they got.
Jimizo
Disgraceful man. Hard for me to find any redeeming features as he doesn’t appeal to my sense of humour.
This this sack of you know what out.
Yubaru
He's a politician! Does anyone actually expect him to tell the truth with his neck on the line?
rainyday
Game over for that idiot.
PTownsend
Johnson can now be lumped with Trump and Putin as males who as Masha Gssfen says tell mitruths to show they have power over truth, too. Johnson and Tump are also privileged class brats who've been pampered all their lives and never had to take responsibility for their actions. Trump does not lie because he believes what he is saying to be true – nor to change the minds of others – Gessen argues; he lies to assert power. He’s saying ‘I can say whatever I want, whenever I want to, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ I think he understands that instinctively.”
Michael Machida
It's a party. Why care?
Mr Kipling
Time is ticking down for Boris, the cowardly back bench MPs don't want to come out publicly against Boris in case he stays. But a couple are now speaking up to start the bandwagon rolling...... Bye Boris.
porto
Isn't it his job to know the rules? As prime minister, I assume he's meant to be leading (?) the government, the people who make and enforce the rules. It always cracks me up when these clowns say "Nobody told me!" or "I didn't know!"
Somebody told you about it and said it was a byob. Common sense would tell you it was at the very least a bad idea to attend. He is a buffoon.
Yubaru
Rules don't apply to those who make them!
David Brent
Who cares? It's not like it was a rave party! It was some drinks outside in a flippin' garden!
PTownsend
Nor to the ones who can pay the most to those who make the laws.
Attilathehungry
Two ways to know a politician is lying...
Their lips are moving
The use of the passive voice: "mistakes were made", "alcohol was consumed", "people were invited"...u_s__reamer
More than anything politicians fear prison and so their usual impunity from prosecution is what has permitted Johnson's egregious dishonesty. He will writhe and squirm with lies and tergiversations knowing that he will never be legally held to account. There is, however, a political cost: Bullingdon Boris's preference for puerile partying over the serious business of governing has cost the country tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and his "party" has now begun to panic as Tories sense their political futures have been put at risk with the revelation of their leader's frivolous ways and the exposure of his hypocrisy which has reflected badly on them all. Some, looking over their shoulder, can already read the writing on their newly-acquired "Red Wall" and when enough of them realize Boris is just another "brick in the wall", he'll be a "burnt crumpet".
Desert Tortoise
The lead photo kind of says it all. Bojo is in over his head, has been for a long time too.
GBR48
The whole Cummings/Johnson sub-plot is fairly Shakespearian.
The media, sensing a major scalp, have been keeping the pot boiling and platforming Cummings. There is an increasing feeling of inevitability about all this. If it wasn't Johnson, who has wriggled out of so much, it would already be curtains.
Desert Tortoise
He said what a lot of UK voters wanted to hear as it affirmed their own misunderstanding of Brexit and Covid, and their several bigotries. It seems to be a problem with democracy that a truth teller cannot be elected. Too few citizens what to hear hard truths, just platitudes that affirm their prejudices.
Desert Tortoise
What struck a nerve for me was them partying while the Queen mourned the loss of her husband of some 50 years all by herself. In many nations there would be an official period of mourning. Not with these people.
Simon Foston
David BrentToday 09:17 am JST
Right. Yes. Absolutely. So why were they telling everyone to stay home and not see anyone, and getting the police to arrest anyone who didn't do as they were told?
rainyday
I would guess that all the people who were prohibited from enjoying "some drinks outside in a flippin' garden" at the same time Boris was ignoring the rules and partaking probably care.
Derek Grebe
My mother died alone, of cancer, in an end-of-life unit, while my sisters in the UK were forced to obey the law and simply "be with her" on Skype rather than hold her hand as she took her final breath. Because the Rules applied to them.
Her Majesty The Queen sat alone and uncomforted at the funeral of her husband of 73 years. Because The Rules applied to her.
This pampered Bullingdon oaf says he doesn't even understand what a party is, wasn't aware that there was a party in his own garden, and thought that tables groaning with food and booze with 40 of his associates swilling it all down, unmasked, could be mistaken as a work event.
Rules are for other people.
The offence itself is unforgivable, and Johnson deserves to be hounded out of office and into exile.
The worst thing about it, though is the insulting level of the lies he thinks we are prepared to swallow.
"Yes, tell them I didn't know I was at a party in my own back garden. They'll believe that - they didn't even go to Eton, they're practically animals."
This man must go, and never show his face in public life again.
rainyday
Aw man, that sounds awful. I'm so sorry to hear of you and your family's loss.
Agreed.
Simon Foston
Michael MachidaToday 08:22 am JST
Dunno. Oh wait - because you could be arrested and fined if the police found out?
I suppose you are one of these people who is cool with politicians treating the law with disdain as long as you like the politicians in question. If it were someone you disapproved of I suspect that you would be demanding that they be locked up and the key thrown away.
Moskollo
He has the largest mandate from the British electorate in history, he is the British Prime Minister, he has the right to stay in the job until voted out by the Conservative party or by the British public. He should not resign over drinking at a party, however much the left wing media want him too..
Attilathehungry
How far we have fallen. Few may remember the Profumo Affair in the early sixties. Conservative cabinet member John Profumo was caught having an affair with a (much) younger woman. He resigned and retired from public life. Spent the rest of his days volunteering in an East End London charity home.
If only today's crop had even a small portion of such personal honor and dignity. But no, they shuffle on, trying to keep their snouts buried deep in the public trough.
Johnson should hang his head in shame and remove himself from view, both for his own moral health and the good of the country as a whole.
Crashpilot
If you deny what everyone knows anyway you just look foolish!
venze
Pathetic BoJo. He has lied, now he needs 10 more lies to justify (or maybe cover up) his earlier lie.
Why keep placing himself in the lime-light of shame instead of quitting immediately..?
Happy Day
Geez, talk about beating a dead horse.
Democrats do this all the time. AOC and Sen. Gillibrand are the latest offenders, if you care to look it up.
Elites are all the same, "what's good for thee, but not for me"....
theResident
'Elites'. Why do I only ever hear this term the same people that are anti-establishment and anti-vaccine? PLEASE someone explain to me. Not every politician or CEO was born with a silver spoon in their mouth. By the way BJ is wrong and will more than likely rightly lose his position...but really. Define 'Elite' @Happy Day.
Desert Tortoise
Well said Derek Grebe and my heartfelt condolences.
Desert Tortoise
True, some were born with a silver foot in their mouth.
It's the same thing with "liberal elites". You could be a dirt poor farm worker striking for better pay and benefits, or live in a low income minority community protesting some heavily polluting industry in your neighborhood, or an advocate for the disabled and you will be labeled a "liberal elite". Funny I never felt very elite when I was poor but taking certain political positions earn you that label. The pejorative do jure.
Express sister
I'm sorry, my memory is a little hazy.
Could you remind me, when did AOC or Gillibrand break and then denied even happend, and then accepted it did happen but they didn't know, and then say that, yes, they were there, but they thought a party with wine and cheese straining the tables was a work event?
Thanks in advance.
Simon Foston
MoskolloToday 11:08 am JST
Sorry, where are you getting that from?
His government decided that everyone else should be forbidden from doing that, but he's above the law right?
Just as much as an increasing number of conservative politicians and voters.
Kaerimashita
Problem is that there doesn't appear to be any credible replacement. At least not one who can win the next election.....
itsonlyrocknroll
Call Johnson all the names under the sun, I have a few myself.
Johnson is a chancer, scoundrel, perfidy writ large, Johnson partied in lockdown, when families were unable to attend loved ones funerals.
This duplicity could be useful as UK/EU is going to put to the test, in the coming months, like never before.
Both militarily and economically.
This is not the time for change.
theResident
@itsonlyrocknroll: Actually, you are correct. This is exactly the kind of excuse that Putin is looking for so eyes are averted the other way. Excellent post.
Simon Foston
itsonlyrocknrollToday 02:56 pm JST
Why not? There's nothing in his career to suggest that this duplicity will ever be useful to anyone except Boris Johnson, and it's not even doing him much good at the moment.
theResident
@Simon Fostom - Problem is - until they get the required 54 signatures to force a vote of no confidence in him, there can be no challenge. None of the serious contenders, apart from Jeremy Hunt are all cabinet members will throw their hat into the ring until a backbencher pits his hand up to test the water in a first vote. Only then if there was a significant votes against Boris would the heavyweights enter the ring.
Alternatively - he could just resign. In which case, Liz Truss might be favourite win a leadership election straight off the bat. Rishi Sunak didn't exactly 'back' Boris yesterday.
With no General Election necessary until Dec 2024, they could even afford to make the wrong selection for a year/eighteen months. Majority and time is on their side.
itsonlyrocknroll
Simon Foston, I am not a supporter of Boris Johnson.
Johnson must answer for his improbity. That can wait.
Tensions are building up Ukraine, that will require diplomatic political scheming to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
Johnson if nothing else, is a communicator, and in certain circumstances expendable.
It will take guile and subterfuge to bring about a methodology to stall long enough to find a compromise.
Failure is invasion and ultimately war.
Simon Foston
theResidentToday 03:46 pm JST
Right, but that's a bit different from saying he shouldn't be replaced because he could be useful, which is what I thought you were implying before.
Express sister
Of course, Boris Johnson is excellent at all of these. That's why Brexit went so well and there haven't been food shortages or fishing problems.
Wait, hold on a second...
Simon Foston
Simon FostonToday 04:26 pm JST
theResidentToday 03:46 pm JST
Sorry - got the posts mixed up! Of course you weren't implying anything like that.
itsonlyrocknroll
Express sister, Johnson is going to need to be.
It won't originate or suddenly develop elsewhere.
Certainly not from UK opposition parties.
All would capitulate to Putin.
The French and German Governments are hamstrung.
One even refusing to allow UK military transport planes to enter there airspace.
The other under siege from this pandemic facing a Presidential election.
UK holds UN Security Council Membership.
Johnson would be wise to start here and smartly.
u_s__reamer
Bojo was never of any use to anyone but himself and, although he has proved he can fool the gaslit UK electorate over and over again (yes, it's very hard to admit you made the wrong choices), the leaders of the EU countries sussed him out long ago: he's jumped the shark at home and, more importantly, abroad where the Europeans won't suffer perfidious fools gladly.
Simon Foston
itsonlyrocknrollToday 04:09 pm JST
I don't think he's up to the task. Good communicators are credible, even if they resort to guile and subterfuge, whereas not even Conservatives believed him when he said he didn't know it wasn't a work event going on in his back garden. If there's no one better at political scheming in the UK or the EU than Boris Johnson then I fear Ukraine may be headed for disaster. He can barely save himself.
Express sister
I have found the flaw in your plan.
itsonlyrocknroll
Express sister, Simon Foston,
Can I leave you with the last word.
I think we are frightened for our families.
kurisupisu
When a government makes it illegal to meet someone in a park then it’s obvious that a dictatorship has emerged…
Boris has got to go for being an oafish idiot….
Simon Foston
itsonlyrocknrollToday 06:10 pm JST
Yes, if you like.
I'm guessing that you have given up on the argument that the only thing standing between Europe and disaster is Boris Johnson's mastery of guile and duplicity. Hence the non sequitur.
itsonlyrocknroll
Simon just sleep
Simon Foston
itsonlyrocknrollToday 07:25 pm JST
How can I sleep until you have convincingly explained why Boris Johnson is not just a compulsively dishonest, self-entitled degenerate but also the 22nd Century's Otto Von Bismarck?
Simon Foston
And the 21st Century's. Both of them. He might live that long if he cuts out the garden parties at No.10.
Desert Tortoise
All those pork pies catching up with Bojo.