BBC’s Ros Atkins delivers a perfect account of Downing Street’s back-pedalling waffle over Christmas party scandal
The BBC‘s Ros Atkin, known for his work on explainers, Outside Source and a number of other projects, recently delivered a delightfully comprehensive and clinical five-minute segment in which he picked apart No 10‘s Christmas party debacle.
In just five minutes, the 47-year-old journalist gave a clinic on incisive and, in this case, punitive reporting, sifting fact from fiction, chronicling every MP’s attempt to sidestep the question or twist the truth and further highlighting the flagrant hypocrisy that the current government continues to demonstrate at seemingly every turn.
This is everything the government has said and done regarding the alleged no 10 Christmas party in December 2020:
The story of a week of government denials and assurances over the Christmas party in No.10 last December. In 5 mins. Produced by Michael Cox. https://t.co/cqIalvKKnB pic.twitter.com/YpTmyy8W4t
— Ros Atkins (@BBCRosAtkins) December 7, 2021
As you can see the extensive explainer, Atkins goes through everything people already knew – ie the covid-19 and social distancing guidelines last Christmas – to how the government reportedly broke said guidelines whilst simultaneously cracking down on such gatherings across the country, handing out tens of thousands of pounds in fines in the process.
Along with producer Michael Cox, the team also put together a video montage of every time a politician either defended the suggestion that any gathering took place or simply denied it, with clips from Justice Secretary Dominic Raab on Andrew Marr, the PM himself in the Commons and Vaccines Minister Maggie Throup’s rather uncomfortable appearance on Question Time.
“Whatever the event was, then the guidance was followed.”
“So there was an event?”@maggie_erewash is pressed to clarify details after it was revealed a Christmas Party took place at Downing Street last year when restrictions were in place banning them. #bbcqt https://t.co/paOCzcfp2p
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) December 2, 2021
In fact, Atkins went on to reveal that according to the Mirror, not only was there one apparent Christmas party on December 18 but even a prior event on November 27, when London was still under tier three lockdown restrictions.
According to The Guardian, the latter is now believed to have been a leaving do for Dominic Cumming‘s former aide, Cleo Watson, with attendees said to have been served food and refreshments, staying beyond midnight and even playing party games.
While the party line remains that even if a gathering did take place that “all guidelines were followed”, Atkins repeatedly draws attention to obvious contradiction, as the law would have been broken by simply having held it in the first place.
Irrespective of the fact that no one on the side of Downing Street has currently been able to provide any proof that the party didn’t happen, the basic failure to pick up on their own blatant and embarrassingly obvious level of hypocrisy suggests that a party very much did happen.
Moreover, no amount of fancy footwork when it comes to the language used in the excuses made can get them out of this Christmas quagmire. They’re simply going to keep saying it didn’t happen until the next story comes along. Death, taxes, insert joke here.
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