Partygate: The True Story

I had a low opinion of Boris as a leader but could see his attraction to some as a sort of cheeky schoolboy charm. I believe he is highly intelligent but totally self centered .. the reconstructions here are Not particularly dramatic or amazing but the sheer scale of continued ramshackle behavior at the heart of Government in perhaps the most serious time I have ever experienced in the UK in my life( I am 73) is sickening... I do think Time will show Boris as the worst Leader and most self centered Prime Minister we have had....

It does cover the period of the crisis and feature real and reconstructed footage Well worth watching and a very important record for future historians!!

'Partygate' is a rather weakly comic representation of the events that brought down Boris Johnson; but also, quite literally, a deadly serious one. Right from the start it gets to one key point, when a caller to a radio-phone in offers a defence of the then Prime Minister, accused of hosting "parties" during the COVID-19 lockdowns. For sure, all social gatherings were banned, and if the makers of the laws don't follow them, how can anyone else be expected to. But if people working long hours gathered briefly to wish each other happy birthday, or had a quick drink in the garden after work, was that really so terrible? Even if wrong, you could understand how it had happened. Only, of course, it didn't happen like that. The Downing Street staff, from the top man downwards, acted with complete and reckless disregard for the law they were imposing on other people. Johnson has continued to insist that nothing occured you could really call a party; but that man is a serial liar. 'Partygate' suggests that the reason it all happened lies in the insufferable arrogance of a ruling class who take it for granted that no-one actually gets to tell them what to do, even themselves! It may still not be the worst thing that a British government has ever done; but the story speaks volumes of the contempt of our governors for the governed.

Prior to watching this docudrama I was a staunch supporter of Boris. And defended the parties as work place gatherings as we hear the lady doing near to the beginning. I felt Boris had been hounded out of office unfairly. Watching this dramatisation has sowed the seed of doubt in my mind. If the parties were on the scale depicted in the drama nobody including the prime minister could possibly justify them as small work place gatherings. Perhaps I have been duped by very left wing film makers? Although the film does cite the Sue Gray report throughout to support the account it gives. The acting was appalling though.

I watched Partygate to try to understand what went on in No. 10 during the covid lockdowns. I am not surprised by its content but I am angered by it. It's not a particularly good piece of drama but it is worth watching to learn about what happened behind "closed" doors while most ordinary people were obeying the rules. It has an interesting cast with quite a few familiar faces. I quite liked the interplay of acting interspersed with real footage from 2020/2021 although it has left me feeling angry, sad and rebellious. I think it's a drama to be filed safely away for the record and watched by future generations who want to look back in history.

As you're watching Partygate, you ask yourself 'Did this really happen?' And then you are shown the evidence to prove it from the Sue Gray Report; testimonies of family of those who died, who weren't allowed into hospital to say goodbye; film of mourners at funerals who were not permitted to comfort others. Reminders of the awful things the rest of the country was suffering, at the exact same time Johnson and his staff were living it up at 14 parties and then lied about it. This is a tough watch, but as the Covid Inquiry is deliberately kicked into the long grass, I think it's really important we're reminded of this.