DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Will this Partygate fiasco ever end?

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Will this Partygate fiasco ever end?

It really is beyond parody. Seven weeks into the Partygate investigation, police have now decided they must conduct face-to-face interviews with ‘key witnesses’.

Naturally, more officers will be needed for the fiendishly complex task of finding out who may have attended cheese and wine parties in a possible lockdown breach.

After all, with a knife crime epidemic raging in the capital, detection rates at rock bottom and burglars going about their business with impunity, it’s not like they have better things to do.

There is such a weary predictability of the process whenever the police get involved in politics.

It begins with pious statements about going “where the evidence leads,” followed by months of dithering, millions of dollars wasted — and a wholly unsatisfactory conclusion.

A police officer stands guard outside 10 Downing Street as Met Police continue their investigation into ‘Partygate’ allegations

Why Scotland Yard was called is a mystery. It’s not a despicable corruption problem. At worst, Downing Street staff broke Covid rules by gathering after a long day at work during the worst pandemic in modern history.

They shouldn’t have, of course, and if they did, they should have been better supervised. But it’s not really a hanging. The maximum penalty is equivalent to a parking ticket.

Meanwhile, a forensic report on the background and culture surrounding the holidays by respected civil servant Sue Gray must gather dust until the Yard completes its absurd chin-stroking.

Opponents of the prime minister are hoping he will be found guilty of breaking the rules he himself imposed, in which case they will scream for his resignation.

Most of us, however, don’t care anymore. We just want this fiasco to end and the police to get back to their daily work – detecting and preventing real crime.

Prime Minister’s Power Struggle

It is a fact of political life that chancellors are always reluctant to build more nuclear power stations.

Their prime ministers may be lyrical about new generations of clean, safe energy, but it’s ultimately the Treasury that has to foot the sky-high bills.

The tension between Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson over the Prime Minister’s energy security strategy is therefore nothing new. Mr Johnson wants nuclear expansion to continue at “warp speed”, Mr Sunak at usual snail speed.

‘The tension between Chancellor Rishi Sunak (right) and Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) over the Prime Minister’s energy security strategy is nothing new’

This time, the prime minister must win. For too long, our nuclear capacity has been depleted because governments have backed down from the price or caved in to the green lobby.

Today, with Europe trying to wean itself off Russian gas, North Sea production declining and renewables not yet ready to take over, nuclear is the only realistic option.

Mr Johnson unveils his strategy at the end of the month. It must be bold and innovative, involving both small modular reactors and larger plants.

The time for dithering is over. It is only with determination and will that we will close the impending energy gap.

Putin’s Nazi Playbook

The merciless bombardment of civilian targets. Clearing towns and villages. And now the forced deportation of thousands of terrified and bewildered families.

After the horrors of the 1940s, we thought such scenes were history. But in eastern Ukraine, these are the grim realities of today.

How bitterly ironic that Vladimir Putin described his enemies in this war as “neo-Nazis”, while his own scorched earth tactics are taken straight from the SS manual.

With each passing day, the case for a Nuremberg-style war crimes trial at the end of this monstrous conflict grows more damning.

Advertising

Comments are closed.