"If @DurhamPolice , headed by my good friend Joy Allen, issue me with a fine (although they've assured by army of legal advisors led by a former Lord Chancellor that they won't) then I will resign; because I am a man of honour and integrity." please log in to view this image
My understanding is Johnson's government set these rules which allowed gatherings in a work setting, but not a social setting. Johnson and his staff organised multiple social events, Christmas, Birthday and other in Downing Steet government offices and garden, clearly social in nature and breaking rules they themselves made. Right they got fined especially when Johnson initially lied about them even taking place, and he should have resigned, multiple law breaking. If he'd only done this once, owned up to it as a small one off mistake (though the parties weren't small) and apologised, he could have gone on. This is what the Norwegian PM did, it was a small mistake, one person too many, but she lost the election here a few months later. But Starmer appears to have been in a work setting at a local by-election meeting organising food for people needing it after work meetings. He didn't make rules and says he didn't break the rules either, even once. He states repeatedly he never broke the rules, has isolated 6 times during the pandemic, but will resign if fined. Says he will not be a part of the lies, dishonour of the Government. Sounds right to me.
I read this morning...the Met police are not proceeding with that outside work meeting with loads of bottles and people gathered round tables, which we saw loads of photos of in the garden of no10 on a sunny Friday afternoon...as it "could have been a work meeting". They are only proceeding with birthday parties, leaving dos and social quizzes
Col Ukraine is not a big story anymore Wagatha Cristie is ...please keep up with the really important things in the news
At the hospital today for a follow-up colonoscopy. Every nurse and doctor I saw had a black or brown face. Many would have been immigrants, some might have been refugees. Makes you sick, doesn't it?
And most of them probably legal immigrants too Don't think anyone's bothered by legal immigrants Just the illegal ones But you know that
Did anyone see Michael Gove this morning on BBC Breakfast. ...with all his silly voices and semi incoherent line of thought. Was he on something, or still drunk from last night Bizarre
So it looks likely that over the next few days both Finland and Sweden will be applying to join Nato. How on earth will Putin react to that?
A secondary question might be, how on earth will those influential men around him react, faced with this Putin-created problem?