It was easy to get the sense in 2020 that the government didn’t want the lockdowns to end. Now we all realise why: everyone in No. 10 was having an absolute whale of a time. Less than 24 hours after the Telegraph revealed No. 10 held two parties the night before Prince Philip’s funeral (classy), the Mirror has just reported that its staff held ‘wine-time Fridays every week’ throughout the pandemic. Such events were scheduled in the weekly calendar of 50 Downing Street aides between 4 p.m and 7 p.m throughout the Covid crisis, with Boris Johnson himself witnessing the gatherings where he encouraged staff to ‘let off steam.’
The end-of-week drinks are part of a long-standing tradition in government but they reportedly continued while the rest of the country were, for the most part, confined to their homes. At the time, households were not allowed to mix indoors or in most outdoor places, with exemptions for people in support bubbles and a maximum of six people allowed to meet in some outdoor public spaces. Staff
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