Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Who cares about partygate?

(Getty images)

Does anyone else feel uncomfortable with the idea of the police investigating the elected government? I have laughed and fumed at partygate as much as the next upstanding citizen of the United Kingdom. I’ve moaned to mates about the PM partying on the same day I sat in a park with one other person and several tinnies. I’ve shared all those memes featuring Boris looking dishevelled as he ‘comes down from another house party’ or showing bright nightclub lights blaring inside Downing Street as cops stand nonchalantly at the door.

But the Metropolitan Police snooping around the seat of political power? The unelected armed wing of the state poring over the antics of the executive wing, led by a man voted into power by 14 million of us? I think it’s safe to say partygate has gone too far. What started as a legitimate media query into whether government officials broke their own rules has morphed into something more authoritarian, more vengeful, and more threatening to the democratic process than an illicit cheese-and-wine party could ever be.

It is very clear now that partygate is no longer a neutral, cool examination of what the folks in Downing Street did or didn’t do on those long lockdown days and nights. No, it has become something more akin to political skulduggery, a knife-flashing act of establishment revenge against a PM who many of these people love to loathe. 

Horrified as I am by this hostility to Brexit, I almost admire their zealotry

It isn’t a plot per se. The Boris-bashers of the cultural and media elites, of the BBC and the Twitterati, of the Corbynista and Guardianista sets, did not get together in a smoky room to mastermind the downfall of Mr Brexit, the ‘hard right’ loon who stalks their fevered nightmares. But they know an opportunity when they see one.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in