The real crime: Partygate at No 10, or when the police is wasting police time

 

 

Having read this morning’s papers I’ve reached ‘peak fury’, I’m incandescent! How ‘independent’ can the Gray Report on ‘Partygate’ be when we’re told today that, actually, the Met Police is now reading and presumably redacting the thing? And what price now the outcry in the MSM and the HoC that the report must not be redacted at all by bad, partying Johnson, only to have the civil service trade unions howl that the names of any Whitehall ‘employees’ must be redacted to protect them? 

That Report, in case you wonder, still hasn’t been handed in to the PM. According to Westminster gossip it’s now expected next week. Of course, all that ‘redacting’ takes time, though Ms Tominey’s headline on her opinion piece in the DT inadvertently gives the game away: “This could be the moment the establishment finally takes down Boris Johnson” (paywalled link). Her piece was published yesterday evening so presumably she was ignorant of the staggering information that the civil service trade unions want names to be redacted. Nevertheless, her observation is troubling:

“[…] even if No 10 had a legitimate argument for keeping certain details out of the public eye, it risks being tainted by the stench of a suspected coverup. Westminster whispers about who has contributed to the report also served to fuel suspicions that the Civil Service is in no mood to cut Mr Johnson any slack.” (paywalled link)

But who is actually aiming to produce a cover-up? Apparently not the PM. All the gossiping emanating from No 10 this week, a.k.a. ‘hostile briefings by sources’, meant to show that Johnson is trying to save his formidable backside, hid the fact that it’s really about saving the skins of mandarins, from Mr Reynolds of BYOB fame to unnamed others. Ms Tominey writes:

“And what of the other officials in Downing Street? Some of them might have an interest in ensuring that Mr Johnson is the one who takes the flak from Partygate, not them.” (paywalled link)

Only ‘some’? Let’s make that ‘all’, shall we? This is staggering, especially since Ms Tominey seems to imply that it’s quite alright. I am puzzled if the current top mandarin, Mr Chase, from whom and about whom we’ve heard nothing, is one of those to be ‘saved’ or if he’ll be sacrificed to save the other mandarins.

There are other crossed wires: Labour demands that everything must be published, unredacted, that there must be no cover-up from No 10 while at the same time the trade unions are adamant that this must not happen:

“Civil service unions have called for names to be redacted from Sue Gray’s Partygate report as they warned that government employees must not be ‘hung out to dry’. Garry Graham, the deputy general secretary of trade union Prospect, said he hopes civil servants are not going to be ‘collateral damage’ as a result of party attendees being identified. The permanent secretary of the government’s legal department, Susannah McGibbon, was understood to be in charge of a group of lawyers looking over the report for anything that might cause problems to arise in the police probe.” (link)

Crikey. We have come to this: civil serpents must be protected from the consequences of their misbehaviour while the PM must go. It’s ‘Save Whitehall Mandarins’ and sacrifice the elected PM: un-effing-believable! I loved this gem dropped by Mr Graham: “The Prime Minister is the head of the Civil Service. He should have been leading by example.” (paywalled link) – indeed, but are civil serpents totally devoid of any independent thought? Do they not have their own moral compass? They keep bleating that they only ‘advise’, but are incapable of following their own advice – that’s stunning! 

Meanwhile other Whitehall mandarins bleat that the government is paralysed because nobody is making any decisions as Johnson and No 10 are waiting for that Gray Report, with Johnson meeting MPs to negotiate about how he can remain in No 10 (link). So how paralysed is this government when we’re told at the same time that the MoD is in ‘very advanced talks’ about deploying ‘hundreds of troops’ to eastern Europe because of that Russian invasion (link, also paywalled link)?

Never mind: since the Westminster cabal wants to get rid of the PM, any hostile gossip is grist to the Westminster MSM mill. This paralysis will presumably go on because publication of the Report is now ‘expected to be delayed until next week’ because:

“Its findings were passed on to the Metropolitan Police at the weekend, prompting Dame Cressida Dick to launch a formal investigation into claims that lockdown laws were broken.” (link)

Funny, innit, that neither the PM nor we, the paying public, were informed at the weekend but had to wait until Ms Dick told a committee (!) of the Labour London Council (!) that her force was now investigating. Ms Dick did not deem it necessary to hold a press conference and tell the nation – why not? There’s now righteous fury about this ‘decision’ which, the DM alleges, will cost us about £1m of our money. Look at this:

“The so-called ‘Celebrity Squad’ has been tasked with investigating eight parties in a wide-ranging probe, which policing experts have estimated could cost in excess of £1million and take at least six months. Eight officers in the Special Enquiry Team, led by Commander Catherine Roper, have been assigned to the inquiry, with more officers and staff available if needed, the Daily Mail understands. She will report her findings to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jane Connors.” (link)

A ‘celebrity squad’? What the flaming fluff is that? Just look at that brilliant chain of command – all wimmin! Clearly, investigating this heinous break of covid rulz is far more important than investigating actual crimes, especially knife crime in the metropolis. The DM has a long list of Met failures in their report (link). It’s worth reading (scroll down a bit) because it details how the police ‘protect’ us who pay them. “Value for money” it is not!

The Westminster establishment, MSM included, couldn’t have made it more clear: getting rid of the Brexit PM and getting Remain Starmer into No 10 has priority over everything. A ‘police investigation into Partygate’ is far more important than protecting the people from crimes. Where are the demands for independent inquiries into those scandalous police failures?

Have we now arrived at the final destination where a Common Purpose driven public service shamelessly and publicly demands to protect their own, when us peasants won’t be protected from actual crimes whereas ‘crimes’ like lockdown-rule breaking and ‘hate crimes’ are being pursued with the utmost vigour? 

I hold no candle for the PM and his interfering wifey. However, the alternative – a Remain government led by Labour and Common Purpose – is far worse. So if the Tory MPs can clip his wings, if they can get him to scrap the NI rise (link) against Sunak’s wishes who has now been utterly domesticated by the Treasury mandarins, if they can force him to get rid of snakes in the grass, then perhaps we might get less of Peppa Pig and more of Brexit. 

Hope springs eternal …

 

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