Boris Says There Are Fifty Shades Of Gray

[Peter Pedant]

Boris ( our prime minister silly!) has met Sue Gray. They have discussed her forthcoming report. The report is likely to be critical as fixed penalties have been issued and paid.

The hacks and journos are having a field day and saying the Prime Minister must allay suspicions that he is trying to revise the final wording.

What do Abers ( and Boris supporter are allowed a say: I believe in Free Speech !) think about the idea that when BJ opens his mouth a decent proportion think he will lie ?

[ToraToraTora]

eg: Boris: "If we had listened to the opposition, we would have stayed in the European Medicines agency and we would never have been able to deliver the vaccine roll-out at the speed we did" - Well I'd say that is true but even if it turns out not to be the case it's not a lie it's an opinion.

[Peter Pedant]

bit jesuitical

so " I didnt break the law " Boris passim,
it is not a lie it is an opinion on his behaviour ?

I didnt kill him your honour, he just fell dead at my feet.
Yeah OK the knife, lets set that to one side

[Peter Pedant]

// but examples of it seem to be as rare as hens teeth.//
yeah but no but
it is early at 11 o'clock ....
o you mean for all time, yeah that is one opinion I agree

[Ellipsis]

At PMQs on 1 December 2021, Keir Starmer asked: “As millions of people were locked down, was a Christmas party thrown in Downing Street for dozens of people on 18 December 2020?”

Boris Johnson replied: “All guidance was followed completely in Number 10.”

That's a lie, TTT. Not an opinion.

If it was an opinion, he would have said “In my opinion, all guidance was followed completely in Number 10” or "To the best of my understanding, all guidance was followed completely in Number 10” or even the tactic he later started employing, “I am reliably informed that all guidance was followed completely in Number 10.”

But he gave a bald statement of fact that was wrong, when he knew all along what was going on in the place where he lived and worked and partied. He lied about it.

In this case his standard tactic of evading the specific question worked against him. Asked about an actual event, he replied about Downing Street generally, with a whopper of a lie.

[ToraToraTora]

it was a belief. ....and we don't always prefix sentences with absolute statements in normal language. No one says "I believe Spurs will win the cup" or "in my opinion Spurs will win the cup", do they? It's English and how it's used day to day. Why do you lefties struggle so much with the language?

[sandra4444]

I struggle reading the repeats you keep posting TTT. Don't you ever get a little bored ? Same old same old, day after day.

[Peter Pedant]

I did it instead of I didnt do it
just a little change

and we don't always prefix sentences with absolute statements in normal language. - er that is the normal language of the House of Commons - righto!

[Peter Pedant]

I have a belief that TTT is lying so....
he can't be lying
yup got it

[Ellipsis]

"We" don't spend our time as the PM answering questions at PMQs. The specific place and time he was asked the question makes his response undoubtedly a lie.

[ToraToraTora]

sandra, I am just responding to left wing illiteracy. They post their BS and I respond correcting them.

[Ellipsis]

> No one says "I believe Spurs will win the cup" or "in my opinion Spurs will win the cup", do they?

Once again, you are confusing future events with past events. In my specific example, Boris was lying about past events.

[ToraToraTora]

No, he was giving his opinion of past events.

[THECORBYLOON]

"No one says "I believe Spurs will win the cup" or "in my opinion Spurs will win the cup", do they?" Both of those are about the future but the claim Johnson made was about the past.

It was about activities that had already taken place and he did not qualify it in any way to make it clear it was anything other than something he knew to be factual.

[Hymie]

I have extracted these two ‘Best Answers’ from recent AB posts (which may help TTT in his understanding of Boris’s lies).

#1
This is boring. People who think Boris Johnson doesn't tell lies can't be reasoned with, much like Trump supporters. I wouldn't bother.

#2
People seem to want to make excuses for Boris on the basis that everybody lies.

There is a difference between lying about things you've done and lying about things you intend to do. Boris has lied about things he's done.

There is a difference between lying to Parliament and lying to an acquaintance. Boris has lied to Parliament.

There is a difference between lying as PM and lying as somebody else. Boris has lied as PM.

Boris is an inveterate liar. He should resign, most people in his place would have by now, but he won't. His fellow Tory MPs should fire him, but they won't, because the majority of them have lost the moral and ethical principles they need to fire him.

If he was to be gone, who should replace him? Literally any other Tory MP that they elected as Leader in his place. That would be fine. That's as it should be. Having an inveterate liar as PM, lying to Parliament about the things that they've done, is not as it should be.

[Ellipsis]

Spurs won the FA Cup a couple of weeks ago.

That's not a lie, that's just my opinion of past events.

[ToraToraTora]

Elipsis: "Spurs won the FA Cup a couple of weeks ago. " - if you think that is true, you believe it, it's not a lie.

[Hymie]

I’m off down the bookies to collect on my bet that Spurs would win the FA cup – despite not being a team in the final.

[Ellipsis]

If that's the case then it's worse than I thought. He's not a liar, he's a fantasist ...

If that's the case, how could you possibly tell the truth between a lie and one of his fantasies? And does it matter?

[Ellipsis]

tell the difference*

[Hymie]

Someone who knew that Spurs had not won, told me that they had – and assured me that they were not lying (I think his name was Boris).