BORIS Johnson, his wife Carrie and senior Downing Street staff having a party while the rest of the UK was locked up at home.
It’s hard to imagine a more blatant example of the Tory government’s contempt for ordinary people. Given the fact the new revelations are the latest in a long line of allegations about parties on Downing Street, the public outrage is more than justified.
Or is it?
That was the question Sky News presenter Anna Botting asked on Monday evening as the UK reeled from the publication of a mass invite to the BYOB event on May 20, 2020.
Trying her best to imagine any situation in which the parties could possibly be acceptable, she logically landed on the Second World War.
Interviewing Ian Blackford, the host asked if Johnson’s actions would have been justifiable if Downing Street explained it was on “a war footing”.
She explained (with a straight face): “If their defence had been … we were on a war footing, working 21 hours out of every 24 with unimaginable pressure and strain. You know, a little bit like – and perhaps this is the wrong example – the Second World War, and you’ve taken a village and you’ve been fighting the Germans for days and the soldiers have a beer and a cigarette in order to relieve tension.”
The presenter asked: “Would you have bought that? Would that have been excusable?”
READ MORE: Tory MP torn apart for absurd defence of Downing Street party
Blackford said, generously, that Botting was “right” to ask the question.
He continued: “But the people I’d have sympathy with are those that were working in our health services, those that were working in our front line, that were on their knees with what they were having to do.
“It certainly is not acceptable for those around the Prime Minister to celebrate the good weather by having this party when everybody else was being told that if you behave in such a way that you were breaking the law.”
The SNP Westminster leader concluded: “This is a Prime Minister that’s not fit for office.”
Now that defeating Hitler has been ruled out as a plausible excuse, we look forward to finding out what the Tories will come up with to justify this latest scandal.
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