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Boris Johnson has left Rishi Sunakered o ...

Boris Johnson has left Rishi Sunakered over Covid Inquiry.

Jun 02, 2023

Right so what do you call a man who stands for honesty and integrity and plans to run his government with the utmost transparency, yet when it comes to the crunch decides to take his own government’s inquiry to court to stop them accessing the information they’ve requested in order to conduct their investigation? Sunakered seems to be the word of the day right now, to promise one thing, yet bend over backwards to avoid doing it, going back on your word completely to suit yourself. I could of course easily be talking about Keir Starmer with a description like that couldn’t I, I do keep saying there’s nothing in it between the two party leaders I do hope more and more of you are waking up to that simple truth and if in doubt, Starmer is today sending his minions out trying to woo the youth vote with Labour being on their side over tuition fees, despite  the fact he’s gone back on his promise to abolish them, the two faced petulant prat the equivalent of Monday morning tutor time to most voting age students in this country these days I am sure. So similar Starmer and Sunak I bet they use the same hair care products these days too. But anyway, forget Starmer because this is of course all about the Covid Inquiry and where just a few days ago all eyes were on Boris Johnson over these ministerial diaries during lockdown from Chequers, now it’s all eyes on Rishi Sunak instead, having made himself the centre of attention here. Where before we’ve become used to Johnson’s flagrant disregard for the laws affecting we mere mortals, Sunak’s actions since late yesterday have got people asking what exactly is he afraid of here? Surely its Johnson that should be nervous not him?

A lot has gone on this week, I’ve covered much of that in another video, but as a brief recap if you’ve not seen it, I know it’s sunny outside and the kids are home from school, but come on, fill your boots, I’ve attached the link to it, but finish this one first, you might as well since you’re here. Anyway just as a brief explainer this all, we thought was coming to a head last Tuesday when the deadline set by Baroness Hallett, the chair of the Covid Inquiry, 4pm Tuesday, demanded all of the ministerial diaries and WhatsApp’s that had suddenly come to light as Johnson’s defence was being put together ahead of his showdown with the Privileges Committee over whether he had misled parliament regarding PartyGate, all those lockdown parties Johnson was involved in allegedly, though only getting fined the once, none of us buy that that was sufficient I don’t think. The Cabinet Office allegedly had the diaries and WhatsApp’s, they denied this, the deadline by baroness Hallett was extended for them to find them, Johnson’s lawyers saying the Cabinet Office did have them, the deadline got extended to 4pm yesterday. Before the deadline expired, Boris Johnson chipped in. He said, I gave all that stuff to the Cabinet Office in February, they’ve got it all. Now this was curious I thought, because Johnson’s lawyers at the time, who were preparing his defence for the privileges committee investigation, he’s being investigated by two separate bodies here, privileges committee and the Covid Inquiry so as to avoid confusion, it’s hard because everything is so interconnected, so I’m being as clear as I can be, anyway these lawyers claim they’d handed them to the Cabinet Office, they had also it would appear been the ones to pass the files onto the Met Police and Thames Valley Police, which saw Johnson end up firing them, but if they had given the files to the Cabinet Office and Johnson had also done likewise earlier, then at some point the Cabinet Office would appear to have had two sets of the materials, or at least been handed them twice, was Johnson being unusually honest about having handed them the materials in February because it seems he may for once have been honest, at least to an extent, about this as will become clear in a moment. On Tuesday the Cabinet Office denied having said materials, yet they must have had either two copies, or at least seen the same copy twice by this point. Johnson claims he gave the Cabinet Office these materials in February, yet the lawyers had access to them since. Either Johnson was lying about he Cabinet Office having them because he had them to hand to his lawyers later, or the Cabinet Office supplied Johnson’s lawyers with them as they had them in their possession. Johnson’s defence is being publicly funded, on the take again as per usual, so the Cabinet Office is overseeing that being administered and ensuring the public money is used correctly, it comes with additional checks. The lawyers said they handed the materials to the Cabinet Office afterwards, Johnson has said they’ve had them off him since February, but more importantly ahead of yesterdays deadline, he said he had no problem with the Covid Inquiry investigation and Baroness Hallett having the materials, apparently he;s even said she can have the whatsapps off his phone currently that haven’t even been asked for. It is the Cabinet Office who have stepped in and said no, she can’t have them. This is all about Johnson, Johnson is basically yesterday’s man now, the Tories can dump an awful lot of political fallout on him by letting the Inquiry have all of this material, Tories do love to cut loose their weak links and Johnson has all the tensile strength of belly button fluff so why won’t they just hand it all over, why are they seemingly intent on protecting Johnson when Johnson doesn’t appear to want protecting? In fact his uncharacteristic openness suggests another agenda taking priority for him over the ruins of what passes for his parliamentary career. Ultimately because it’s not Johnson they need to protect. It’s literally everyone else who has ever had anything to do with him and one he may have met at Chequers who may have broken the lockdown rules at the time by doing so and protecting everyone Johnson may have been in communication with via WhatsApp. It is utterly unprecedented that legal action be taken against a government inquiry, by the government itself to prevent the inquiry having evidence it has requested and you can only surmise that the person with the most to lose now, is the guy currently at the top because for no other minister or MP would such action be taken and thus our attention drifts from Johnson to our now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. People have been wondering this week why all this legal action and ultimatums and time limits to release information appeared to point to Boris Johnson being the heaping, sweaty bulk of a hill that Sunak plans for his political career to die on, up unitl last night saying the information contained in the WhatsApp’s and the unredacted diaries was unambiguously irrelevant to the Covid Inquiry, but now that’s going to be put to the test under judicial review, and Sunak it seems might be sweating bullets over it. He’s not doing this to protect Johnson, he was the second minister to resign when the decision was made to bring him down and that enough was enough, there’s something in those messages that Sunak does not want seeing the light of day and for him to go this far, this bizarrely far, to subvert a government investigation, his own government, he clearly has something serious to lose. The official line from the Cabinet Office after the Covid Inquiry’s 4pm deadline last night reads ‘The Cabinet Office has today sought leave to bring a judicial review. We do so with regret and with an assurance that we will continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry before, during and after the jurisdictional issue in question is determined by the courts, specifically whether the inquiry has the power to compel production of documents and messages which are unambiguously irrelevant to the inquiry’s work, including personal communications and matters connected to the government’s handling of covid. We consider there to be important issues of principle at stake here, affecting both the rights of individuals and the proper conduct of government. The request for unambiguously irrelevant material goes beyond the powers of the inquiry. Individuals, junior officials, current and former ministers and departments should not be required to provide material that is irrelevant to the inquiry’s work. It represents unwarranted intrusion into other aspects of the work of government. It also represents an intrusion into their legitimate expectations of privacy and protection of their personal information.’ Right so remember they said they didn’t have the materials? They’re going a long way to ensure materials they don’t have stay confidential aren’t they? It should also be noted that Baroness Hallett, the chair of the Covid Inquiry is herself a judge, so a judicial review, is another judge looking at this. Bear in mind Hallett isn’t just any judge, she was Coroner for the Inquest into the deaths of the 52 victims of the 7/7 bombings, she commands considerable respect and experience and it’d be a very brave judge to side with the government against her. This is a legal battle the government is going to lose and another eminent judge, Lord Saville who oversaw the Bloody Sunday Inquiry has weighed in on this to that end. He has said: ‘There’s no doubt that a lot of people will say the government are trying a cover up…if she – Baroness Hallett – feels that she can only do a perfectly thorough job by looking at all this material, well then on the face of it, the material should be produced. For somebody else to say it’s all irrelevant or most it is irrelevant, her reply is – and it’s difficult to fault this – well that’s for me to decide, that I have to look at it. If I don’t get to look at this material and it or some of it turns out to be relevant, I will be blamed for failing to carry out a proper, full inquiry.’ It’s a very good point. Civil servants at their own behest, or more likely the behest of ministers, Sunak even, are saying they know best what constitutes irrelevant material that the judge in a judge led inquiry and are so desperate to bury this, they think another judge will come down on their side, throwing a judicial colleague under a bus to do so, if the government can find one. It really is that ridiculous. Some are saying particularly in regards to the WhatsApp’s that maybe the government have a point, but actually they don’t when governance via WhatsApp is nothing new. For example the whole story surrounding Matt Hancock sending elderly covid patients back into care homes. He was urged not to do so via WhatsApp. He did it anyway and when his leaked messages came out there was uproar. We know the Tories conduct a lot of business in this way as ridiculous as that is, but it makes such messages very relevant going forwards because the precedent has been set. As for Sunak himself? What has he had to say? He’s not in the country yet again, he’s in Moldova at a European Leaders Summit, but he got pinned down on this yesterday whilst he was there, before the deadline had expired incidentally. He got asked: ‘In the past you have said your government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level. Does that mean that you’re going to follow the deadline of 4pm London Time today to comply and send unredacted messages to the Covid Inquiry that is taking place?’ Cue an idiot’s waffle. Sunak came back with ‘Well I think its really important that we learn the lessons of Covid, so that we can be better prepared in the future and we’re doing that in the spirit of rigour and transparency and candour. The government has cooperated thoroughly with the inquiry today handing over tens of thousands of documents and we will continue to comply of course with the law and cooperate with the inquiry, we’re confident in our position and are carefully considering next steps.’ Well next steps turned out to be see you in court. There is no transparency when you won’t hand over requested materials to a judge. The Cabinet Office is not in a better position to decide what is irrelevant than a judge, the only rigour you are showing is in attempting to bury these materials as far as you can and the fact you’re handing over hundreds of thousands of other documents is irrelevant when the key pieces you’re hell bent on not handing over. This isn’t cooperation it’s trying to avoid scrutiny, a government easily one of the most corrupt in British history, never mind living memory. Should Sunak somehow win in court, it won’t be a win in the eyes of the public, it’ll be seen as the last desperate grasping attempt by a mandateless, dodgy little man to save his own skin, sweating like a fishmonger’s window over all of this as he appears to be. If he loses, again he loses in the yes of the public and may lose more if we end up seeing a real reason for why this all got buried. There is no win here for this government. They are literally making things worse for themselves and if Sunak gets scandalised again, following his business connections, his wife’s business dealings, the government contracts, after Raab, after Zahawi, the party will come for him next and God knows who might end up replacing him then. We’re getting ahead of ourselves somewhat now. This morning it has emerged that as far as the WhatsApp messages go and again implying there is more going on here than just Johnson’s reputation, Boris Johnson is now saying he will bypass the Cabinet Office completely and give all the messages required to the Covid Inquiry. Can he be trusted to really hand them all over though? I would imagine unless he can prove he has done just that, then the judicial review will still have to reach a conclusion. Is Johnson just pressing the nuclear button now and decided that if he’s going down, he’s taking his own party down with him? Who would put it past him? This is going to run and run so after you’ve liked, shared and subscribed to the channel to keep up to date on how cosmically fecked the Tories are, along with all manner of other political goings on, they all get held to account here, might I recommend you try this video next, where the far less prominent story of recent Russian funding for Tories has come out and the mainstream media, basically miss such things and I’ll see you on the next vid. Cheers folks.

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