In May 2020, David Wilson was fined £ 1,000 for organizing an open-air party that he said followed the coronavirus rules at his Calypso restaurant in Blackburn. He is still fighting the fine in court and is horrified that if his case fails and he is asked to pay, he will be forced to close an 11-year-old family business that supplied food to vulnerable people during the pandemic.
That, he said, was the reality for the “little man”, in contrast to his experience with that of the prime minister and his aides, who were fined for attending 10 Downing Street parties during the blockade.
“A fine of £ 1,000 for us, £ 50 for them. This is a joke. Where is the justice? Aside from the anger, I’m disappointed because playing it, thinking it’s going to go away, it’s just a £ 50 fine. All the way, they’ve been having parties when how many people are suffering who can’t see family or grandchildren? I cried when I saw so much need for the people we serve. “
Callum Harrison was fined for having two friends.
His anger at the contrasting experiences with the pandemic was echoed by Callum Harrison, who was fined for having two friends visit his eight-person share in October 2020 when he was a student at the University of Newcastle.
He remembers a very heavy “authoritarian” police force, with undercover cars and intimidating patrols in areas where many students lived. “The police were very aggressive, very hostile to us, although we tried to reason with them and said that we were breaking the rules for the first time.
Kieran McArdleb was fined £ 100 on his birthday after having three friends.
Everyone present is fined £ 100, which he says is “a few weeks’ food” for him. He believes that in light of the government’s violations, the fines they paid should be donated to charity.
“It simply came to our notice then. They get away with assassinations all the time, the government should be ashamed of itself. “Looking back at the people who had to set an example and set the rules, they had a lot of parties, it’s just not fair,” he said.
Kieran McDowell, who was fined £ 100 during the first blockade when three friends visited him in his Warwickshire garden for his birthday after spending weeks alone, believes the lies are the worst aspect of the Partygate scandal.
“It was a complete disregard for other people and the lies that made me – there were no parties, no parties. The initial line was that these were all business meetings. “I could tell the police that the three here are my colleagues,” he said.
“In order for the prime minister to lie in parliament, he has violated the ministerial code, he must leave. He must resign. He has no confidence, he has become a laughing stock. “
Ali Lawrence believed it was in accordance with the law.
Ali Lawrence, a York musician who was fined £ 200, despite showing police printouts of coronavirus rules that he said was in line with the law, worried about the precedent that Johnson’s behavior could set.
“The big excuse is that we cannot change our leader because of the war in Ukraine. But the way I see it is that with all the atrocities in Ukraine committed by Putin, he is obviously lying and everyone can see that. But how can the leader of our country summon him after it has been proven that he did the same? This makes a mockery of it all. We need a leader who should at least be seen as honorable. ”
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