Government sources have unveiled that, last year on November 25th, Treasury staff held a party to celebrate Rishi Sunak’s spending review, even though the Government’s official Covid guidance at the time strongly advised that members of the public must only leave home for exercise or shopping. Although officials say that the event was unplanned and that it “wasn’t a formal party”, attendees had brought alcohol into the Treasury. MailOnline has the story.
Around two dozen civil servants attended the drinks party in the Treasury on November 25th last year.
The party was held despite Covid restrictions which had asked people to stay at home unless exercising or food shopping.
At the time, non-essential shops, bars and restaurants were closed.
Sources revealed that Sunak’s officials who had been working on his spending review announcement stayed for a drinks party afterwards.
Wine and beer were brought into the Treasury but the officials insisted the party had been spontaneous.
A source said: “They’d all been working really hard. They had to be in the office anyway that day.
“It was not a formal party but perhaps in hindsight it was not the most sensible thing to do.”
Another insider said nobody had questioned the drinks party or thought there was anything wrong with the event.
They described the situation with parties and events coming to light as a “blame game”, according to the Times.
Sunak was not at the event and it is understood he did not know it was happening.
The latest revelation comes after the Prime Minister’s ex-COP26 Spokeswoman Allegra Stratton resigned this week over a video released by ITV which showed her laughing and joking with other staff about last year’s Downing Street Christmas party on December 18th.
Staff joked about the party as families and friends were separated, many of whom had lost loved ones to Covid.
People had been told to stay at home in their own bubbles for Christmas and to not mix households.
The video left many people outraged, with some calls for the prime minister to resign.
Despite the footage being released, Johnson has maintained that there was no Downing Street Christmas party.
A spokesman said of the Treasury drinks party: “In line with the guidance at the time, a number of staff came into the office to work on the Spending Review 2020.
“We have been made aware that a small number of those staff had impromptu drinks around their desks after the event.”
An inquiry is set to take place into the three parties which came to light before this latest drinks party was revealed.
Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, is leading the investigation into last year’s Downing Street Christmas party on December 18th, a leaving event on November 27th and an education department party on December 10th.
He will decide whether to also investigate the drinks party held at the treasury.
Worth reading in full.
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The correlation of Covid death with obesity seems pretty strong (see link below). Add in Vitamin D levels and the solution seems fairly clear: Healthy diet and outdoor exercise.
Which makes lockdowns pretty much the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/03/covid-deaths-high-in-countries-with-more-overweight-people-says-report
If this was seriously about health they would not have locked us down and instead encouraged us to get active and carry on as normal.
Well, during the last couple of weeks the government has been planning a curfew in Finland, probably focusing on the capital area. Not everyone agrees with the plans, but as law-abiding people most of us probably submit to the new rules without protesting, unfortunately. Covid mortality has been decreasing steadily but hardly anyone pays attention to that.
So what is the logic behind a curfew? ‘Cases’, ie dodgy PCRtests?
France has endured a 6pm curfew now for months, there is no logic behind it, but once introduced it seems a government loves it because it keeps the peasants locked up safely when its dark, without calling it a lockdown. This really has zero to do with a virus.
Lattitude is a big influence on the virus, it doesn’t like equatorial or arctic conditions, thrives in the middle , but less so in the southern hemisphere. Its very ‘picky’, seems to like the anglosphere the best, almost as if it wasn’t really a virus at all……
AIUI the logic behind a curfew is to make it more difficult for people to meet up in each other’s homes.
I have no trust in the British government nor the British Establishment, that died this past year. They can all go to hell!
If anyone wasn’t here last night, they might be wondering where everyone else has gone. Most of the regulars have understandably taken exception to what Toby wrote yesterday in defence of his decision to break up the comments section. He said the General Comments had become “a bit of a toxic swamp that is damaging the site’s reputation and putting off respectable contributors.”
The admirable Mabel Cow has created a new home for defecting swamp creatures and they’ve moved over to: https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSceptics. Early days but it’s coming along nicely. Take a look. I haven’t actually joined up yet but will do so later.
The Nordic countries were in a more favourable position than Western Europe because they have a peripheral position in Europe and are not major international business or travel hubs.
Sweden was unlucky in that the timing of Stockholm’s school half-term break exposed it to massive infection from countries (USA, UK and France) which at the time (unlike Italy or Austria) were not believed to be a threat.