Covid lockdowns were one of the most misguided public health policies of all times, and the idea of fining people for disrespecting what amounts to mere lunacy is certainly abhorrent.
However, UK’s ‘Partygate’ scandal is targeting the political class, a privileged caste who imposed the lockdown only to ignore their very own rules, so certain to evade accountability for their actions.
The original Partygate investigation touched 83 people, including former prime minister Boris Johnson and current PM Rishi Sunak. These people were handed a total of 126 fines.
Now, a previous episode that had not been included in the inquest has once again arisen. Police detectives had originally had not issued fines in relation to the CCHQ party on 14 December, until a video emerged showing staff drinking, dancing and joking about Covid rules.
Associated Press reported:
“British police on Tuesday reopened an investigation into lockdown-breaching government parties after viewing video of Conservative Party staffers dancing and drinking at a 2020 Christmas soiree.
The ‘jingle and mingle’ party at Conservative headquarters was held when indoor social mixing was barred under rules imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The Metropolitan Police force said it also was looking into a gathering in Parliament on Dec. 8, 2020 reportedly attended by members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.”
The announcement reopens the can of worms “partygate” that the Tory government so hoped was over.
“The revelation that political staffers held birthday gatherings, garden parties and “wine time Fridays” in the prime minister’s office and other government buildings during the pandemic sparked anger among Britons who had followed the rules, unable to visit friends and family or even say goodbye to dying relatives in hospitals.”
‘Partygate’ first ended Johnson premiership, and then his position as an MP. Forced out of office by his own party in July 2022, Johnson faced hard questions over his judgment and ethics that lasted through an investigation by the House of Commons standards watchdog.
The report demonstrated that Johnson had repeatedly lied to Parliament about the parties. Johnson attacked the committee and called it a ‘kangaroo court’.
The renewed scandal may derail Tory politician Shaun Bailey’s admittance as a ‘Peer of the Realm’, and has put Bernard Jenkin in hot water, having been one of the MPs who investigated former PM Johnson.
The Guardian reported:
“The Metropolitan police’s decision to look again at the gathering of former Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey’s campaign team in the run-up to Christmas 2020 has prompted calls to delay his peerage until the investigation is completed.
The force will also scrutinize an event in parliament that the Tory MP Bernard Jenkin – a member of the privileges committee that produced a highly critical report into Boris Johnson lying to MPs over lockdown parties – is said to have attended.”
Police will not, however, open another investigation into 16 further alleged breaches involving Johnson, his wife Carrie and close friends between June 2020 and May 2021.
“They said that having looked at the former prime minister’s official diaries, which were handed over to police by the Cabinet Office last month and are now the subject of a high court battle with the Covid inquiry, and later seeking ‘further clarification’ about the entries, they had concluded the events did not meet the retrospective criteria.
[…] Johnson issued a scathing statement accusing Jenkin of ‘monstrous hypocrisy’ for allegedly attending the event before sitting on the cross-party panel which found, after a year-long inquiry, that the former prime minister had lied to MPs with his Partygate denials.”
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