Boris Johnson’s pathetic Partygate defence fools nobody

Boris Johnson said it was “my job” to say goodbye to colleagues, that he would have needed an “electric fence” around him to stick to the rules, and that social distancing only applied “when possible” (Boris Johnson facing formal reprimand for misleading parliament, 22 March).

As someone with power of attorney, it was “my job” to represent my friend when he was seriously ill in his nursing home. Normally I would fulfil the obligations of my job by visiting him regularly. This was denied to us during in the pandemic.

He died a few days after testing positive for Covid, having spent months more or less in isolation. Perhaps some of this would not have been necessary if Johnson had paid sufficient attention to doing his job by attending Cobra meetings in the earliest days of the pandemic. Perhaps he would have been more on top of his job and this could have kept the infection rates lower.
Ann Holden
Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria

• So leaving-do gatherings and drinks were “essential” for valued work colleagues, but no gathering together was allowed for those having the ultimate “leaving do”, where distraught relatives were denied giving comfort and saying farewell to their dying loved ones.
Marika McGregor
Corinaldo, Italy

• For the funeral of my wife of 50 years in April 2021, we found a crematorium 30 miles away that would allow 30 people to attend. Local businesses limited numbers to 20. The funeral was socially distanced, with masks and separated seating. There was no wake or chance to grieve together. I received over 100 bereavement cards, many from couples and families. To suggest, as Boris Johnson does, that large gatherings and celebrations were “absolutely essential for work purposes” is not just an insult but deeply hurtful.
Les O’Leary
St Albans, Hertfordshire

• I watched Boris Johnson’s interrogation. As a retired chartered building surveyor, I find it hard to believe that Johnson, in his upstairs flat, could not be aware of a party that was going on until well after midnight, with perhaps 30 to 40 people socialising and drinking on the floor below, when the only acoustic barrier was a lath and plaster ceiling and a timber-boarded floor. People in council flats with concrete floors get into fights for less than that.
Styx Kershaw
Manchester

• Following Boris Johnson’s defence of government parties, can we assume that all those citizens fined during lockdown can now ask for their money back on the grounds that no government adviser personally told them they were breaking the rules?
Jill Wallis
Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire

• If Boris Johnson’s lawyer reportedly can charge £5,000 per hour, how much will it cost taxpayers for the defence of this egoistical squanderer and his Humpty Dumpty definition of word meaning?
Margaret Martlew
Sheffield

• If the argument that Boris Johnson put forward to the privileges committee was based on advice from a very expensive lawyer, Johnson should ask for the money back and then return it to the British people.
Peter Dewar
Bromley, London

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