Boris Johnson!

I think that women who are victims of rape have to automatically hand over their phones, if they want a prosecution to go ahead but Johnson gets to keep his?

Seems legit.

Well nobody saw this one coming, eh?

Nah its a complete surprise.
A bit like how “eat out to spread it about” likely contributed to a second wave. No one could have predicted that.
Or why fast tracking friends might have resulted in substandard PPE getting delivered.

It does seem that this refusal to divulge information and fight it legally is being driven by the present occupant of number 10, rather than the previous one

Its going to be interesting which of the many, many potential things it is that Rishi things could bring him down?

Its going to be interesting which of the many, many potential things it is that Rishi things could bring him down?

Snogging Matt Hancock in the office?

Grauniad Link to article

Johnson has played a blinder here – He’s handed over the Whatsapp messages and notes to the Cabinet Office. They can’t deny they have them anymore, and doubtless he’s redacted the most incriminating ones for himself. He may be spiteful enough to hand over ones that will incriminate himself AND Rishi in a bit of vengeance for perpetuating his No.10 downfall
I can’t stand Boris, but he does do shitbaggery at a professional level

Yup Johnson has shafted Sunak pretty spectacularly, with this U-turn (I also seriously doubt he’s handed over it all)

?Former adviser to Boris Johnson tells me…

“Ministers will be pissed with Oliver Dowden and Rishi Sunak over this. Couldn’t see a couple of chess moves ahead, they will feel very exposed now…

“This fight didn’t need to happen” @LBC

— Henry Riley (@HenryRiley1) May 31, 2023

Government by Eastenders plot line.

Outstanding.

But it is fine – as a nation we have got loads of headroom for this. I mean, it’s not as if our economy is ****, standard of living on the skids and an international laughing stock. Otherwise, I’d be really worried.

🙄

With all the plotting and scheming, it’s like a medieval court

This one…

And it looks like Boris has done what he always does… stitched someone up. That today was a proper hospital pass. Build up the media outrage then wash your hands of it all, leaving Rishi holding the ticking time bomb

As has been noted, you’re never going to beat Boris Johnson at shithousery. It’s the only thing he’s good at, and he is truly ‘world beating’ at it

He’ll now retire to whoever’s multimillion pound country pile he’s borrowing this week and watch all hell break loose in his wake. Same as always

Without re-hashing what the chap has written today’s David Allen Green blog-post is worth a read to see the sprung trap that the Cabinet Office has manoeuvred itself into. Senior Civil Servants are being invited to supply a truth testament on pain of perjury that they do not have access to the documents.

This to go with the previously stated failure to comply notice is a short trip to a criminal record. It’s more exciting than an inquiry has any right to be.

Tomorrow could be very intresting, looks as if Boris has decided he has less to lose than “Eat out to help covid out” Rishi and his cabinet.

So once again the actual really important subject – the deaths of thousands of people during a pandemic – becomes a sideshow to the internal power struggles of the Tory party

Brilliant! 🙄

You might hope that they would dignify this process with a degree of decorum out of respect for the families of the bereaved, as that is what this is meant to be about after all, but no.

Far too much to expect, obviously. The clown circus rolls on, scoring cheap points against each other, without a care for anyone else but themselves

It really is just a ****ing game to them. They’re all sociopaths, with the odd psychopath thrown in for good measure

It’s an interesting, and very sad game of 4D chess… apparently Borris has now handed over everything to the inquiry, namely unredacted whattapp messages amongst other comms.

Maybe he hates Sunak so much he’s done a bluff, as if there are more damaging things in there it will reflect worse on the current government as a whole rather than him personally, if it was to all be made open.

Meanwhile, whilst the whole of the government are busy 1-upping each other and stabbing each other in the back, they have no time to do what they are actually paid (very generously) for, which is actually running the country.

Maybe he hates Sunak so much he’s done a bluff, as if there are more damaging things in there it will reflect worse on the current government as a whole rather than him personally,

Or he is just assuming that, as normal, the shit will slide off him and onto everyone else.

they have no time to do what they are actually paid (very generously) for, which is actually running the country.

Not necessarily a bad thing. Truss might not have even got to 20 days if it hadnt been for the queens death stopping her screwing things up earlier.

How can the inquiry be sure that johnson’s data dump is complete?

Maybe it’s finally sunk in with the badly- tailored haystack that there is no comeback, no Phoenix from the ashes, his political career is well and truly done. Unless he fancies sitting on the backbenches scowling like Theresa May. Which he doesn’t, obviously. He’s never had any interest in anything other than self-service. Being a constituency MP listening to complaints about wheely bins? Yeah, right. I can see that happening

But as much as he’s a narcissist, he’s also a vindictive bastard. I wonder how many present or former ministers are now absolutely bricking it, wondering what it is exactly he’s handed over and how much shit they’re now in

They knew who he was when they voted him in. Surely they knew that they were all disposable and that he’d take them all down with him as soon as look at them

It’s going to be interesting seeing the drip drip of all the stuff they want to stay hidden.

At the end of the day Boris feels no more loyalty to the Tory party than he does to Liverpool FC, so it’s going to be interesting to see exactly what he’s just handed over

It’s an interesting, and very sad game of 4D chess…

Not so much 4D chess, more…

Carefull what you wish for…

Truss might not have even got to 20 days

Just imagine if Truss was still PM? (I’d rather not) but it would be cosmically catastrophic, I’m not saying the current line up is any good, at all, I’m saying we can always do worse.

How can the inquiry be sure that johnson’s data dump is complete?

I don’t think we really can.
Especially once it’s been parsed through the Tory/Sunak filter, they have too much to lose if there’s anything juicy in there that implicates the current cabinate.

Boris may have played a master stroke with this.

I’m not saying the current line up is any good, at all, I’m saying we can always do worse

Remember those carefree, innocent days when we naively thought ‘Dave’ Cameron was as bad as it could get?

That worked out well, didn’t it?

I’m absolutely 100% certain that Suella Braverman is nailed on as next Tory leader. The only question is whether that’s as leader of the opposition or as PM. I’m going for the latter

Well we could have Labour:

Sir Keir wrote: “Express readers deserve their politicians to be clear about where they stand. So let me spell it out simply.

“Britain’s future is outside the EU. Not in the single market, not in the customs union, not with a return to freedom of movement. Those arguments are in the past, where they belong.

“But they also expect politicians to be honest.

“There is no point pretending everything is working fine. The paper-thin Tory deal has stifled Britain’s potential and hugely weighted trade terms towards the EU. Every day it isn’t built upon, our European friends and competitors aren’t just eating our lunch – they’re nicking our dinner money as well.”

source: https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1775780/sir-keir-starmer-labour-rejoin-eu-brexit

I’m sure Starmer would be a lot more sucessfull as a tory MP.

Yet we have people on this very forum saying things like ‘if you don’t vote labour, your’e just voting tory’ in reference to lib dem voters.

So once again the actual really important subject – the deaths of thousands of people during a pandemic – becomes a sideshow to the internal power struggles of the Tory party

Brilliant! 🙄

The brexit debate in the media was also 90% the internal power struggles of the Tory Party.

Dear god, please don’t let us go down another ‘but Labour’ or ‘but SKS’ rabbit hole. Not relevant here.

I know all this is supposed to be handed to the inquiry by later this afternoon, if it does when does that mean it’ll start to become reported / available to the public, if at all. It’s supposed to be a public inquiry, I imagine there are all sorts of taxpayer funded lawyers now looking at getting injunctions or whatever. If they disclose it at all.

I know all this is supposed to be handed to the inquiry by later this afternoon, if it does when does that mean it’ll start to become reported / available to the public, if at all

Not everything has to be published by the inquiry so for a lot of it probably not at all.
I think it will only start appearing when either there is an interim report or it gets used in a publicly available session (eg when Johnson or someone gives evidence and is asked to explain something).

*sigh*…

The invisible Rishi seems to be keeping his head down once again. It’s at this point Boris would have gone to Ukraine to have his photo op walking through Kyev with Zolensky.

I’m sure legal proceedings, possibly taking years, to determine who has to disclose what, would suit everyone just fine at the moment. That would be the very British way of doing this, then we’d have an interim report due in 2035

Oh… not quite Ukraine, but Little Rishi is off to Moldova today, to announce an agreement to deport illegal immigrants.

That should have the Daily Mail purring

He really is just continuity Boris, isn’t he? Resorts to every trick in his playbook

SQUIRREL!!

As suspected, Boris Johnson did not hand over his "full and unredacted" WhatsApp messages, as widely reported yesterday.

Johnson did not send the Cabinet Office any messages from before May 2021, missing out arguably the most crucial part of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/msZnh8AP8R

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) June 1, 2023

Oh look, he seems to have lost some messages…

Well, that came as a shock.

No doubt there are daft old biddies in the Home Counties saying “well, he’s a bit of a ragamuffin after all” and his Red Wall voters being supportive as they ‘forget’ to put much of their income through the books of the business too.

Banana Republic.

Yup no one surprised at Johnson’s dishonesty
It would have been genuinely shocking if he hadn’t lied and handed over all the messages

I’ll be honest though, I wouldn’t have put ‘government taking own COVID inquiry to court’ on my 2023 bingo card

I’ll be honest though, I wouldn’t have put ‘government taking own COVID inquiry to court’ on my 2023 bingo card

Its impressive how inept they are. Rule one of public inquiries is that they are intended to take the heat of the government not add some. So should always ensure both the person in charge and terms of inquiry suit that objective.

Boris wasn’t being entirely honest?!

Surely not?!

So he’s left out the entire timeframe where he was off boffing whoever it was this week instead of attending COBRA meetings about covid?

Rishi and Co must be absolutely bricking it about what’s going to come out if they’re going to go for the legal nuclear option

Starting a legal battle (which you’re definitely going to lose) with the public inquiry you yourself set up is a new level of ****-wittery even for this lot

What’s the betting we end up finding out what it is from Boris himself?

He’s going to take them all down with him, isn’t he?

Come on, who hasn’t dropped a phone overboard or flushed it down the toilet by mistake? Happens to all of us, no?

So getting a new phone means you can’t access any of your previous messages?

Who are they trying to fob off with this excuse? Someone’s gran?

Who hasn’t dropped their mobile containing sensitive government information, in a dam while taking a selfie and then emptied it of millions of litres of water without authorization, to find the mobile dead? 😮

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-65762503

So getting a new phone means you can’t access any of your previous messages?

I believe with whatsapp (at least in the past) if you didnt have backup switched on then you would lose the messages once you you logged onto the new phone with the old number.
That he didnt have back up on though considering how often it nags you is about as believable as anything else which comes out of his mouth though.

Come on, who hasn’t dropped a phone overboard or flushed it down the toilet by mistake? Happens to all of us, no?

No. I have dropped an iPhone, which bounced end over end down a steep gravelly lane. Fortunately it had a cheap silicon case on and suffered no damage at all. I have an aversion to losing or breaking stuff, so I make sure I don’t.

It also backs itself up. Does that make me smarter than your average government minister?

It also backs itself up. Does that make me smarter than your average government minister?

Depends on whether
a)you have some embarrassing chats on there.
b)you are likely to have an official inquiry asking you for them.

Having backups isnt always a good thing. Hence why many businesses now default to deleting emails after a year or so. Avoids the build up of pesky evidence against them.

Johnson claims that he was adviced by security officials never to turn on his old phone because of a security breach.

I have no idea at all why this would be necessary** but it might explain why the old messages weren’t transferred onto his new phone – you have to actively ask for that to happen if you change phone numbers, as he presumably did.

Apparently he says that he is prepared to hand over his old phone:

He has written to the cabinet office asking whether security and technical support can be given so that content can be retrieved without compromising security.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-missing-covid-whatsapp-messages_uk_6478d92be4b02325c5df67b1

And this is the original story dating back to April 2021 when he was forced to change his phone and phone number:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnsons-mobile-number-freely-24010763

Edit: ** Ah, a quick search suggests that the phone might have been hacked and keeping it switched off is the only guarantee that it won’t be accessed by unauthorized persons.

Makes you think…

So, he handed over “all the messages” but also has a reason ready for not handing over “all the messages”. Classic Johnson.

According to the BBC it is the government which is refusing to hand over Johnson’s WhatsApp messages to the inquiry:

Government to launch legal bid to stop Covid inquiry seeing Johnson WhatsApps

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65782535

They have refused to hand over any messages at all.

“The government missed a 16:00 deadline to share Boris Johnson’s messages and notebooks from during the pandemic”.

Edit: Which is great imo because anything that is damning will actually cause them even more damage as it will be seen in the context of a desperately attempted cover-up, so much for the promises of integrity from Rishi Sunak.

And it is hard to believe that they would go so far as legally challenging their own enquiry if there wasn’t anything damning to worry about.