Boris Johnson!

Reading in the Grauniad what Johnson is claiming its a very thin defense.

It seems to be as expected ” I didn’t know it was wrong”  “no one told me” so he is going for – I’m too thick to understand the rules I made / told everyone

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edit: i hate image hosting… 🙁

“My brain insisted in telling me the gathering I attended was not a gathering, over-ruling the evidence of my senses, so it is clear, ipso facto, that I did not knowingly mislead when my mouth stated that there were no gatherings. Mortuum flagellum etc.”

Telling someone you totally lied to their face in “good faith” is a new one fo’shure

Privileges Committee have said that johnson’s defence statement contains ‘…no new documentary
evidence’ and the delay in making it public was due to ‘…errors and typos’.
As reported by BBC.
Not an auspicious start for the odious lying moptop.

I hope that Harman takes him apart.  a nice quiet dignified sticking of the knife in like lady Hale did over the prorogation of parliament.  that was a thing of beauty

The Piglet will need to dig deep into the family tub of (special edition) escape grease.
What can actually happen tomorrow if it all goes against him?
Small fine,slap on the wrist,told to apologise to the whole country,or mounted in a pillory outside Westminster and pelted with old fruit and potatoes.
If it was the pillory option,I would get the train down for the day.

the committee can find him guilty.  IIRC punishment is a matter for the whole house.  They can order a suspension from parliament.  A suspension of more than 10 days makes him possibly subject to a recall petition forcing a by election which he would lose.

I don’t know if I have that quite right

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/20/sanctions-boris-johnson-partygate-inquiry-suspension-recall-election

I think the committee can save time by simply recycling his school report and changing the odd word.

Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies. He sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the school for the next half).

I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation that binds everyone else.

IIRC punishment is a matter for the whole house.

That appears to be the case. Any punishment must be voted on. Sunak has already said it will be a free vote. He’s probably done that as a useful ticklist for his own reference, more than anything else

You could probably write a list now of all the delusional idiots MP’s who won’t vote for any sanction on the flytipped sofa

He’s spent £100,000 on legal fees apparently.

Like plenty of other things these days – we are all aware of how bad this is and that he should be getting suitably punished…but as seems to be the way, he is going to be walking away the winner, isn’t he? Same with Trump…a real shame as a lot of sensible people are aware they have done wrong, but when it comes down to the decision it seems to be the complete opposite.

Poops – he isn’t paying his own legal fees.

I’m as bad as his supporters in that I’ve already made my mind up – he is a lying bastard of the highest order.

Tuning in could be bad for my demeanour.

frankconway
Full Member
Poops – he isn’t paying his own legal fees.

Yeah, sorry, lazy sentence from me. He doesn’t pay for anything in any sense of the word.

He’s spent £100,000 on legal fees apparently.

For some inexplicable reason it’s us mugs who are paying his legal fees

According to todays Guardian they’re presently standing at just shy of quarter of a million quid

Apparently the NAO are considering an investigation into his legal fees

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/01/watchdog-examines-220000-public-funding-for-boris-johnson-partygate-defence

I just see why “we” are paying them? Is there a precedent for it?

He’s spent £100,000 on legal fees apparently.

No mate, it’s me & you.

So if he does get found guilty will he still be able to ship all the assholes into the house of lords to log jam future governments?

Even if he loses his seat, like Truss he still gets £110k in perpetuity from us mugs.

he is a lying bastard of the highest order.

Is there some sort of meta-state where he’s lying about his lying?

Even the Torygraph are wading in and sticking the boot into him. Leaving out the glaring hypocrisy of that, he really is done now!

Assassination piece by the Telegraph. And paywall is down for this article.
Knives are out.https://t.co/UokZRwb4Js

— Ina (@thatcymraes) March 21, 2023

That Telegraph article must have been signed off by the de-facto editor, Suella Braverman

Nothing seems to get published in that paper these days without her prior approval.

So the ‘I’m an idiot’ defence was the only one he could really run with. Probably with enough realisation (probably from his lawyers) that he’s going to be found guilty and as long as he just gets a telling off or less than 10 days recommended suspension then he won’t actually care and can convince himself he’s just been hard done by.

Maybe the ego thinks even if he’s gets the book thrown at him from the inquiry then all his jolly MP mates will just vote against anything anyway.

I did hear something that I couldn’t really understand with my limited brainpower that potentially his defence may rest on definitiions of ‘guidance’ against ‘law’ etc. so guessing he’ll be going for some kind of technical issue in the wording of the inquiry rather than the fact theres a boatload of photos of him quaffing wine at gatherings.

That torygraph article is a real kick in johnson’s nuts.
Not long until tomorrow’s front pages will be online; express and mail are likely to be delusional.
If johnson doesn’t flounce, how long before he raises questions about what a party is and attempts to rebrand these events as gatherings?
I would guess within the first 15 minutes.
Have just increased my popcorn order – was double, have now re-doubled so…quadruple popcorn!

potentially his defence may rest on definitiions of ‘guidance’ against ‘law’ etc.

That’ll please those who were fines for gatherings.

Gawd I am so angry about this.  Stresses and strains and stuff many of us missed out on.  Working hard to stay withing the guidance and this clown thinks he is above it all.

Gawd I am so angry about this

You, me and lots of other people

And that’s the bit he just doesn’t get. He doesn’t get what the fuss is all about because the idea of sticking to the rules has never even entered his head. Never once in his entire uber-privileged life

And so far that attitude has had zero consequences for him.

I think we’ll see the mask slip tomorrow (as it often does) and he’ll to start getting really angry about anyone having the audacity to try and make him account for his actions. How dare they?!do they not know who he is?!

potentially his defence may rest on definitiions of ‘guidance’ against ‘law’ etc

He told parliament that all guidance was followed, when he knew it was not.

That is what he denies.  “He was assured and believed it was all withing the rules” so any misleading was inadvertant

He’s referring to when the parties took place, not when he lied to parliament. Misdirection. In my opinion.

Whatever advice he selectively picks out as having received at the time of the parties… by the time he was in parliament claiming at the dispatch box that “all guidance was followed completely”, he knew otherwise.

Gawd I hope Harman reams him a new one.   He is obviously running scared from the diversionary attacks on her and the committee

He’s used to gaggle of sycophants cheering him on, but as that Telegraph article shows, they’re all running for cover

The only people he can get to defend him now are Mad Nad and the Haunted Pencil

Rishi has hung him out to dry with the free vote on his fate

Gawd I hope Harman reams him a new one.

I’m at a conference tomorrow, unable to watch live so I’ll be relying on this thread for updates!

I think he’ll dissolve into a furious blithering mess of stammering, Latin and denial. If anyone remembers the mess he got himself into on HIGNFY years ago when the whole thing about him trying to get a journalist beaten up came out, it’ll be like that x10.

I can’t read the article without it asking for a free trial…? How?

Any where do we watch tomorrow?

Kryton – try this link

https://archive.ph/2023.03.21-084253/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/03/21/usual-boris-johnson-believes-law/

I will not watch.  I’ll get so angry I might break something.  I look forward to the reports on it tho.

.@AndrewMarr9 decodes Boris Johnson's Partygate defence… pic.twitter.com/viVea3huX2

— LBC (@LBC) March 21, 2023

? | NEW: The Daily Mirror's front page for tomorrow pic.twitter.com/fw63QQvHCB

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) March 21, 2023