TNE 38 British Top Dog House
This week’s Tim’s News Explosion looks at the scandalous winter in British politics as covid hypocrisy has enraged the public and exposed the narrative with Boris Johnson desperate to remain top dog in the British Houses of Power.
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Before the partygate scandal Boris Johnson’s performance and policies as PM were already under scrutiny. In November in a speech to the CBI he lost his place in his notes and then started talking about Peppa Pig world.
The standard was set for Ministers who breached the government’s own covid rules back in June when Matt Hancock resigned as Health Secretary after the Sun Newspaper aired CCTV footage of him kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo during lockdown restrictions when they were both married.
The rumours of parties at the PM’s residence during the lockdowns become more concrete when footage leaked of Johnson’s former press secretary Allegra Stratton joking that parties weren’t being held they were business meetings. Johnson denied he was at any of these parties and Stratton tearfully resigned from her current government role.
Since then a May 2020 Number 10 Garden gathering during the first lockdown attended by Boris and his wife Carrie was reported in the Guardian. Then the Telegraph reported that Number 10 staff held a boozy party on the eve of Prince Phillip’s funeral. Then the Daily Mirror reported that Number 10 staff held Friday drinks every Friday during lockdowns including buying a dedicated alcohol fridge.
In response, Boris Johnson has launched operation Save Big Dog to throw staffers under the bus to save his position, and Operation Red Meat to try and win back the Conservative base. Boris’ key Conservative defenders are Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Whip Michael Fabricant.
Johnson did make a good decision over Christmas and New Year by not listening to his doomsday public health advisers whose modeling on Omicron was wrong like all their other modeling. Despite their track record of using modeling which has never come to fruition to advocate for lockdowns all Johnson’s public health officers were knighted in the New Years’ Honours.
Johnson’s Government will soon scrap the Plan B restrictions and is looking at rolling back isolation requirements even further. But Johnson will still face a fragile British economy that is besieged by inflation and consumer energy prices are rising rapidly. The most likely successor to Johnson if he doesn’t survive partygate is Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
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Chatting over cheese and wine: anatomy of Downing Street lockdown gathering – The Guardian
Operation Save Big Dog: Boris Johnson draws up plan for officials to quit over partygate so he can keep job – The Independent
A booze run to fill a suitcase with wine: The full story of our exclusive on those Downing Street parties – The Telegraph
Boris Johnson’s ‘wine time Fridays’ – No10 staff held drinks EVERY week during pandemic – The Daily Mirror
‘Gloomsters’ scientists admit they were wrong about 75,000 Omicron deaths – Daily Mail
Treat Covid like the FLU: Ex-chief of the UK’s vaccine taskforce calls for ‘new targeted strategy’ to manage the virus – Daily Mail
SAGE advisers are already warning of a SUMMER wave of up to 10k daily hospital admissions – Daily Mail