Should Boris resign?

[miasmum]

Nobody likes Cummings. He in known as Gollum for a reason. Having said that he is doing what many of us would do if we felt we were wronged and later had a chance of revenge. Not nice, probably unforgiveable, but understandable.

Really? I like to think I would have more pride but thats just me.

[Workingman]

No. But it's apples and pears and Starmer is neither in No10 nor the PM nor making the rules, and I have never voted for his lot.

Ahh I see so as long as you're not Prime Minister or making the rules you can do what you like? Isn't that called anarchy? I bet all those fined for having indoor gatherings, dont feel quite as benevolent

They don't feel benevolence to anyone, hence the anger at Boris, they got fined £000s, he didn't. It's rage!

From what I have read, Starmer and five others were working on a by-election campaign in a small constituency office with no cooking facilities. They ordered in food and drinks and took a break then continued working into the small hours.

Yes, the food and drinks part was wrong, but the rules at the time did allow people from different households to mix for work. In that respect no rules were broken. For the break they should have shut up shop and gone to a restaurant / pub and sat outside for a meal and a drink - that was in the rules.

The events are not the same. It was a misdemeanour, and a minor one in comparison with the now admitted Downing St parties (plural).

Re Cummings: he is doing what he is doing. I do not particularly like it, but I do understand it.

[cromwell]

Strange isn't it?
The photo was taken last year. If it was so outrageous then why wasn't it published last year? Why sit on it until now?
One reason could be that Boris was forced into going off piste by his back benchers. No lock down!
So Boris went against the advice of the Bill Gates fan club, aka SAGE. Even worse for Boris, that decision was proved to be correct. Shortly afterwards the photo is leaked to the press, complete with a load of other stuff that someone has been sitting on for months.
I don't think it's a coincidence.
Someone who wants lock downs, who wants authoritarianism, who wants the vax pass, is behind this attempted coup.

If Johnson goes he will be replaced by someone who is a former Remainer and a Tony Blair fan, nailed on. Someone the civil service will like.
And that will be the end of BBC reform and back into the SAGE mindset.

[medsec222]

After seeing Boris' interview yesterday I thought he might have been bruised and beaten at PMs questions today but he seemed to put up a robust performance and had got some of his old bluster back. I think the Friday drinks culture in Downing Street is totally wrong and Boris should have put his foot down sooner but we will have to await the findings of the much heralded Sue Gray report. Whatever, it now seems to be the ideal opportunity by his determined opponents for a concerted effort to topple the Prime Minister and no doubt those who want him displaced will double their efforts to put the boot in. As Cromwell says, he could be replaced with a Remainer - and how the disgruntled Remainers would rub their hands with glee. As for the Conservative who defected to Labour - he is calling for Boris to do the right thing and resign but why doesn't he do the right thing and resign. A Conservative candidate won the seat originally and he might well win as a Labour candidate, but one way of finding out would be a by-election.

[TheOstrich]

The Bury South MP who defected was cited yesterday as one of the prime movers of the 2019 entrants' much vaunted "Pork Pie Plot".
I wonder if they have done the numbers and realised that they have, in fact, little hope of achieving the 54 No Confidence letters to Sir Graham Brady, so Christian Wakeford thought it was the only way left to make his point.

[cromwell]

More like a hail mary to stay as an MP.
His majority is 402 and maybe he thinks he would be out if he stood as a Tory.
Turncoats are rarely popular though, and come the next GE he will probably be gone.

[TheOstrich]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I thought you might be interested in this, as I did mention up-thread emailing our MP.

Just got this reply:

Thank you for contacting me regarding THE issue that is dominating my inbox, namely the operation of No10, the breaching of Covid rules and what it says about the integrity of the Prime Minister.

The pandemic was unprecedented. Fear stalked the land. The rules were tough, and needed to be, to try to control a public health bushfire. My conscience, like the vast majority of North Dorset's, is clear. We all understood the rules applied to us all for our own goods and our communities.

I cannot begin to tell you how furious I am with everything that has come out over the last weeks. The facts made worse by the sidestepping, dissembling and equivocation. When wrong has been done: admit it. Huge damage is being done to politics and the faith people put in that process. "Do as I say not as I do"; "the rules don't apply to me" are dangerous concepts in our national political life. The lack of common sense and human decency concerning the party on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral is gut wrenching. Forget the rules for a moment: who would think it a good idea to have a party when our Nation's flag flew at half mast over Westminster, Whitehall and the entire land. I never thought I'd live to see such tastelessness at the heart of Government.

So, if you were expecting me to defend and excuse recent events you will be disappointed. I can't and I won't.

What I do want you to have faith in is that I shall always seek to do the right thing on behalf of my decent, honest constituents. The sense of genuine outrage, coupled to the sharing of very real stories of sacrifices during the pandemic, have moved me greatly.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Yours sincerely,
Simon Hoare MP
Member of Parliament for North Dorset

... from which I think we can assume his inbox was pretty incandescent.
I certainly can't fault the tenor of his reply; let's just say he's somewhat higher in my estimation now than he was previously.

[Kaz]

In mine too! Well said, Mr Hoare.

[Workingman]

Fine words, so Mr Hoare's letter will be winging its way to Sir Graham Brady...

[Suff]

Perhaps.

I understand the sentiment of the letter and what drives it. The anger is probably real. The ire is almost certainly real. The need to distance to survive is overwhelming.

However, within the party as a whole, this whole saga is beginning to take a different flavour. Initially it was well timed "evidence" to do maximum damage to the PM and try to get rid of him. Plenty of sentiment for that in the Tory party, over 100MP's won't forgive him for his part in vote leave and love to see him brought down.

But as the weeks have rolled on, with timed releases of more "evidence", looking like continuing for some time; this begins to look far more like a campaign. One designed to bring down not just the PM but most of his ministers and the party as well.

The response to that threat will be significantly different to one where someone just wanted to get rid of the PM. In fact as this trails on, the likelihood is that they party (not the MP's), will see the need to rally round the PM rather than the opposite.

Played correctly this information could have removed the PM. The way it is going now that is less likely; not more.