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The UK "Partygate" Scandal

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. A significant development occurred in the Partygate saga in the UK today, with the release of the long-awaited Sue Gray report shedding a light on exactly what happened in government and whether or not COVID rules were broken. With that in mind, I wanted to make a thread to ask; what are everyone's thoughts on this saga? What do we think might happen next as a result?

I'm aware that some of you may have no idea what I'm talking about. If you're not aware, Partygate is a political scandal in the UK, centering around the UK government being accused of breaking their own COVID laws on numerous occasions. To briefly break down the order of events:
  • Partygate first came into the public conscious in December 2021, when footage from 2020 of Downing Street press staff joking about a "cheese and wine" party in a mock press briefing emerged. When UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was questioned about these reports, he said that he was infuriated by the notion of a party and sacked those involved.
  • Accusations then began to roll around surrounding a gathering in the prime minister's flat in November 2020, when Britain was in full lockdown and social gatherings were banned. When Boris Johnson was questioned about this, he insisted that there was no party, and that COVID guidance had been followed in Downing Street at all times.
  • More and more reports of government parties emerged, including a "bring your own booze" event in the Downing Street garden in May 2020, a birthday party for the prime minister in June 2020, and numerous parties involving alcohol within the Downing Street offices. Further sources revealed that the PM was present at some of these events, so he changed his defence to say that he did not know he was at a party; he stated that they were "work events".
  • Civil servant Sue Gray was called upon to conduct an investigation into these accusations, in order to determine what happened and make a judgement. This later found that 16 different Downing Street gatherings had occurred when Britain was in full lockdown.
  • The Metropolitan Police later launched their own investigation into these events. This culminated in 126 fines being handed out to 83 individuals, including 1 £50 fine for the PM himself. This makes him the first British Prime Minister to have ever broken the law while in office.
  • Further photos recently began emerging to do with the investigation. Many of these photos showed the PM's presence at these events with alcohol, including one showing him doing what appears to be a toast of some sort, which many felt to have casted doubt on his claims that he did not know rules had been broken. The PM was not fined for his presence at the event where he was photographed.
  • The full Sue Gray report was released today, revealing full details of the events that occurred. It emerged that Downing Street staff were aware of rules being broken, and were relieved to have "gotten away with it", and that excessive alcohol was consumed at many of these events, leading to people being sick, fights breaking out and wine being thrown up the walls in Downing Street, amongst other things. It emerged that the PM was in on these gatherings and frequently present at them, often coming in and grabbing a drink for himself. It also emerged that drinks gatherings in Downing Street were very common; "Wine Time Fridays" were scheduled into the diaries of many civil servants throughout lockdown, and the PM often appeared at these gatherings.
  • These emergences have led to Boris Johnson being accused of hypocrisy and lying to Parliament, which is a breach of the Ministerial Code and would normally be a resigning matter.
There are now substantial calls for Boris Johnson to resign, but he has repeatedly resisted these calls. He maintains that he did not know any rules had been broken.

What do we think of all this? What do we reckon might happen next?

I'm not really sure myself. I'm not sure now is the right time for Boris Johnson to resign given the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis and all the other things going on; in these tumultuous times, I think we need stable leadership.

But what do you guys think to all this?
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Tories lie to you, they only want your vote so they can stay in power and fill their pockets with your money. Pretending they will let you join their gang, whilst simultaneously laughing at you behind your back.

"Partygate" is just them getting caught in the act, and they are still smirking as they get away with it.

Remember this all when you next cast a vote.
 

Furiustobaco

Mega Poster
He should resign, no doubt.
When you break the law, the law that you and your government made- it is truly unacceptable. During Covid people made so many damn sacrifices including not being able to see their dying love ones in their last minutes, think about how in the same time Boris and co were having a party completely ignoring the rules THEY set.

For any future outbreaks, why should we follow rules they SET? We know they are just gonna break the rules again themselves, have a little scandal, and then sweep it up under a rug. Boris is the tip of the iceberg.. Just look at the Matt Hancock affair scandal..

I think the main thing here is that Boris said there was NO parties, and there was. He tried to save his arse and lied through his teeth to do so. Being PM is doing what is best for your country, not you. Look at Theresa may, she resigned after surviving a vote of no confidence. As much as we may find her naff you have to admit she at least had self respect, and she decided "okay, i have tried everything i can, i need to pass the baton for the country to move on". She resigned for the benefit of the country, because she knew she couldn't deliver. Boris now cannot either, he has failed to do anything with Brexit besides piss off Northern Ireland/Ireland. But unlike May, Boris just will not do what is best for the country. He truly is selfish.

With Ukraine, this country can continue to support them without a Boris-Led Goverment, the sentiment in basically the whole of the UK remains the same. When PMQ's happen all questions about Ukraine seems to be bring a fair amount of harmony between the MP's and parties. Domestically though, what a fu**ing mess.
 

Gazza

Giga Poster
Tories lie to you, they only want your vote so they can stay in power and fill their pockets with your money. Pretending they will let you join their gang, whilst simultaneously laughing at you behind your back.

"Partygate" is just them getting caught in the act, and they are still smirking as they get away with it.

Remember this all when you next cast a vote.
We just ditched our conservative government on Saturday at the federal election.

What was hilarious was that the party was moving to the right and dawdling on a few things like climate change, so a bunch of moderate independents ran in response in a number of seats, and knocked off a solid 8 or so of the most 'moderate' members of that ruling conservative party.

So not only did they lose to the Labor party, there is a much bigger crossbench.

So now the conservative party is in opposition and they are a husk with only right wingers and basically unelectable, and their new leader looks like Voldemort.
1653527650413.png
 

coasteraddict10

Mega Poster
These prats are running the country into the ground with their idiotic policies over the past few years, breaking the social ties that bind driving up loneliness and depression, breaking small businesses ruining everything that people put their whole lives into, meanwhile they clearly didn't think the virus was that threatening despite being a bunch of old fat ****s that they felt comfortable enough breaking their own rules they expected everybody else to follow. Nah **** off :mad:

Meanwhile the useless vacuous c**ts in labour decided to go after the Tories for this despite being as guilty and are offering nothing as a solution to the problems the tories have made and are as much culpable for the situation the country is in as the tories as adversarial parliament fails to work properly when the opposition are hopeless.

The state of UK politics is truly dire, where are the new parties trying to take advantage of the incompetency of the main parties?
 

toofpikk

Mega Poster
One would hope that in years to come these rules will be reversed. I hope there is mechanism to be able to do so.

What I don't understand, is considering the lack of popularity with so many of these political actions, how have there not yet been huge accounts of uproar. I haven't seen a single public protest about anything going on in parliament. I would definitely attend a protest for Boris' resignation.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
He can rewrite the rules all he likes... He'll either lose them the election in 2024 or he'll be forced out by his own party before the election, as they know they can't win with him as leader...
 

Christian

Hyper Poster
Coming from a country with incredibly boring PMs I would like a PM that parties. The problem is that he broke his own rules, rules that he forced on the population but did not follow himself. That is unacceptable. If he hadn't issued a covid lockdown (we didn't have one in Sweden) I wouldn't have been against him having a party.
 

rob666

Hyper Poster
One would hope that in years to come these rules will be reversed. I hope there is mechanism to be able to do so.

What I don't understand, is considering the lack of popularity with so many of these political actions, how have there not yet been huge accounts of uproar. I haven't seen a single public protest about anything going on in parliament. I would definitely attend a protest for Boris' resignation.
That is because the people that voted him in knew he was a lying racist bigot before the election.
The silent majority sadly got what they wanted, and the divisions between rich and poor get ever wider.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
If he hadn't issued a covid lockdown (we didn't have one in Sweden) I wouldn't have been against him having a party.
Not sure if this is being lost across the media internationally, but partying during the lockdown is "partygate". At any other time, the parties would have just been mildly inappropriate, but as there were national LAWS preventing that sort of gathering, it's simply indefensible.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Just out of interest, and I’m in no way defending the man, the government, or their actions, they can all rot for me… But how many can hold their hands up and say that they didn’t break a single covid related rule / law?

I know I can’t, whilst I tried my best to stick to most things, and at least tried to apply common sense elsewhere, I did not stick 100% to the rules 100% of the time.

I went to see my mum on the front garden through the window…

Had a few drinks with my closest friends after working 8 hour shifts with them…

I went to the garden centre for none essential items…

None of these things were strictly permissible at the time.
 

Eyebrows

Hyper Poster
Just out of interest, and I’m in no way defending the man, the government, or their actions, they can all rot for me… But how many can hold their hands up and say that they didn’t break a single covid related rule / law?

I know I can’t, whilst I tried my best to stick to most things, and at least tried to apply common sense elsewhere, I did not stick 100% to the rules 100% of the time.

I went to see my mum on the front garden through the window…

Had a few drinks with my closest friends after working 8 hour shifts with them…

I went to the garden centre for none essential items…

None of these things were strictly permissible at the time.
If all that the officials in question did was along the lines of the examples you gave, I don’t think this would be a big deal. The reason this is so awful is that they were having big extravagant parties during lockdown, and then covering it up from the public. It’s not just that they broke the rules, it’s that they broke the rules in such a brazen and uncaring fashion. The fact that they were having large parties shows that they don’t care about the rules they set at all. They weren’t just not sticking to 100% of the rules 100% of the time, they were breaking all of the rules at once.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Just out of interest, and I’m in no way defending the man, the government, or their actions, they can all rot for me… But how many can hold their hands up and say that they didn’t break a single covid related rule / law?

I know I can’t, whilst I tried my best to stick to most things, and at least tried to apply common sense elsewhere, I did not stick 100% to the rules 100% of the time.

I went to see my mum on the front garden through the window…

Had a few drinks with my closest friends after working 8 hour shifts with them…

I went to the garden centre for none essential items…

None of these things were strictly permissible at the time.
Yeah, I mean...

a) You're not the prime minister - no disrespect. ;)
b) They did faaaaar more than just a quick drink after work or picked up a new houseplant. Let's be real, here.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Yeah, I mean...

a) You're not the prime minister - no disrespect. ;)
b) They did faaaaar more than just a quick drink after work or picked up a new houseplant. Let's be real, here.
If all that the officials in question did was along the lines of the examples you gave, I don’t think this would be a big deal. The reason this is so awful is that they were having big extravagant parties during lockdown, and then covering it up from the public. It’s not just that they broke the rules, it’s that they broke the rules in such a brazen and uncaring fashion. The fact that they were having large parties shows that they don’t care about the rules they set at all. They weren’t just not sticking to 100% of the rules 100% of the time, they were breaking all of the rules at once.
I dunno guys... I mean, I get what you're saying, and I generally agree they should be stoned to death for having a few after work drinks... I'm just not comfortable being the one throwing the stones, as far as partygate goes, if you know what I mean...

Let he without sin cast the first stone and all that...

Now if we want to talk about refusing to feed poor children whilst pouring billions of pounds into your friend's companies for covid related contracts that were never really needed... Then I'll happily lead the hunt!
 

coasteraddict10

Mega Poster
Just out of interest, and I’m in no way defending the man, the government, or their actions, they can all rot for me… But how many can hold their hands up and say that they didn’t break a single covid related rule / law?

I know I can’t, whilst I tried my best to stick to most things, and at least tried to apply common sense elsewhere, I did not stick 100% to the rules 100% of the time.

I went to see my mum on the front garden through the window…

Had a few drinks with my closest friends after working 8 hour shifts with them…

I went to the garden centre for none essential items…

None of these things were strictly permissible at the time.

The fact that loads of people people won't be able to say they didn't break any of the 'rules' and the fact that those in power clearly thought that the 'rules' weren't important shows you how nonsensical and idiotic the 'rules' were in the first place.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
The fact that loads of people people won't be able to say they didn't break any of the 'rules' and the fact that those in power clearly thought that the 'rules' weren't important shows you how nonsensical and idiotic the 'rules' were in the first place.
Yep… Nailed it… No arguments here!!!
 
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