Beginning to See the Light: 10 Downing St or Studio 54 (1)

 

‘Young and old are doing it, I’m told

Just one try and you too will be sold

It’s called ‘Le Freak’, they’re doing it night and day’

 
‘Downing Street held ‘wine-time Fridays’ every week throughout the pandemic which Boris Johnson attended, with staff even investing in a £142 drinks fridge to keep their beer, prosecco and wine cold, it has been claimed.

Government aides were encouraged by the prime minister, who regularly oversaw the gatherings, to ‘let off steam’ at the regular drinks which would often continue until the early hours, at a time when Britons were banned from socialising indoors, sources told The Mirror.

Staff took turns to stock up on drinks at the local Tesco Metro with a wheely suitcase to fill up the 34-bottle fridge which was delivered through the back door of Downing Street on December 11, 2020, extraordinary pictures have revealed.

At the time, households were not allowed to mix indoors or in most outdoor places with exemptions for people in support bubbles, and a maximum of six people were allowed to meet in some outdoor public spaces like parks and public gardens.

Despite the harsh rules, Downing Street scheduled ‘wine-time Fridays’ into the electronic calendars of 50 No 10 staff every week between 4pm and 7pm.

One Downing Street insider told The Times: ‘It was a culture of 3am sessions. People used to sleep off their hangovers in the buildings overnight on sofas and in the mornings there were empty drinks on the desks that the cleaners had to pick up. There was a culture of boozing.’

The end-of-week drinks are part of a long-standing tradition in government but they reportedly continued while the rest of the country were mostly confined to their homes.’
 
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10404315/Downing-Street-held-wine-time-Fridays-week-pandemic-Partygate-scandal-deepens.html?ito=email_share_article-top
 

As No.10 vies with the much-lamented Studio 54 as the hottest nightclub, we ask has Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Truss, and Shapps replaced Bianca (Jagger), Halston, Warhol, and Diana Ross as the must invite partygoers?

‘Would ya just watch the hair. Ya know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it. He hits my hair’

Michael Gove, who loves busting a few moves on the dancefloor, as a latter-day John Travolta. ‘Would ya just watch the hair. Ya know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it. He hits my hair’.

 Or, perhaps, when it was suggested, we look to the Blitz Spirit they mistook that for my old Covent Garden haunt rather than the Blitz of 1940? ⁽²⁾.

Following is a list of ‘events’ held during lockdown alongside the death toll for that day:
 

Date	Death Toll	Event
15 May 2020	421	‘Cheese and wine’ in the No 10 Garden
20 May 2020	353	‘BYOB’ party in No 10 garden
23 May 2020	284	Cummings Barnard Castle story published
13 Nov 2020	450	Alleged Downing Street flat party
25 Nov 2020	499	Treasury officials’ ‘impromptu drinks’
7 Nov 2020	460	Boris Johnson gives leaving speech for Cleo Watson
10 Dec 2020	496	Department for Education staff party thrown by Gavin Williamson
14 Dec 2020	506	CCHQ Christmas party for Shaun Bailey
15 Dec 2020	507	Virtual Christmas quiz attended by Boris Johnson
16 Dec 2020	484	Department for Transport ‘low key’, ‘distanced’ gathering by fewer than 12 staff
17 Dec 2020	567	Cabinet Office Christmas party
18 Dec 2020	586	Downing Street Christmas party
16 Apr 2021	31	‘Boozy’ leaving do held the day before Queen mourned Duke of Edinburgh alone
26 Jun 2021	17	Matt Hancock resigns after breach of his own lockdown rules

 
And the excuses:
 

• 1 Dec 2021 136 deaths that day, Prime Minister’s first appearance in House of Commons after party allegations
• 7 Dec 2021 122 deaths that day, ‘All the guidelines were observed’
• 8 Dec 2021 119 deaths that day, ‘I have been repeatedly assured that the rules were not broken’
• 13 Dec 2021 101 deaths that day, ‘I certainly broke no rules’
• 20 Dec 2021 123 deaths that day, ‘Those were people at work’

 
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2022/jan/14/how-no-10s-alleged-parties-took-place-as-uk-covid-death-toll-rose-interactive
 
N.B., I have highlighted Matt Hancock in red because he had the decency to do the ‘right thing’.
 
An isolated incident might be forgivable but, as the above illustrates, this was on-going disregard for their own rules by people who care only about themselves.

We have had a series of political non-entities wheeled out making mealy-mouthed excuses for this flagrant disregard of what was the law.

When, at PMQ’s on Tuesday Johnson did ‘apologise’ it was half-hearted, full of justifications, and offered nothing in the way of actions. He didn’t accept that an offence had been committed, instead it was a political non-apology, which takes the rhetorical form of saying sorry (which includes words like ‘I am sorry’ and ‘I apologise’), but which ultimately attributes blame to the other rather than taking it upon himself.

Even when he apologised to those ‘who ‘think’ that Covid regulations were broken Johnson was insistent that ‘when I went into that garden just after six on 20 May 2020 … I believed implicitly that this was a work event’, which he then justifies saying, ‘it could be said technically to fall within the guidance’.

Even then this meaningless contrition didn’t last long as, it is rumoured Johnson toured the tearooms afterwards, horrifying some MPs by insisting that he hadn’t done anything wrong and was merely taking the rap for someone else. Perhaps it was Warhol standing in the middle of a crowd drinking wine? There is a passing resemblance.
 

‘a series of political non-entities wheeled out making mealy-mouthed excuses for this flagrant disregard of what was the law’

 
It was reassuring that to see that some things never change in this country. No 10 has apologised to the Queen for two parties that took place in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral last year.

With no disrespect to Her Maj, she wasn’t the only person to bury someone during Covid and suffer the lonely funeral. My own aunt was cremated in similar circumstances, but of course we aren’t all equal, so Her Maj gets an apology but not me or thousands of others!

Ultimately this whole mess is Johnson being, well, just Johnson. Apparently, when he ran the Spectator magazine, the office had the general air of what one visitor called a ‘knocking shop.’

Ever the populist, Johnson is now trying to salvage the situation by acknowledging there is a ‘culture’ of drinking in Downing Street, which didn’t stem from the top, and then moving the agenda by announcing a slew of populist policies.

Nadine Dorries’ announcement that the BBC licence fee will be frozen, then abolished, had been in the works for a while but now it’s an ideal opportunity to give Tory right-wingers something to cheer.

Other plans expected in the coming days, according to the Sunday Times, include sending in the military to help tackle cross-Channel migration; training schemes for universal credit claimants, and the much-delayed ‘levelling up’ white paper.

The lifting of Covid restrictions on 26 January, if the Omicron wave continues to abate, would also give Johnson a platform to deploy his customary boosterism.

The plan is to deflect the attention of the public and mutinous backbenchers from all the scandal and get on with government.

There are some who I think I have been too quick to call Johnson’s demise. Indeed, had it had not been for these latest revelations this week’s two big stories would have been Michael Gove unveiling a resolution of sorts to the cladding crisis, and London hospitals reporting a fall in Covid cases. Johnson would have spent this week boasting that he had called it right on Covid, riding out the Omicron wave without a lockdown. Enough, maybe, to convince restless backbenchers that things weren’t irreparable.

Instead, every Tory MP understands they are staking their majority on a PM who just can’t help himself. However, if Tory MPs think that simply replacing Johnson with someone less compromised solves the problem, they don’t understand the size of the hole they’re in.
 

‘every Tory MP understands they are staking their majority on a PM who just can’t help himself’

 
In the next election, they will be asking for an unprecedented fifth consecutive term in power. ‘Of their three most recent leaders, one had to resign after leaving the EU by accident, one was defeated by the task of clearing up the resulting mess, and the last has dragged his party into the gutter’.

You would expect governments to be re-elected for succeeding, at least in the eyes of their supporters. Tory MPs got rid of Theresa May for failing to deliver ‘their’ Brexit. Her replacement, Johnson, was elected primarily on a promise to ‘get Brexit done’. He delivered a deal that was so flawed he immediately started trying to renegotiate it. His other electoral promise, ‘levelling-up’ hasn’t been helped by the pandemic but, in reality, whilst he might have meant it, few others in the party did. It was just another good slogan to campaign with, and now it can be slowly side-lined in favour of spending and tax cuts.

It is the latter that has become the party’s ideological focus. They also desperately don’t want to face the truth about Brexit, I.E., that voters were promised something that doesn’t really exist.

Johnson’s demise will bring the curtain down on a period of interventionist, big-spending government, allowing normal Tory service to be resumed.

The Covid induced support such as the Treasury funded people’s wages, austerity diminished as a political priority, and the return of a ‘bigger state’ were parts of what Johnson possibly meant when he referred to ‘levelling up’. An understanding of the need to raises to put up taxes, and the state’s involvement in attaining net zero carbon emissions.

At the outset of Covid I had written that I hoped we would see a more caring, inclusive, and equal society rise from the ashes. Instead, the Tory’s are taking solace in their old beliefs of small government, unrestricted business, and the idea that e spending always leads to disaster.
 

‘At the outset of Covid I had written that I hoped we would see a more caring, inclusive, and equal society rise from the ashes’

 
Steve Baker, the self-anointed leader of the Brexit backbench hardcore, thinks that ‘today’s Conservative party is in the wrong place and heading in the opposite direction of Conservatism’.  He has just relaunched the self-consciously Thatcherite pressure group Conservative Way Forward.

In addition, the current favourites to succeed Johnson’s are often compared to Thatcher as a benchmark of their ‘devotion’.

The Economist says’ Rishi Sunak ‘has the same ingrained enthusiasm for balancing budgets and limiting expenditure as the grocer’s daughter had’. Liz Truss makes speeches about the dangers of ‘inexorably growing the size of the state’, as opposed to the wonders of ‘free trade and free enterprise’.

Johnson’s more interventionist Toryism support lies with the new ‘red wall’ MPs, but they are too marginal and inexperienced to field a candidate or exert much influence. Therefore, levelling up, and ‘any pretence that Conservatism is interested in changing the economy for the good of society’ will be cast aside.
 

‘the only levelling that is likely to achieve is downwards’

 
What can a return to Thatcherism achieve? Her policy goals were achieved; the Unions are emasculated, there is little left to privatise, there is no need for big bang ‘2’, and what is left to deregulate? Even austerity has lost its shine as many ‘sensible’ Tories believe it had already gone way too far.

Thatcherism is yesterday’s politics, the reason the ‘red wall’ collapsed was that a few forward-thinking Tory’s and Dominic Cummings realised this and tried something new. If they are to win the next election, they will need to keep these new voters on-side.

Brexit may have been the spark that the lit the fuse in the 2019 election but the only levelling that is likely to achieve is downwards. Next time out it might prove to be a liability as the hard-Brexit has unsettled the party’s relationship with many of its old suburban heartlands, which are not just full of ‘remainers’ but increasingly liberal and left-leaning.

To those Thatcherites zealots the demand of the market is everything. Thatcherism is no longer about ideas and policy; it is a hostile weapon with which to beat leaders that deviate from the chosen path. Small wonder the Tory’s have been through 6 leaders in 20-year.

If No.7 returns to the Thatcherism that has already divided the country, how will the electorate post-Brexit and Covid react?
 
Ideals clearly out of step with peoples wishes must ultimately fail.
 

‘There’s a new me coming out

And I just have to live

And I wanna give

I’m completely positive

I think this time around

I am gonna do it’

 
Notes:

1. Studio 54 launched at the peak of the disco dancing and music trend, the club became world-famous, noted for its celebrity guest lists, restrictive (and subjective) entry policies (based on one’s appearance and style), rampant club drug use, and open sexual activity in the club’s infamous balcony and basement VIP rooms.
2. The Blitz Kids were a group of people who frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, London in 1979-80, and are credited with launching the New Romantic subcultural movement.

 
An unexpected, but always welcome, early-week treat from Philip as he ‘couldn’t let the moment pass. It’s been in equal parts hilarious, sad, and pathetic, as No 10 falls from grace. There have been numerous comparisons, but I couldn’t resist Studio 54 the glamorous den of iniquity’

I do wonder just how iconic the legendary venue would have become if Boris had hit the floor and thrown some shapes:
 
 

 
 
Philip remains convinced that Mr Johnson’s goose is cooked and believes he will fall from power most likely after the May local elections – ‘It’s hard to see anyone turning their fortunes around quickly, so let him have one final kicking’.

Following his less than convincing ‘apology’ Boris awaits Sue Grey’s report which can only, in his eyes, exonerate him from all blame after what was a perfectly understandable misunderstanding; does anybody really expect anything else – unless Mr Cummings has saved his best for last.

The drinking culture has apparently come as something of a surprise to Mr Johnson, and he is avowed to tackle it head on by throwing a few spads under a bus; anything to Save the Big Dog.

Meantime there is genuine fury throughout the country as those that lost loved ones on ‘wine-time Fridays’ realised just how badly they have been let down.

It seems that Philip’s description of the ‘Temporary 57’ was spot on; but if the Big Dog is put down, who next?

‘As to the successors; it’s a return to the old ways, Thatcher, et al. Will the public stand for it? I think not, the Turkeys in the ‘red wall’ will see the error of their ways, and some of the blue wall might turn a green / yellow colour.’

Lyrically, it’s put your flares on, quaff the hair, and strut it! Paaaarty – Chic with ‘Le Freak’, and Diana Ross with ‘I’m Coming Out’. Enjoy!
 

 
 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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