[Nigredo]

He absolutely shouldn't apologise - not least of which because he was ACTUALLY doing what the rules allowed, but because any sort of apology would be an open door for "well, they all did it" and "Boris just did what Starmer did".

If anything, he should make more of it - that he *could* interpret the rules safely and correctly, that he *can* recognise what a work event (if it even qualifies as that!) is vs a party, and that he *did* stick to the rules just as so many other people did.

Not to mention he's actually been isolating when required to whereas the pork haystack has been drafting in IT assistance whilst infectious:

[mattomac]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics ... -rules-evg

In other news he didn’t break any rules.

[davidjay]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics ... -rules-evg

In other news he didn’t break any rules.

Dear Lord that website is dreadful.

[Nigredo]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics ... -rules-evg

In other news he didn’t break any rules.

Dear Lord that website is dreadful.

Agreed though it's marginally better than Mail Online.

[Andy McDandy]

There's a story (if you can call it that) about Germans "gloating" over the UK's predicament after a German Green leader posted a "leave a light on for our UK friends" message. This is followed by lots of quotes from a hardline Leave outfit saying that no, actually everything's fine and actually it's Germany who's in a mess and he who smelt it dealt it.

Aside from describing an apparently heartfelt and sincere message as gloating, it describes a typical bit of BTL snark ("funny a Green advocating leaving lights on") as "characteristic British wit". On the same day as several papers refer to the "Great British Conservatory". Can these fuckers just self-terminate in a characteristically and quintessentially British way?

[BBN]

Can these fuckers just self-terminate in a characteristically and quintessentially British way?

Crashing a Spitfire into a version of the Queen made out of teabags?

[Crabcakes]

Starmer's response to Johnson was exceptional. Johnson's reply was disgusting.

[Samanfur]

The contempt on Starmer's face spoke volumes.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha ha.

[davidjay]

Filth. Evil, twisted vermin.

[The Weeping Angel]

Filth. Evil, twisted vermin.

Yep and then there's this

[Malcolm Armsteen]

'The Cosmos' appears to be unaware that Full Fact is an independent fact-checking charity and not an adjectival clause.

[Youngian]

Ha ha ha.

I see the real story to emerge from partygate is that Blairites stayed quiet when Jeremy was smeared as a Czech agent.

[Crabcakes]

I must have missed the bit where May or Cameron claimed Corbyn was a spy in a televised HoC session, because just issuing denials for a clearly bullshit story would add a sense that there was something to deny to an otherwise ludicrous claim. Same with Savile - Starmer has only spoken out now because Johnson chose to drop his dead cat at the time and place he did.

It's the same bizarre logic as people who have been screaming at Starmer to demand Johnson's resignation every few minutes for the last year - if you do it constantly, it loses all power when the moment to really call for it comes up. Same with defending nonsense claims - if you issue full and frank denials of everything it looks like you're trying to cover up.

[Boiler]

'The Cosmos' appears to be unaware that Full Fact is an independent fact-checking charity and not an adjectival clause.

I think I once had someone try and claim it wasn't independent "because Soros" or something like that.

Oh, here we go: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... group.html

[MisterMuncher]

Being veterans of the British press here, I think we all know *exactly* how a Labour peer countermanding his underlings and the police to continue an investigation into a national treasure, tireless charity worker and prominent Tory.

The whole thing is a castle of bad faith

[Tubby Isaacs]

File under no shit Sherlock. DPP oversees prosecutions. That doesn't mean every prosecution that doesn't happen is the direct fault of the DPP, does it?

A few others are trying the "Starmer said it comes from the top stuff, ah sauce for the gander!" stuff. Nobody's suggesting failures in the CPS came from failure of Starmer to set an example. Johnson by contrast has flouted rules and people round him have too. We may make a connection there, may we not?

[RedSparrows]

This is fucking fatuous in extremis, and absolutely none of it should distract from Johnson.

[Cyclist]

I hope the Corbynites, with their usual lack of awareness, pile on with this "comes from the top" stuff. They'll (finally) be admitting who was responsible for the 2019 GE disaster.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some of them are piling on.

One thing in Starmer's favour is that when the report on the CPS failings came in, he didnt say "The extent of failure to prosecute child sex attackers was exaggerated for political purposes".