how to thwart an investigation

In the olden days when I first started work, it was commonplace for people in our City office to have a tipple. In our case, the downstairs canteen served full meals at lunchtime and opposite the canteen was a full-fledged bar akin to one in pub, with bar staff, draft beer and a wide selection of other drinks. You had to walk past it to get out of the canteen. 

I worked abroad for a while after that, but when I returned to London, my new Plc employer also had a canteen and at one end of the floor were the kitchens and serving area and at the other end was the bar. We had flexitime too.

A promotion or two later and I was allowed into the senior dining area, which had silver service dining and before the meal it was possible to drop into the club-like bar for a swift subsidised drink or two. 

These perks started to be phased out around the time of the smoking ban when, for a time, a few rooms were set aside for the smokers. For us, that norm had passed.

Less so, it would seem for those providing governance. Activities simply extend to other nearby hostelries, much as the Red Lion serves the function today, both close to Parliament and sporting its own division bell. 

Of course, it is not the only external division bell around Whitehall (e.g. Marquis of Granby, Westminster Arms, The Cinnamon Club), but it is arguably the nearest.

So no wonder that from the 23-Mar-2020 national lockdown announced by Boris Johnson until last April, there were (according to press reports) at least 14 parties, leaving dos, prosecco Tuesdays, Friday frolics, quizzes and meetings-with-drinks at Downing Street, as well as other Whitehall offices. Only the suitcase used to drag wine from Tescos and maybe the purchase of a minibar seems unusual when compared to the olden days. I wonder whether the minibar was expensed?

But it is this sheer number of events which could thwart Sue Gray's investigation. The perpetrators of the various illicit acts are using studied language to provide wriggle room. It was only 'one event' in Ms Gray's  terms of reference and the Prime Minister even now is brazen-facedly denying he knew it was a party. 

Then wheel in a few legal people to look serious: 

"You cannot have a situation where a civil servant will make a pronouncement that could end the office of a prime minister. The consequence is that Sue Gray will inevitably have to stop short of that.”

No wonder Boris is 'painting by numbers' in all of his responses to this. He knows that if he (for once) follows the rules then Gray's findings will provide him a “get out of jail” card because lockdown laws were not in the inquiry’s remit.

It also provides a barrier defence to stop the Met from investigating the whole thing.