NICOLA: Morning all! Ollie, why do you look like a sad puppy?
OLLIE: The Christmas party.
NICOLA: The 'business meeting'?
OLLIE: Um yeah. There's... video.
NICOLA: Shit. Does Malcolm know?
TERRI: It's in the papers.
NICOLA: SHIT
TUCKER <entering>: Ho FUCKING Ho everyone! /1
TUCKER: How are we today? Feeling festive? In the spirit?
NICOLA: Can we skip this bit please Malcolm?
TUCKER: Me? I'm great. I love this time of year, aye. Fucking infinite Wham fan me.
NICOLA: Malcolm I really am busy.
TUCKER: Oh aye? Lot's of meetings with Secret Santas?
NICOLA: It was a business meeting, Malcolm
TUCKER: Oh sure. Fucking business meeting
OLLIE: It's true. You can check in Outlook
GLENN: I said it was a bad idea
OLLIE: Oh fuck off Glenn
TUCKER: Business meeting. So if I ask Terri if there were minutes, she'll say yes?
TERRI: Um...
TUCKER: Terri, Terri, Terri
TERRI:
TUCKER: I've always liked you Terri. Actually I don't like you Terri, that's a lie. But I do respect you Terri. Actually... no wait... that's a lie too. But Terri, I do KNOW that you're honest.
TERRI:
TUCKER: Were there minutes Terri?
TERRI: Um...
TUCKER: I want you to think very carefully before you answer Terri. Remember the Civil Service code? That thing everyone apart from you wipes their arse with round here?
TERRI:
TUCKER: Were there minutes at this 'business meeting'?
TERRI: No, Malcolm
TUCKER: No minutes. Aye. Right. And would you mind answering a few more questions for me Terri?
NICOLA: Actually, Terri has some really important work to do and-
TUCKER: Were there nibbles, Terri?
TERRI:
GLENN: You don't have to answer, Terri
TUCKER: Wee sausages on sticks?
TUCKER: Was that a nod?
TERRI:
TUCKER: Little bits of pineapple and cheese on sticks. Those fucking party rings where everyone only eats the pink ones
TERRI:
TUCKER: Blink twice if there were nibbles, Terri
TERRI: <blinks twice>
TUCKER: I FUCKING knew it. FUCKING Christmas Party!
NICOLA: Look. It was just a small gathering
TUCKER: Oh aye that's fine then. Her fucking Majesty was sitting alone in Westminster Abbey, while over here Wham's playing and Ollie's getting a sloppy handjob off Glenn in the corridor, but don't worry it was only a small gathering.
GLENN: Hey! That was uncalled for.
TUCKER: What was?
GLENN: The... handjob thing.
TUCKER: Oh I'm sorry Glenn. I do apologise. I'm sure your handjobs are fucking amazing. You have soft hands and lots of practice.
GLENN: That's not what I meant.
TUCKER: You know what happens next? Thanks to your illegal fucking party
OLLIE: Oh no. Are the police-
TUCKER: No Ollie. The Met couldn't give a shit on account of you being neither black nor female. There will be no consequences for you. I mean what happens next for the country.
OLLIE: What?
TUCKER: Total shitting lockdown
NICOLA: I don't understand?
TUCKER: I mean don't get me wrong. The science advisors have been calling for it for weeks. But The Express had already told the PM he saved Christmas, so he couldn't do it. But now... Plan B is ON.
TUCKER: Vaccine Passports. Working from Home. The lot. All coming.
NICOLA: But isn't that the scientific advice?
TUCKER: Oh aye. But the PM had no fucking intention of doing it until you fuckers held a christmas party. Now it's the only way he avoids sending Kwasi Kwarteng on TV.
OLLIE: So, the PM is going to follow scientific advice...
TUCKER: Yup.
GLENN: Because we had a Christmas Party
TUCKER: Yup.
NICOLA: And he's too scared to punish his own people?
TUCKER: Exactly. I hope your fucking happy with yourselves. Because he fucking isn't. /END
If you like this kind of thing (but with real politicians and about Brexit) you can pre-order my book on Unbound while they finish fixing my typos, doing proper art and finding some paper to actually print it on.
OLLIE: So there won't be an investigation?
TUCKER: Oh aye. There'll be an investigation. Glenn! You're in charge of the investigation
GLENN: I'm investigating the party?
TUCKER: Alleged party
GLENN: But I was there
TUCKER: Or you weren't
NICOLA: I'm utterly lost now
TUCKER: It's perfectly fucking simple. Glenn here is going to establish whether or not there was a party that he did or didn't attend
GLENN: Which I did
TUCKER: Or didn't
GLENN: But I did
TUCKER: Or did you
GLENN: Well I don't know now
TUCKER: Exactly
OLLIE: What do I do?
TUCKER: Do what you do best. Stand there looking fucking lost and occasionally text the girlfriend you wish you still had. Try to avoid being filmed again, on camera, mentioning a christmas party you went to that didn't happen. You think you can manage that?
Kwasi Kwarteng glanced at Twitter. All across his timeline was that video. The one about the Christmas Party.
His phone went. Facebook video. He flicked it on.
It was Boris. He wasn't wearing any trousers. /1
"Chris!" BJ bumbled, flopping around in the wind. "How you bloody doing old chap."
"Feeling great, boss." Kwasi smiled. He'd long ago given up trying to get the Prime Minister to learn his actual name. Hell, maybe he WAS called Chris. Could the Prime Minister be wrong? No. Never
"Need you to do TV in the morning." Boris said, scratched himself and pausing to take in the odor.
"Anyway. Yes. TV. The morning. About the party. Didn't happen."
Out of the corner of his eye, Kwasi could see the video playing on his laptop. On it, Allegra Stratton was laughing
The Skeletor's Minions Problem (SMP) happens when you have an insecure populist narcissist in politics, or a productive narcissist in business, in charge of an organisation. But the org lacks:
1) Top level understanding of what happens on the ground 2) ANY senior staff pushback
If, as is alleged (with growing evidence), Boris Johnson specifically ordered the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan then there likely wasn't a moment where he thought people would miss out.
He thought that he could shout "do something about this!!" with no consequences.
What's beyond funny about the Uber case is that they brought it on themselves.
If they hadn't been so high on silicon valley bro-ness, and so ignorant of E&W Employment law, they'd have just chucked the drivers a few quid.
Instead they got themselves done by the duck test. 🦆
What's DOUBLY funny is not that Uber then accidentally set themselves up for the easiest tap in HMRC ever scored, but they lit a beacon to the rest of Europe on how to legislate for bad-faith disruptors.
Which is why the European Commission is wiring the duck test in there, too.
So Uber fucked their London ops. Opened themselves up to a massive RETROACTIVE and future VAT bill AND have probably screwed themselves in a bunch of other markets too.
All for the sake of lowballing a few drivers so their investee deck looked better.