The Partygate Inquiry Report wasn’t the total whitewash many had feared.
It’s the next best thing: a Graywash of the Prime Minister ’s personal culpability for rule-breaking in Downing Street.
Weasel Whitehall words abound. Parties staged while the nation was in lockdown were “inappropriate.” Unlawful behaviour was “difficult to justify”.
Ms Gray appears incapable of even using the word “party.” They are still, in the word of the Number Ten spin machine, “gatherings.”
And there were admittedly “failures of leadership.” Yes, but whose?
Nowhere does she pin the blame fairly and squarely where it belongs: on the Prime Minister.
Instead, the report waffles on about the “culture” of Number Ten, as if this has nothing to do with him. But the tone is set by Boris Johnson, chief partygoer at the Whitehall Bake-On.
He must have chortled “This is a get out of jail card!” before setting off to give another non-apology apology at the Despatch Box.
He said “sorry for the things we didn’t get right.” Not “for the things I did wrong.” He still believes he did nothing wrong. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Instead of being honest, Johnson used the occasion to launch a self-boosting rant about Brexit, Russia, and a new Office of the Prime Minister to increase his personal power.
He yelled that the Gray Report “does absolutely nothing” to substantiate the litany of charges against him. In the face of all the evidence, he really believes that.
Ms Gray’s findings are a missed opportunity. They are only a preliminary effort, and we must hope the final verdict is worthy of her tough-guy reputation. Meanwhile, the police are still investigating 12 possibly criminal “gatherings.”
But the British people have already made up their mind. Sentence will be carried out in due course.
