General British politics discussion thread

You're not though, you are paraphrasing.

There is no suggestion Simon Case was there, just suggestions that he "Might" have been there, because he is one of the scores of staff that would be considered "Downing Street Staff" (Although his office is probably in the cabinet office, not actually Downing Street.) Simon Case is the head of the ivil service, if this party took place then it is his staff and hos responsibility to sort it out, so that makes him the best placed person to do this.

You also said that this took place in Johnson's front room, which shows a shockingly poor lack of knowledge on the size and make up of Downing street.

this is more tabloid stuff. There are no named sources in the article by the mirror and no actual names of people who attended, so it is impossible or anyone to take action against the paper for libel, but it has a ring of credibility and people have watched Love Actually, so they believe that 10 Downing street is literally the PM's house, so it must be true.

if the Mirror has proof this tool place, then they should put up or shut up, but they won't, because they can't.

deleted

I've tried several times in this thread already.

people seem to think it is just a house that Boris lives in, when in fact he lives in a flat which is on the third floor of what is roughly No 11.

What we call 10 Downing street, is actually 10, 11 and 12 plus the building behind, known as the "House at the Back". they are four storey buildings, plus at least one basement level, over 100 rooms, plus at least two flats. One in No 10 and one in No 11. No11 being the bigger, is why PMs from Tony Blair onwards have lived there.

From Downing Street, you have passageways connecting it to the Cabinet Office building, which is the building that fronts on to Whitehall. I believe you can also access the FCO, which is the opposite side of Downing Street.

It is essentially a huge office building and a 24/7 operation, so thirty or forty people (out of probably 150 to 200 people who actually work there) being in one room having a glass of wine and some cheese, isn't exactly going to stand out. Especially if those thirty or forty people have been there all day anyway.

was it a planned party?

The Mirror seem to be very light on details about things like which building did it take place in, what time it started and who was actually there.

better still, the Mirror could publish a list of the names of their sources and the people who they claim attended. Although that would probably mean they fall foul of the FDA Union which probably represents those that were in attendance and the Mirror wouldn't want to do that.

I don't doubt there are records of who was in the building, but the questions is, were they in the building for a party, or simply because it is a 24/7 operation and it was busy time.

I would imagine that like most buildings, there is a hierarchy with regards access control, so someone who has access to one floor doesn't have access to another. So if someone works in the cabinet office, then they probably don't have access to Downing street, but if you work in Downing street, you probably do have access to the cabinet building etc.

So I guess the investigation needs to start with, when and where was the "Party" and who was in that building at the time. This could be any number of people, so I guess they all fall under suspicion and are interviewed to see if they attended and then any action taken after that.

Politicians scoring points off each other over the actions of civil servants is unusual though. Normally their actions are out of bounds, which is why i am surprised Kier Starmer is going so hard on this.