That being for more reason than one that Johnson hasn’t been a great Prime Minister, to begin with. This week under the guise of multiple reports it emerged that Boris Johnson’s government has in part largely ignored its own COVID rules for what were a series of parties. But the rouse doesn’t actually stop there, and in fact, another set of parties has since been revealed (this time around the same time Queen Elizabeth held Prince Phillip’s funeral.)
It reads almost like a playbook in America except for a bit in reverse had Republicans been in power. Nevertheless, it is the very scandal that probably will inevitably in some form bring down Boris Johnson (and it should.)
Let’s begin.
In the beginning, as it turns out, Johnson’s government and staffers repeatedly enacted restrictions throughout the United Kingdom though they themselves weren’t following them. What were they doing, one might ask? Most of those staffers across varying levels of Johnson’s Downing Street were “yukking” it up like rockstars while others were stuck at home. That revelation alone has resulted in wide-ranging calls for Johnson to immediately step down due to the sheer ignorance of the idea that rules “don’t apply to them but us” type of thing an idea that also applies across the pond in the United States.
No seriously get in we’re going time travelling back to May 2020. In fact, we’re going to early May 2020 involving a reported e-mail from a member of Johnson ‘s high-ranking staff inviting about 100 goofballs to a garden party at Downing Street. A garden party involving a long table and “good weather” while a press conference was simultaneously taking place in the opposite end of the building it seems.
Let’s call it B.Y.O.B (that means Bring Your Own Bottle for those that aren’t hip.)
Dated May 20, 2020, and sent by Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds the e-mail invited roughly 100 folks to the party just as restrictions were being placed and continued to be placed. The issue with the first round of parties sits solely north of the fact that nobody knew these parties actually took place until the e-mail surfaced. Though it most certainly isn’t Johnson ‘s first COVID gaffe.
Oliver Dowden, then-Secretary of State for Digital, Media, Culture, and Sport, informed the public (during the infamous presser that took place during the now-infamous party) that “you can meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor, public place, provided that you stay two metres apart.”
To make matters worse eyewitnesses have told multiple outlets that both Johnson and his unamusing wife Carrie were both present at the party despite restrictions quite literally being announced at that very moment.
But even before this infamous party, Johnson ‘s COVID gaffes were on full display. Card parties; holiday cheers, and an infamous Christmas quiz game during the Tier 3 restrictions last year have also come back to light. During that time, it was forbidden to socialize indoors or anywhere inside of a garden (considered a closed or small space depending on who you ask.) Of course, those rules also then didn’t apply to Johnson or his government.
It’s worth noting that Boris thought he’d get away with it because of the fact that Boris ‘s house and the infamous garden are both heavily secured and fortified. The garden particularly enjoys extensive privacy leaving many who enter or have a pass to enter like they’re somehow superhero and invincible from the outside world.
If you haven’t figured it out by now — we’re joining calls for the Prime Minister to resign effective immediately.
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