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21-11-2020, 07:17 PM
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Is Boris Johnson running Britain in secret by WhatsApp?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-WhatsApp.html

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case intervened after concern that some texts from the Prime Minister’s official account on the messaging service appeared to have been sent by someone other than him.

In a separate development, Mr Johnson’s partner Carrie Symonds is understood to have been overheard ‘prompting’ him in the background during confidential phone calls to ministers and officials.

The extraordinary WhatsApp dispute follows a move by Mr Johnson earlier this month to extend the use of a secret Downing Street WhatsApp group for routine messages to sensitive affairs of state.

They include highly confidential policy decisions and instructions to fellow Cabinet ministers and mandarins. In the past such matters were dealt with via traditional printed papers in the Prime Minister’s Whitehall ‘Red Box’ – which were returned by him, signed by hand.

Mr Case raised fears about Mr Johnson’s new practice, described by one official as ‘government by WhatsApp’. Officials said the style of some of the texted replies appeared markedly different from the Prime Minister’s own distinctive style. But he refused to go back to the old method.

‘Paper documents have proved secure over decades. Unlike texts, you can see the PM’s handwritten jottings in the margins and signature.’ Mr Case is said to have raised the issue with Mr Reynolds, who said the Prime Minister would not drop the WhatsApp move.

Mr Johnson is a member of several WhatsApp groups, ranging from policy forums to briefings for Conservative MPs.

Miss Symonds hosts regular soirees at the Downing Street flat and weekend gatherings at Chequers for her network of friends, mainly Tory political advisers and selected journalists. Mr Johnson is present at some, but not all, of these get-togethers.

Mr Case, Downing Street and the Cabinet Office all declined to comment.
Well, those "in the know" did say that Symonds was taking over "the business" once she'd got rid of The Dome .....
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21-11-2020, 08:02 PM
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Re: Is Boris Johnson running Britain in secret by WhatsApp?



Oh goody, more unfounded allegations for the intellectually-challenged to grasp.
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21-11-2020, 09:00 PM
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Re: Is Boris Johnson running Britain in secret by WhatsApp?

it's in the daily mail so it must be true.
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21-11-2020, 09:31 PM
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Re: Is Boris Johnson running Britain in secret by WhatsApp?

Originally Posted by AnnieS ->
it's in the daily mail so it must be true.
As Twitter is to Trump, so WhatsApp is to BJ:

https://www.verdict.co.uk/whatsapp-westminster/

Increasingly WhatsApp has become an invaluable tool in the corridors of government, but why has WhatsApp become so popular with politicians?

Political journalist Marie Le Conte:

“It’s hard to overstate just how much WhatsApp has changed the way Westminster functions, at most levels. These days, journalists mostly communicate with MPs via WhatsApp; they receive a line from spinners via WhatsApp; MPs talk to each other in WhatsApp groups.”

This top-down communication has streamlined the Westminster process, making it much quicker to receive information from MPs. Unlike some digital disruptors that affect a certain industry sector, WhatsApp, like its wide adoption within the general public, has become used en-masse in parliament.

The messaging service was critical in some Conservative MPs attempts to topple the former PM and has become a useful tool for MPs to get their message out.

Say something in a WhatsApp group and wait until it makes its way into the hands of the press, just as now-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s message in support of Mrs May in 2017 saying “folks we need to calm down and get behind the prime minister” did.
AFAIK, the sytem is (relatively) secure but if the PM is "lending" his parliamentary account to Symonds then the use of the system by the PM needs to be investigated .....
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22-11-2020, 11:01 AM
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Re: Is Boris Johnson running Britain in secret by WhatsApp?

Originally Posted by Omah ->
As Twitter is to Trump, so WhatsApp is to BJ:

https://www.verdict.co.uk/whatsapp-westminster/



AFAIK, the sytem is (relatively) secure but if the PM is "lending" his parliamentary account to Symonds then the use of the system by the PM needs to be investigated .....
"If".
That is a very big "if".
As I said earlier: more unfounded allegations for the intellectually-challenged to grasp.
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22-11-2020, 11:50 AM
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Re: Is Boris Johnson running Britain in secret by WhatsApp?

Boris can do what he wants. Labour will never get elected for at least a generation.

I suggest the left learn to live with it, after all, they voted for Boris in the first place.
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23-11-2020, 11:34 AM
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Re: Is Boris Johnson running Britain in secret by WhatsApp?

Originally Posted by Bread ->
Boris can do what he wants. Labour will never get elected for at least a generation.

I suggest the left learn to live with it, after all, they voted for Boris in the first place.
I, and I think, many others, might take Boris to task if he capitulates on Brexit leaving plans.

The lefties would have to find a better figurehead, than their recent choices, but other Parties might have a go.

(Nigel?)
 

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