I get where you are coming from. However even though they didn’t write the rules they were not only preaching them to us ignorant plebs but actually calling for harsher restrictions. As to their alleged breaches being to a ‘lesser’ degree I think the level of hypocrisy may actually be worse. My post wasn’t meant to be pro Tory but more disgust at both parties and their general contempt of the electorate.
On a scale of 1 - 10 how would you rate your disgust of each party? Because if you make Tories and Labour the same, The Daily Mail and Sun have done a major number on you.
You say it wasn’t meant to be pro-Tory, but it certainly is. How can this one incident, already investigated and admitted immediately, be worse than 12 lockdown parties, some raucous, pre-meditated, none of which were admitted until the game was up and Parliament had been lied to? To find that worse demonstrates a huge bias.
They are not capable of sorting out the mess they have created after 12 years in power. This lack of concern for good governance and personal responsibility shows why. It’s therefore as good a reason as any to hold them to account.
10 each GoBE and I don’t read the sun or the mail . It makes me sad that our parliament is lacking in good politicians ( both sides of the house). Oh for the days of a Tony Benn, a John Smith……but most of all a Margaret Thatcher!
I didn’t say the alleged offences were worse, the hypocrisy though is worse. Granted the Tory arrogance is off the scale
I don't disagree with any of that. In fact I'd say the public is being so poorly served by the current crop of abusive and corrupt politicians at a time when the challenges facing the country/world are so great that the whole bloody lot of them should be swept away and replaced by men and women with integrity and a track record of success in the real world. The party system doesn't work any more
So, against Downing Street parties, Jenrick's bung, Patel bullying let-off, Owen Patterson, dodgy PPE contracts for mates, porn in the Commons, Savile slur, Rayner's legs,... Starmer and Rayner having a beer that didn't break rules as they were on a by-election campaign. Let's call it a draw. You should try to get your reffing badges, you'd fit in well in the PL.
Latest in Day 5 of Daily Fail trying to push 'Beergate': Kier Starmer having his dinner. Except: Narrator: Frank Dobson died in 2019.
Breaking lockdown from the grave. Are there no laws that Sir Kier and his ghost followers won’t break in their desperate lust for power and dominion over us?
Police announced on Thursday they are investigating a gathering at which Sir Keir Starmer was pictured drinking a beer with colleagues while lockdown rules stipulated that nobody from different households could mix indoors apart from for work. Starmer's response to the allegations... "As I've explained a number of times, I was working in the office, we stopped for something to eat, there was no party, no breach of the rules. The police obviously have their job to do and we should let them get on with it but I'm confident no rules were broken."
Opinion here that the ‘memo’ may actually help Starmer, rather than be the smoking gun the Daily Fail believes it is. The argument is that the Police will have to decide that the reasoning for the meal was wrong in the context of a planned work event, rather than, in the case of the Downing Street parties, simply parties in isolation which were not part of a working day. https://www.theguardian.com/politic...gate-memo-could-clear-starmer-lawyer-believes
I'm not sure this is a great strategy from the Tories anyway. If Starmer gets a FPN then I'm sure he'll resign or challenge it in court. If the event is deemed to be legal then it will be in contrast to the Downing Street events. Either way it will highlight Boris and his guilt and his refusal to resign.
It certainly works for the Tories’ wobbly base to be able give the impression that it is the same and Labour are hypocrites. It’ll be enough for many who want to turn a blind eye to Johnson’s spectacular lying to do so. However, a FPN for Starmer would be a very bad look, so they will be keen to avoid. The media also making a big deal of Starmer pulling out of a ‘keynote’ speech event and Labour appearing to fumble the explanation why.
This is true. It is actually impossible for anything involving beer and curry to be considered wrong.
I actually think the biggest problem for Keir is that he called on Sunak to resign for being in a room when a birthday cake arrived. It stops him from easily pivoting to 'yeah but some drinks during a curry when on a business trip is absolutely nothing'. I like Keir as the sensible and impressive (in his previous career), but uninspiring choice. But he/ his team seems to take a cautious approach when he should go all in, and goes all in on minor things that aren't really that important/ media traps. I think it will be extremely hard for him to not resign if he gets charged because 1. He's not going to get into office if people don't think he's authentic, truthful and principled 2. He could do it in a way which harms Boris
If we go back to the basics of this, at a time when we weren't in full lockdown, the Labour Party election team went 250 miles to where the election was and arranged for their team to be fed while on the road. OK, they have brought trouble for themselves by being cagey about it in the first place - in particular about whether Rayner was or was not there, a fib I don't understand because as deputy Leader why would she not be there?- but as far as I can see they really have done nothing wrong. The Tories will equally have been on the road, feeding their team (vis Johnson pulling pints in a pub) but nobody took a sneak video of it. Isn't it a little bit scary that the right wing press through relentless hammering away at this, aided and egged on by Tory ministers, have strong-armed the Police into reopening an investigation into this? Purely as an attempt (apparently successful) to paint them all as bad as each other. The hilarious problem for the Tories is that if Starmer is fined and resigns, Johnson's position will be indefensible - and Labour have a much, much stronger selection of successors like Rayner, Streeting, Cooper, Nandy and Bryant who would rip both Johnson and anybody on the Tory front bench several new orifices.
Agree with this - also if SKS makes a principled resignation, he will easily be able to resurface in future. If Johnson is eventually forced to resign or loses a vote of confidence, he and his band of front bench misfits will be history.......
I suspect this hasn't crossed their minds because most people tend to assume everyone else thinks the same way they do. Presumably they assume Starmer will hold onto his job as desperately as BSJ. I suspect that's a huge error on their part.
Agree with pretty much everything you say, except I think Rayner is a pretty abysmal choice for Labour leader. Just as I’m typing this, Keir’s promised to resign if found guilty. As I said above, it’s a good move.
Also completely neutralises the 'they were all at it and all got away with it argument'. If Keir gets one fine for a minor mishap, resigns out of principle, and then Boris gets another 6 or 7 for events like karaoke parties in his own residence, I don't see any way out for him (although if anyone can manage it, it's Boris).
If I were a Labour supporter I'd be pleading with Sir Keir to resign. It would be a master stroke that would turbo-charge Labour's appeal. Everyone can see that he's pretty useless and if he were replaced by anyone halfway electable I reckon the game would be up for the blue team
The key phrase here anyone halfway electable. You make it sound like Labour has such talent coming out of its ears. Could we settle for a quarter, maybe a fifth electable? I don’t understand why Labour let ex-Corrie actress Tracy Brabin head off to be Mayoress of York. Politics is on many levels superficial. She’d have raked in the votes.
