Party time

Tory party during lockdown December 2020 Conservative Campaign Headquarters, London December 2020 Staffers working for recently honoured ’Lord Bailey’ Dancing and joking about defying lockdown rules At least 24 revellers Two dancing officials, twirling each other past signs saying ’please keep your distance’ Staff members heard laughing, hopes that they are not exposed for ’bending the rules.’ One man, ’Oh ******.’ ’Are you filming this?’ ’Er, it’s for the party use.’ A man then laughs after declaring: ’As long as we are not streaming that we’re, like, bending the rules.’ One of those captured, Ben Mallett, a senior Tory aide, awarded an OBE Michael Gove ‌“The decision to confer honours on people was one that was made by Boris Johnson as an outgoing prime minister. Outgoing prime ministers have that right,” (July–December_2020) December 8th 2020 Health Secretary, Matt Hancock urges Londoners to adhere to COVID-19 regulations as cases rise in London. December 10th 2020 Health Secretary announces that mass testing will be rolled out for secondary schools in the worst affected areas of London, Kent and Essex December 16th 2020 London, and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire, are placed into tier three of England’s COVID tier system following an increase in case numbers in those areas Reintroducing a tiered system (December 2020) On 2 December, the tiered system was reintroduced with modifications. On 19 December, the Prime Minister announced that a fourth tier would be introduced, following concerns about a rising number of coronavirus cases due to a new variant (what was to become known as the Alpha variant, first identified in Kent). Questions Were these people told things about the effectiveness (or lack of) of lockdowns the public were not told? Were these people told things about the risks of infection (or lack of) to themselves the public were not told? Were these people told things about anything else, and if so by whom? Did seniors know about this party?