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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Marina Hyde

Three cheers for the blind eye of the police: where would our leader be without it?

Boris Johnson raises a glass at Lee Cain’s leaving do at No 10, 13 November 2020.
‘So did the PM mislead parliament? There are so many ways to answer that question, but I think the most dignified is probably: ya think?!’ Photograph: ITV News

Naturally, you’ll adore the pictures of Boris Johnson raising a glass at a Downing Street party during lockdown. It’s like a Holbein or something, depicting a corpulent man surrounded by all the esoteric accoutrements of state power: the red box, the Barefoot pinot grigio. The Sourz Apple. Just out of shot? Either an astrolabe, or the booze suitcase.

Furthermore, you have to respect how the Metropolitan police get to the bottom of nothing except the barrel. It’s truly inspirational to think their £460,000 “Partygate” performance piece has not yet reached its final form. That will come as early as today, when a number of the officers tasked with not spotting Boris Johnson in a series of piss-up photos get signed off with stress. Only when they’ve been on the sick for two years, then retired with a full pension but also returned to a high-paying station desk job, will Partygate have attained the British establishment gold standard.

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