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A few days ago I wrote about the ludicrous false equivalence being drawn up between Starmer and Johnson. Since then, the furore around #beergate has reached fever pitch. Right wing commentators are doing their utmost to whip up a storm. MPs and Cabinet Ministers are posting fabricated “evidence”. Durham Police, the force that refused to investigate Dominic Cummings, have succumbed to political pressure and reopened a closed investigation. And none of these swindlers are criticising Boris Johnson – our actual Prime Minister.
Frankly, it stinks. Let’s recap what Boris Johnson has objectively done:
- Wrote a law the he expected the country to adhere to
- Deliberately and repeatedly broke this law in the most flagrant way possible
- Claimed that the events never happened
- Lied about his involvement to parliament when it became clear the events did happen
- Has been fined at least once, yet still refuses to accept wrong doing
Now let’s consider the situation with Starmer. He had a meal at the end of a work day. That is it. Should more come to light I would respond accordingly but one thing is clear to me. Anyone calling for Starmer to go whilst simultaneously backing Johnson is disingenuous and should be ignored.
But why have Durham Police reopened the investigation?
An excellent question! Their official reason is that “new evidence has come to light”, but the evidence is highly suspect. It seems there have been three pieces of “evidence” provided that have prompted this decision.
The first two come from Richard Holden MP, an odious hypocrite who no doubt sees this as his moment in the limelight. He sent a letter to Durham police pointing to an advert for a Labour party event on Facebook. In this letter he makes several inaccurate claims. First, he claims that the event promoted was for an in person gathering which Starmer would be attending. It did nothing of the sort; the event was on Zoom. Take a look for yourself:
Clearly, his assertion that this was an in person event is complete bollocks. But what about this “greasy night” nonsense? Well take a look below. It stems from a post on Facebook by one of the organisers and is very clearly a typo.
The third piece of evidence comes from the Mail on Sunday. They have managed to find an email that was sent before the event which indicates that the curry was pre-planned and was the last item on the itinerary before staff would head to hotels.
This apparently is a smoking gun, until you consider two things. First, Keir Starmer is the Leader of the Opposition. It is not unrealistic to expect him to have some actual work to do after his day of meetings is complete. Second, this actively supports his argument that it was the only opportunity they had to eat.
This looks like a political hit job and the reopening of a closed investigation raises a lot of questions.
#beergate has exposed the worst hypocrisy and tribalism of politics today
So, demonstrably there is no evidence that #beergate broke the rules. It is confected nonsense. But even if it were not, Starmer’s action is not on the same scale as Boris Johnson’s. Despite this, his cheerleaders (who have spent months resisting calls for Johnson to take accountability) are now calling for Starmer to resign. Worse, they are try to claim that he is the hypocrite.
Dorries has steadfastly supported the Prime Minister since January, despite mounting evidence of lying and lawbreaking. She is now, it seems, calling for the Leader of the Opposition to resign because Durham Police have succumbed to political pressure to reopen an investigation. Similar hypocrisy can be seen from Richard Holden – the man clamouring for Starmer to be charged. It came to light recently that he had a working lunch with Gurkhas the week before #beergate.
It blows my mind that they can be so brazen. But let us imagine for a second that this results in a Fixed Penalty Notice. What then? Well, personally I am unclear on my own views on this. I strive for logical consistency irrespective of the party. However I am crystal clear on one thing; any calls for Starmer to resign from Conservatives / columnists that have supported Johnson are utter bullshit.
Unless they call for Johnson to go as well, their opinions are dangerous, irrelevant and should be ignored. The noise they are whipping up around Starmer serves one purpose alone; to distract from Johnson’s actions. These people are beneath contempt and do not have the interests of the country at heart.
