General British politics discussion thread

Maybe on an individual level some Ministers won't care what happens after this round, but I don't think the Conservatives, as a party will want to roll over to Labour just yet. They might not get back in for ten plus years and that is too long for politically ambitious people to stay on the sidelines.

From a pessimistic viewpoint, I think they'll be largely ok with what is going on right now in terms of the big picture. There's a few reasons for this.

• It's 3 years out from next General Election
• A lot of the significant issues they have taken slack for can be directly put as being a Johnson issue
• They can blame Covid for the negative economic practices and mask the impact Brexit is responsible for
• As I said yesterday, they are still getting their legislation through
• Labour, and Starmer (as with Corbyn) are woefully poor opposition
• Cutting Johnson loose, putting in a fresh face and blaming Covid and Johnson for the difficulties of 2020, 21 (and some of 2022 depending how long he holds on for) will allow them to claim all the issues are in the past and they are the best party to focus on lifting the UK economy out of the Covid mess.
• If Covid does lessen its impact in terms of restrictions and the public conscious around it throughout 2022, there should be a natural economic bounce as a consequence of this. The Tory GE machine of 2024 can claim that as evidence that they have righted the ship and everyone now just needs to be a little bit more confident in the Brilliance of the UK and allow the Conservatives to bring them in to a period of real prosperity.

A lot of the narrative I have outlined above is because of the lack of an opposition and the fact that they hold an 80 seat majority in this Government. Many prominent Labour leaning public figures reacted to Starmers efforts over the last few days with heads in hands type of despair at the weakness of it. If Starmer is leading them in to the GE of 2024, and a relatively newly appointed Sunak is leading the Tories, which side looks like it is fresh faced and ready for action? (Bear in mind another right leaning Media outlet is about to enter the TV space with a lot more oomph behind it than GBNews has)

And here's the final caveat that even having said all that, I wouldn't be surprised if there are several WTF moments in UK politics over the next few years, as there have been over the last few and so people who we haven't even mentioned could be the key figures in 2024. It's all very entertaining, if you are not in the middle of it or it is unlikely to impact you. A family member of mine living there with 20+ years is very despondent and cynical about the outlook to the point it is negatively impacting their mental health in a pretty significant way.

Don't think anyone would buy the idea that people can just waltz in to the centre of power of the UK government without there being a clear record of their presence whether with CCTV, swipe card records, signing in evidence or other security or visitor records.

If such a thing is the case, it's a massive security risk and would be more worrying to a good chunk of people than the fact a Covid party was held.

No one is implying that Boris or Carrie were sitting watching TV and heard the doorbell go off but they weren't the ones who answered it.

Well wine and cheese for 50 is a pretty big undertaking. It's not just the wine and cheese either it's all the bits that go along with that. Add to that presents and Christmas jumpers which would have to be brought in on the day by guests

It either had to be bought or procured from a bar and either way there is a paper trail.

That does not mean that there is no record of who was on site on that particular day. This is the center of UK Government, not a parish council in slough.

In your efforts to abdicate them from being able to identify who was there, you are shining a light on the protectionism that is going on within Downing Street given that there is no clarity forthcoming.

There may be some evidence of the parties like emails sent around to the staff who went or waiting staff hired for it or a large room booking. I guess we will see where the investigations lead.

Bias? You mean my opinion?

Can you quote a single person who is 'presuming' this? Anyway as other posters have pointed out this is irrelevant, any kind of social gathering was against the rules at this point.

I've been catching up with this thread, you seemed to start by asking people to prove there was a party and now your position has moved to a small gathering with some left overs from the kitchen.

That's some shift, you do understand, a small gathering eating leftovers was against the rules. So do you now agree what happened was wrong and that BJ being the king of the castle is ultimately responsible. It's very hard to believe such an event went on under the roof BJ sleeps under without him knowing, he's a convicted liar so why would you even consider believing him.

Apparently there was both a WhatsApp and email chain and given there was a Secret Santa element, there's definitely a paper trail of sorts. It's just people are being fed BS and asked to accept that no such thing exists.