[Malcolm Armsteen]

I also suspect a lot of it is the unspoken extra clause. Johnson and Mogg want people back into work because it seems right to them - people doing lowly admin jobs shouldn’t have perks that they enjoy such as flexible working times and the like. The same argument that poor people shouldn’t have any pleasures in life, only taken up a few rungs. They want people back in the office to increase their own sense of specialness.

Begrudging. It's their default mode.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Can you spot the problem here?

His government stopped Crossrail 2. Absolutely not the faintest idea what's going on.

[Boiler]

From a BBC SYB:

Screenshot 2022-05-17 at 19-33-05 Northern Ireland Liz Truss sets out new law on post-Brexit trade deal.png (9.11 KiB) Viewed 2116 times

[Andy McDandy]

The great thing about political jokes is that they eventually come around again. First heard that one about Cecil Parkinson.

[Youngian]

Interesting perspective as to why you get nowhere on the doorstep explaining why Boris Johnson is an evil piece of shit.

[Boiler]

Boris Johnson will not face a further Partygate fine, says No 10

[Crabcakes]

I think this is going to backfire spectacularly. Junior staff have been fined for attending the same events that senior staff have not been censured for - probably because they had access to expensive legal advice. They are pissed off, and have plenty of evidence on their iPhones.

Johnson may think he’s got away with it again, but I suspect he’s made a few too many enemies this time. It reeks of a cover up, and the other explanation - wealth and privilege has allowed people to break the law and wriggle out of it - is barely better.

[Boiler]

Yebbut Starmer's beer

[Boiler]

Johnson has got away with it again - wealth and privilege has allowed people to break the law and wriggle out of it.

FTFY

[mattomac]

It’s really the worse look possible.

Only the Met could do it so well/badly

[Andy McDandy]

At least his public image is seriously dented, although 2.5 years of determined fluffing (see comments on newspaper editors and WFH) may alter that.

Ireland's looking increasingly attractive.

[Crabcakes]

Johnson has got away with it again - wealth and privilege has allowed people to break the law and wriggle out of it.

FTFY

I think without the cost of living crisis this might have had less cut through. But if it now adds into the mix that not only did he ignore the laws he made, but that he then blew loads of cash on lawyers to avoid paying a £50 fine, it could be fatally toxic to all but the most committed of fans. And if it further turns out he used taxpayer money or got someone else to cough up…

There are going to be a lot of fuming junior staff whose mood won’t be helped one bit by the inevitable tin ear he’ll show to their having been stitched up.

[Boiler]

But as we're always being told, being employed by ministers et al is different to normal employment - the rules don't apply. Prospect, I understand, are campaigning to do something about this.

[Boiler]

I'm just wondering how many of us on this board remember the rampant inflation of the late 70s and early 80s and how it was all blamed on Labour and the Unions, and how it only got worse in the early Thatcher years because drastic medicine had to be taken? There's also murmurings that we are not far from a recession (again) - I wonder how they'll pin that on Gordon Brown this time?

Yet both Brown and earlier, Healey were praised by the IMF for their handling of the situations Britain found itself in...

[Boiler]

More of this please, Sir Keir.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Perhaps Johnson can explain how he attended so many events where other people were fined without being fined himself? Should be fun.

[Oboogie]

Perhaps Johnson can explain how he attended so many events where other people were fined without being fined himself? Should be fun.

Precisely, if the event was illegal then ALL attendees should be fined with the heaviest fine going to the host, Johnson, for planning the criminality.

[Crabcakes]

Perhaps Johnson can explain how he attended so many events where other people were fined without being fined himself? Should be fun.

I think the Met will have to cave and explain, because at present he seems to have somehow legally attended illegal parties, and the people who didn’t make the decisions on whether to have them or not have been fined but the people whose lead they followed haven’t.

I’m not sure it could have been handled in any worse a way, up to and including him getting further fines. It’s almost Streisand effect levels - the whiff of a paid-off cover-up is looking worse than the crime.

[Boiler]

A rotten police force for a rotten city, bought and paid for.

[Bones McCoy]

Perhaps he attended the illegal gatherings in a specific and limited way.