The real crime was not ‘Partygate’ but the lockdown rules in the first place, says Mark Dolan

I couldn't give a stuff about ‘‘Partygate’’. I just hope it's the end of the party for those ridiculous rules in the first place. Of course it's a disgrace that staffers at Number 10 gratuitously ignored Covid rules, that they were inflicting on us in the first place, but it was ever thus with politicians. One set of rules for them, another set of rules for us. It's the same for the Sunak family when you look at their tax affairs.

It's us, the stupid, unthinking, ignorant, unwashed proletariat, that must do as we're told. Meanwhile the elites are avoiding taxes, and during lockdown, are carting suitcases of plonk into Number 10, for quiz nights, singalongs and in the case of Matt Hancock, a snogfest in the corridor. They were laughing at us. They were laughing at you.

But indignation over ‘Partygate’ misses the point, perhaps conveniently for some, including the likes of Keir Starmer, who has been in uproar over ‘Partygate’, but who has been the biggest cheerleader for these nonsensical rules in the first place.

‘Partygate’ is a sideshow, a distraction, and a soap opera that the British people can ill afford, as we face the biggest cost of living crisis in living memory. Westminster tittle tattle, point-scoring and calls for high profile resignations, is the last thing we need.

In my view, we need to keep our excellent Chancellor who, notwithstanding his own problems this week, saved thousands of businesses and possibly millions of jobs with the furlough scheme. Of course I was profoundly against lockdowns, but if you're going to do them, it wasn’t Rishi Sunak's call, then you're going to have to compensate people. And the furlough scheme, whilst a fig leaf for a failed and ruinous policy of lockdowns, was necessary nonetheless.

And whilst I'm furious with Boris Johnson for giving in to the sage scientists, the professors of doom for two years, and ignoring his liberal principles, wandering into a room for nine minutes and blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, is hardly a reckless all-nighter is it, it's not exactly 24 Hour Party People. It's hardly crime of the century.

The crime of the century, was the rules themselves, that were so flagrantly broken. And why WERE those rules broken, by those at the heart of government? Because they knew it was all b******s. The masks, the social distancing, the bubbles and the endless testing.

The real crime was not ‘Partygate’, but the rules in the first place.

Wrecking a country and its people, and handing colossal debt to future generations, that haven't even been born yet. The real crime was inflicting an unprecedented attack on our civil liberties, or bullying people into getting vaccinated just to keep their job - that's what's unforgivable and that’s what should be a resignation matter. But if it was a resignation matter, then it would be Starmer, Johnson, Whitty and Vallance, and an entire generation of politicians and so-called health experts, that would be for the chop. Trying and failing to control a virus that's going to do what the hell it wants to do, something I suggested almost years ago, has been the real outrage. Destroying the country and the health, and living standards, of its people, is a hell of a lot worse than red wine and birthday cake.

It’s time to move on from ‘Partygate’.

And it seems I’m not the only one with that view.

A poll for the Daily Mail reveals that Britons believe that there are ‘more important things’ to worry about than ‘Partygate’. More than half said the UK needs to move on from the scandal.

I agree. But for us to move on in any meaningful and decisive way, Boris Johnson must makes a sworn commitment, to never again pursue the folly of trying to “control a virus” – something we are currently seeing an extreme version of in Shanghai in China, where people locked in apartment blocks, are screaming for food and water and where officials wearing dystopian Hazmat suits are beating dogs and cats to death, that are suspected of having Covid. If he ends the war on Covid, then he has my support. And if the Chancellor can get his tax affairs in order, so he pays his fair share, he should stay too. Because we need one of the most gifted politicians of his generation, and a high achiever in his own life, at the Treasury. I still fancy him for the top job at some point. Right now, we need the best people running the country and I don't want to see people hired and fired, based around confected, politically motivated rage.

Boris Johnson seems to be getting to grips with the Channel migrant crisis, which in my view is a humanitarian crisis and it's time we crushed the business model of the evil gangsters, who profit from that perilous crossing. And Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak can be a team that steers the powerhouse that is the British economy, back to healthy growth, gradually paying down our debts, tackling inflation and helping the great British public with the cost of living. And of course Boris has smashed it in relation to Ukraine where he was described by Ukranian President Volodymir Zelenski himself as a hero.

If Boris Johnson sorts out illegal immigration, tackles the cost of living crisis, heals the economy, fights crime, battles extreme political correctness or wokeism as it’s known; if he tackles the NHS waiting list, and if he makes it clear we will never pursue the folly of these Covid measures ever again, then he will be a hero to all. Post-pandemic, post-Brexit Britain can be a fast-growing, dynamic, diverse, creative, happy and successful place. In fact I’m certain it will be. But it’s time to rid Britain of the ghost of Covid. And with that, the threat of future lockdowns, or any other damaging and divisive measures, to control a virus, that the last two years have proved, couldn’t care less what we do.

It’s time to ditch the failed, ruinous policies of the last two years and get back to normal. Not for a few months, but forever. If that happens, it won’t be party-gate anymore, it will be party-time. And I’ll drink to that