JUDITH Duffy’s article “Partygate: Boris Johnson under more pressure after ‘secret’ Sue Gray meeting” in the Sunday National reveals that the Gray report has been seriously compromised before it is published.
This inquiry should not have been carried out by a civil servant. Civil servants are employed by and are ultimately answerable to the government, irrespective of their rank or seniority.
Normally any highly sensitive and potentially damaging document produced by a civil servant would be read and if necessary modified prior to publication. There is no guarantee that the Gray report will not be treated in the same way.
READ MORE: Desperate spin ahead of Sue Gray report shows No 10 is panicking
The Official Secrets Act ensures that the public may never know if the report report released into the public domain is based on the facts found by Ms Gray during her investigation or a modified report based on the known information regarding the fines imposed on individuals after the Met Police investigation.
Remember that it took 30 years for the McCrone Report on the potential of North Sea oil to find its way into the public domain. Will the public be as astonished at the revaluations in the original Gray Report if it too is unearthed by a researcher in 30 years’ time?
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
ESCAPOLOGIST Boris Johnson hopes to defy the odds and his responsibility over partygate. In this endeavour, Johnson seems to be ably assisted by the Metropolitan Police in no small measure.
The Met concluded its four-month, £460,000 investigation on Thursday, handing out fixed-penalty fines to 83 people. Livid Downing Street staff, fined for attending lockdown parties, claim that Boris Johnson “got away with it” after police neglected to quiz him on four of the six parties he attended. In an extraordinary dereliction of duty, Met Police failed to hand Johnson questionnaires about four party gatherings at which other staff were ORDERED to attend – and then fined. A No10 insider told the Daily Mirror: “There are plenty of pictures of the PM at the events. Yet when it comes to him, the police only looked at the ones where there was overwhelming evidence rules were broken.”
READ MORE: Pictures emerge of Boris Johnson drinking during lockdown at boozy party
Now it has emerged that Boris Johnson has had at least one secret meeting with investigating civil servant Sue Gray. What was the purpose of the meeting/s? was Johnson trying to influence Gray into omitting some evidence from what was expected to be an unexpurgated report on the parties and culture at No 10? Johnson has repeatedly said that Sue Gray’s report will be published in its entirety – is this another of his many lies?
Rumours are emerging that Johnson is preparing to offer up civil service chief Simon Case as a sacrificial patsy in order to save his own worthless skin.
Sandy Gordon
Edinburgh
I WONDER how many of the countries who gained their independence from the British Empire started their campaign with an essay? I say started; I suppose in Scotland’s case I should say restarted after an eight-year pause being now being blamed on a two-year pandemic.
I am unsure if the First Minister herself decided on the headline and sub headline but given the contents of the essay I thought they were very appropriate. “Now is the time to talk indy – Nicola Sturgeon on why debate on constitution must take place.” The fact that her picture and the headline occupied a lot more column inches than the text of the actual essay said a lot. I got bored reading it about half way through. I have heard it all before, what seems like a million times over the past eight years.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Now is the time to debate Scottish independence
Although some talking still needs to be done, it now needs to be done in parallel with actions. The time to talk indy was the past eight years – surely now it is the time to campaign for indy. There was a whole lot of time available to talk, but most of it was wasted. Now is the time for actions. Actions do indeed speak much louder than words.
So Nicola, when do the leaflets get printed? When do the free newspapers arrive by the hundreds of thousands for delivery to every home in the land? When does the serious fundraising start? When does the advertising space get reserved? When are the public meetings and the coffee mornings to be arranged? When do the SNP, and maybe even the Greens, mobilise their alleged 100,000-plus members to get out of their homes and knock the doors of the 55% as yet unconvinced? When does the ring-fenced £600,000 get spent on what it was intended for?
The essay ends with the words “Instead let us decide – together – what we want the future to look like”. I decided about 50 years ago. What I want now is the campaign to achieve that future to get under way before I am too old to take part in it.
Glenda Burns
Glasgow
DON’T be fooled by the prime menace’s statement that he would use “the firepower of government to put our arms around people.” What he means is that he’ll sell as many arms as possible to Ukraine and other Russian-bordering countries as he can to provide them with some firepower whilst making a profit out of it too! You surely didn’t think he meant us the plebs, did you?
Steve Cunningham
Aberdeen
REGARDING the article in Sunday’s paper about the Tories and Labour. There is no significant difference between them.They are both cheeks of the same backside, as George Galloway is always saying. The right wing of the Labour party is in general agreement with the Tories on economic policy and defence, and both put Scotland in jeopardy by landing Scotland with Trident and other nuclear sites, which we must strongly oppose.
Colin Beattie
via email
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