Current Affairs

[towny44]

With rescue centers full to bursting, waiting to rehome cats, dogs and other animals, the last thing we needed was to bring a plane load of more animals from Afghanistan in the same situation. Of cause, it's all down to sentiment and these poor animals, but it puts more strain on the animal welfare people to find even more hard to come by people to take one home and care for it.

This thing about the animals.

Johnson denied any involvement with this, calling the idea ‘rhurbarb’.

Yet a letter has come to light, signed by his Parliamentary Private secretary, confirming that the animals can be evacuated on a charter plane and a flight slot would be made available.

Yet again, Johnson says something, then evidence is supplied to suggest it’s not true. This happens over and over again.

There seems to be a pattern forming……

Do you genuinely believe that Boris overseas and authorised everything that is done through the downing street office, he way well have 'signed off' on it, but it's unlikely he would scrutinise and personally sign every single document. But I really dont expect Boris bashers to consider that possibility, they are just hell bent on finding anything that could make him appear inept and stupid.

[barney]

With rescue centers full to bursting, waiting to rehome cats, dogs and other animals, the last thing we needed was to bring a plane load of more animals from Afghanistan in the same situation. Of cause, it's all down to sentiment and these poor animals, but it puts more strain on the animal welfare people to find even more hard to come by people to take one home and care for it.

This thing about the animals.

Johnson denied any involvement with this, calling the idea ‘rhurbarb’.

Yet a letter has come to light, signed by his Parliamentary Private secretary, confirming that the animals can be evacuated on a charter plane and a flight slot would be made available.

Yet again, Johnson says something, then evidence is supplied to suggest it’s not true. This happens over and over again.

There seems to be a pattern forming……

Living within half hour of where Pen Farthings charity is based, I can offer a few facts.
The plane was funded privately with some of the charity money and some from private donations including many celebrities.
Deborah Meadon is local and a sizeable contributor.
The only involvement by the Mod was approving a take off spot.
Farthing had the animals in the hold and offered some seats to anyone who could get to the airport.
Apparently nobody could.
It would have needed signing off but I’d doubt the PM got involved.
More likely some bod from the Foreign Office agreeing on behalf of the government.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The letter that has apparently come to light is signed by his PPS not by Boris. So as Towny says are we to assume Boris oversees everything? Isn't that what PPS's are for? Maybe Boris did authorise it. Or maybe it was delegated. Or maybe the PPS exceeded their authority.

Who knows? Not me. But Barney's informed opinion above has more weight than any other view I've seen on here. Makes perfect sense.

[oldbluefox]

I presume in those circumstances all it would need would be a take off slot. Hardly the drama at No10 some would paint it to be.

[Gill W]

The point I was making is that Johnson said he had no involvement with the Nowzad case.

Yet he must have had even some passing inkling if his PPS was involved

Or he genuinely knows nothing about anything going around him.

Neither scenarios are desirable in our leader.

Anyway, the real issue is that this not an isolated incident, it’s just one of a mountain of smaller things that make up the whole.

He’s unsuited for leadership and the situation surrounding him - the untruths and the cover ups - is undermining everything.

[Onelife]

Deborah Meadon can of course give her money to whatever charity she chooses but I would have thought it could have been better spent on things other than bringing to this country a plane load of manky, untrained/difficult to home, yappy dogs.

In this instance, good intention only leads to more unwanted dogs, and we have enough of them in this country already.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The original accusation was that Boris had ordered the prioritisation of the evacuation of animals over humans. Then when it became clear the flight was privately organised and paid for it was he had authorised it. Now it is he must have had a passing inkling of it. By tomorrow it will be he owns a dog.

Similarly he held a birthday party for himself, his wife and his staff in Downing Street. Then it turned out his staff who had been working together all day brought in a cake and Boris joined them for 10 minutes. Tomorrow it will be Boris had a birthday last year.

What I see is a pattern of events blown out of proportion by those who have always disliked him trying to reinforce their case.

Boris is not perfect. He has faults. Many of them. But that is far from the one dimensional picture some are trying to portray.

[Onelife]

The original accusation was that Boris had ordered the prioritisation of the evacuation of animals over humans. Then when it became clear the flight was privately organised and paid for it was he had authorised it. Now it is he must have had a passing inkling of it. By tomorrow it will be he owns a dog.

Similarly he held a birthday party for himself, his wife and his staff in Downing Street. Then it turned out his staff who had been working together all day brought in a cake and Boris joined them for 10 minutes. Tomorrow it will be Boris had a birthday last year.

What I see is a pattern of events blown out of proportion by those who have always disliked him trying to reinforce their case.

Boris is not perfect. He has faults. Many of them. But that is far from the one dimensional picture some are trying to portray.

It’s funny that he can be so precise with the amount of time he spends at these functions.10 minutes for one, 25 for another and yet he appears to have a severe case of amnesia about everything else

[towny44]

The point I was making is that Johnson said he had no involvement with the Nowzad case.

Yet he must have had even some passing inkling if his PPS was involved

Or he genuinely knows nothing about anything going around him.

Neither scenarios are desirable in our leader.

Anyway, the real issue is that this not an isolated incident, it’s just one of a mountain of smaller things that make up the whole.

He’s unsuited for leadership and the situation surrounding him - the untruths and the cover ups - is undermining everything.

He was replying only to the accusation that he personally intervened to give his authorisation for the flight, nothing else.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The original accusation was that Boris had ordered the prioritisation of the evacuation of animals over humans. Then when it became clear the flight was privately organised and paid for it was he had authorised it. Now it is he must have had a passing inkling of it. By tomorrow it will be he owns a dog.

Similarly he held a birthday party for himself, his wife and his staff in Downing Street. Then it turned out his staff who had been working together all day brought in a cake and Boris joined them for 10 minutes. Tomorrow it will be Boris had a birthday last year.

What I see is a pattern of events blown out of proportion by those who have always disliked him trying to reinforce their case.

Boris is not perfect. He has faults. Many of them. But that is far from the one dimensional picture some are trying to portray.

It’s funny that he can be so precise with the amount of time he spends at these functions.10 minutes for one, 25 for another and yet he appears to have a severe case of amnesia about everything else

I don't think it's precise at all. He wasn't there for very long is what I hear. A long way from organising a birthday party.

All the events being referred to are a while back. He's the PM. There's been a lot going on that maybe has engaged his brain more than did we have a glass of wine in the garden that day.

Like I say he's far from perfect. But we all know where all this stuff originates from. Brexit. No more and no less. I have no problem that some people will never forgive him for that. I do struggle that they come up with more and more convoluted arguments rather than just say that. That they can't acknowledge what he has achieved.

He'll be gone before the next election for sure. But between now and then there are more important issues than stray dogs and birthday cakes.

[Onelife]

Hi Sir Merv…I can’t speak for the other BorisBashers on the forum but for myself who wanted Brexit I can honestly say as a Brexiter Boris has let himself down, and in doing so has lost the trust of most of the electorate. I doubt very much that voters from either side of the brexit debate are allowing their affiliation to influence what is patently obvious to most. Imo

[oldbluefox]

Will you stop talking common sense, Merv?
Of course Boris is not perfect, but would you not be annoyed with him if prior to the last election opposition parties had him on the ropes, the government was in turmoil and the Remain movement in the ascendancy ( or so they thought). Boris fought on the Brexit ticket and won with an historic landslide. Some have still not got over the shock and will vent their spleen at every opportunity.

[Onelife]

Will you stop talking common sense, Merv?
Of course Boris is not perfect, but would you not be annoyed with him if prior to the last election opposition parties had him on the ropes, the government was in turmoil and the Remain movement in the ascendancy ( or so they thought). Boris fought on the Brexit ticket and won with an historic landslide. Some have still not got over the shock and will vent their spleen at every opportunity.

Oh come on Foxy, surly that sentence applies more to me than Sir Merv?

[oldbluefox]

Well Keefy, you talk more sense than some even if I don't necessarily agree with you but Merv promised to buy me a drink if I said nice things about him.

[david63]

Animalgate is a non story.

I would not be at all surprised if Boris has not already seen a draft copy of the Sue Gray report and in that report he is not personally found to have done nothing much wrong - the transgressors being the "establishment" which could account for his more upbeat mood.

The problem is that there are some who will not be happy until Boris is hung, drawn and quartered.

[Ray B]

As I have said before. The fact that it looks like no expense was by the tax payer, all privately funded, I fail to see why this has blown up.
We wait for the Outcome.
Media frenzy.

[barney]

As I have said before. The fact that it looks like no expense was by the tax payer, all privately funded, I fail to see why this has blown up.
We wait for the Outcome.
Media frenzy.

It’s similar to the press fury at Truss taking a ‘private flight’ to Australia that cost a fortune.

It turns out that the plane is government owned for specific use for officials on official business.
The Foreign Secretary and another thirty in a trade delegation.

Maybe it’s time for some to stop stirring the pot at every occasion and stop making sh’t up.

[Manoverboard]

Somebody mentioned mountains ... should perhaps have added mole hills

[david63]

It’s similar to the press fury at Truss taking a ‘private flight’ to Australia that cost a fortune.

I read that one of the reasons was that there were not enough commercial flights available for the entire party and also that the plane was available for Truss to return early is so needed.

[Mervyn and Trish]

As usual half a story in the media further whipped by the BorisBashers and Twitterati.

[Gill W]

Hi Sir Merv…I can’t speak for the other BorisBashers on the forum but for myself who wanted Brexit I can honestly say as a Brexiter Boris has let himself down, and in doing so has lost the trust of most of the electorate. I doubt very much that voters from either side of the brexit debate are allowing their affiliation to influence what is patently obvious to most. Imo

It’s an interesting concept though, ‘Remainers made Johnson go to illegal parties (for 10 or 25 minutes), in order to save up ammunition to ‘bash Boris’

With regard to the Sue Gray report, I see that the Met is now saying that they don’t want anything published that they are investigating themselves. So, they’ve gone from ‘there’s nothing to investigate’, to ‘publish the report in it’s entirety’, to ‘don’t include anything we are investigating’. All within the space of a week.

No wonder the release of the report is being delayed, as it needs to be re-written. I wasn’t expecting too much from the report anyway, but, at this rate, there’ll be nothing left of it!

The Met investigation will go on for months, and will likely conclude ‘nothing to see here’. So we’ll never really know the true details of what happened, when Downing Street partied when everyone else obeyed the law, sometimes in heartbreaking situations.

All of this to protect the clown in Downing Street.

The whiff of corruption is hanging around the whole thing.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Hi Sir Merv…I can’t speak for the other BorisBashers on the forum but for myself who wanted Brexit I can honestly say as a Brexiter Boris has let himself down, and in doing so has lost the trust of most of the electorate. I doubt very much that voters from either side of the brexit debate are allowing their affiliation to influence what is patently obvious to most. Imo

All I can say Keefie is you are the exception that proves the rule. At least you should be happy that Boris delivered what Theresa was prevented from doing. And the thing is your natural and honourable instinct is to be lovely to everyone.

Well some others are not that nice and their attacks on Boris are full of venom and couched in spiteful language. They dismissed the Sue Gray report before it even started and are even now lining up their arguments to dismiss the Met's findings if they happens to disagree with their own views.

Goodness knows who they'll turn their fire on when Boris has gone and Brexit is still here!

The one I feel sorry for is Sir Hindsight. He keeps demanding Boris's resignation. But he knows once it happens his own chance of getting into Downing Street is reduced.

[Ray B]

The Met investigation will go on for months, and will likely conclude ‘nothing to see here’. So we’ll never really know the true details of what happened, when Downing Street partied when everyone else obeyed the law, sometimes in heartbreaking situations.

All of this to protect the clown in Downing Street.

The whiff of corruption is hanging around the whole thing.

this is what happens to high flyers in business and governments, they close in to protect their own.

[oldbluefox]

So if the report concludes the allegations are true it will be a case of "I told you so".
If the report/police investigation finds nothing of any substance, possibly because there is no case to answer, it will be a cover up.

Personally I prefer to wait for the outcome of the reports/investigations.

[screwy]

Just no pleasing some people.

I know Boris is number 1 big boss and should know better but I’m reminded of the old saying:

He who is without sin , blah,blah.
People in glass houses.!