[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's not really much of a party. It's people who I presume were all there working getting called into the Cabinet Room for 10 minutes (assuming Johnson is telling the truth about this). It's against the rules, as a gathering not necessary for work, but I'd not make too much of it if I were Sir Keir.

You seem to be taking Johnson's account for gospel.

With his record?

[davidjay]

[Crabcakes]

Does…does she think this is helping?

[Crabcakes]

It's not really much of a party. It's people who I presume were all there working getting called into the Cabinet Room for 10 minutes (assuming Johnson is telling the truth about this). It's against the rules, as a gathering not necessary for work, but I'd not make too much of it if I were Sir Keir.

At the time people couldn’t see loved ones in hospital or care homes at all, and he had a gathering with cake. That has mileage, and it speaks to the atmosphere - no one should have ever thought this was ok. The fact they did speaks volumes about Johnson.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Yeah.

That May we wished Fizz a happy birthday from the pavement and she did a dance for us on her doorstep.

We didn't get to see grandson for his birthday at all.

[satnav]

Not really buying the spontaneous work gathering line. Over the past two years at school there have been no gatherings to say good bye to departing staff, instead all the goodbyes have been via zoom or Google teams.

[Tubby Isaacs]

At the time people couldn’t see loved ones in hospital or care homes at all, and he had a gathering with cake. That has mileage, and it speaks to the atmosphere - no one should have ever thought this was ok. The fact they did speaks volumes about Johnson.

It's definitely against the rules, but I think you tread fairly lightly over this if you're Sir Keir on Wednesday ("And I've not even mentioned the birthday party" sort of thing). It's the other stuff- the lying, the arguing that the PM should be let off because he's stupid, the rash of bullshit designed to distract- that really hurts him. Go for all that.

[davidjay]

It could well be that the word 'cake' does more to finally bring him down than anything else.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not really buying the spontaneous work gathering line. Over the past two years at school there have been no gatherings to say good bye to departing staff, instead all the goodbyes have been via zoom or Google teams.

Gatherings had to be necessary for the purpose of work, and this certainly doesn't meet that standard.

But as far as we know, it was all people who were working in the building at the time. Carrie or whoever just had to stick her head round a few doors and say "Can you come to the Cabinet Room for a minute?" They'd have eaten some cake and probably talked about work (even that lot).

I think the evening one is where Johnson is looking much more shifty. He said "family members"- wouldn't they (aside from Carrie and Wilfred) not have been allowed?

[Crabcakes]

Also, perfect timing with Arden cancelling her wedding even now, with all the drugs and treatments and with how well NZ has done. Yet BoJo - at the very height of covid - had created an atmosphere where his wife and staff thought throwing him a surprise birthday party with 30-odd attendees indoors was OK.

Not even in the garden. Not even just a handful of people. Multiple offices, in one room, singing. And he didn’t freak out at them - he lapped it up.

Plus, people take photos at birthday parties. And who was still the PMs advisor then, and likely around Downing St. so likely to be pulled in?

Oh yeah. One D. Cummings. He, or an ally, just has to leak 1 pic of Boris blowing out the candles. A big puff of breath in an enclosed space.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Put it like that, and I can see there's a bit more for Sir Keir in it than I thought.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[Crabcakes]

Also, this - Johnson was lying through his teeth. He wasn’t furious at the behaviour because he knew he’d been part of it. He was furious to be found out because he knew what was coming. Garden parties. Leaving parties. Booze Fridays. Birthday parties. Parties before funerals. Big wedges of cash to his mates. His health Secretary banging his assistant. His dad fucking off to his villa. His advisor going on day trips and length journeys to avoid childcare while ill. And he’d had bloody covid, and had it bad - he *knew* how awful any of this would look. And he let it all happen because he didn’t care and he thought he would get away with it. It’s all been a lovely boozy holiday for him, and fuck everyone else.

This is why I want him to stay on, and limp through a no confidence vote. Because he’s absolute cancer now. Every day he’s there, every time he has to pretend he doesn’t know up from down he sprays more shit over *all* the Tories. The longer he stays, the more damage he does, the more Labour benefit.

[kreuzberger]

Welcome to a new week!

Systemic racism, another ministerial resignation, spectacular knees-uppery in Number Ten. It's still only Monday, right?

It feels so normal now and, from afar, it looks like a country which thinks of its trafficker as "Loverboy". It's alarming.

[Boiler]

It feels so normal now and, from afar, it looks like a country which thinks of its trafficker as "Loverboy". It's alarming.

You've been reading about the Romanian traffickers, haven't you?

[kreuzberger]

It's been a major strand on the World Service news all day. The parallels are stark.

[mattomac]

Russia will start to make us realise we have very little voice.it’s not particularly the get out he would hope.

Merkel stands down
Biden struggling
Johnson in his own mess
Macron has an election

I think that is why Putin fancies flexing his muscles.

[Crabcakes]

All that, yes, but he also desperately needs a distraction back home. The Russian economy is awful, covid hit hard, and public dissent against him is increasing.

[Youngian]

Russia will start to make us realise we have very little voice.it’s not particularly the get out he would hope.

Merkel stands down
Biden struggling
Johnson in his own mess
Macron has an election

I think that is why Putin fancies flexing his muscles.

Counting the West’s rifles. Putin has very little else to play with apart from hard power, its GDP isn’t much bigger than Australia. And Oz doesn’t have to budget for being a military superpower menacing its neighbours. If NATO supplied Ukraine with whatever weaponry it needed, Putin will never win a war of attrition with the West anymore than his Soviet predecessors could. And there’s something else important at stake here; Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons and no one else is going to if territory is ceded to Putin under threat.

[Andy McDandy]

@Crabcakes, yes, it's all getting rather reminiscent of John Major's tenure from 1995 onward. No moral authority, no real fight left, just a grim determination to hang onto the keys to No. 10.