//
//They gave the advice that was... potentially, safest,...//
They didn't "give advice" Pixie. They introduced legislation which provided for hefty financial penalties, pursued through the criminal courts if not paid (with imprisonment as the ultimate sanction for non-payment). That's not advice, it's enforcement against everyday activities that had become - outrageously - criminalised.
This is the whole point. These laws were introduced in order to counter the pandemic. In order to be successful they had to apply to everybody. But Ministers and their staff were of the opinion that they didn't apply to them because (so the nonsense goes) they were "work-related". //
NJ's position is typically impossible to gainsay.
I remain open-mouthed at the willingness of some posters to conclude that because the government's parties were 'work-related', that was OK.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I remember, the Covid Regulations - not 'advice', regulations - allowed meeting one other person outside, socially distanced.
Now how that gets translated into a party - 'works' or otherwise, simply does not fly.
BT, who I worked for over forty-three years, banned alcohol on its premises decades ago, and when I wanted a leaving do, I had it in the pub up the road, without a second thought.
Why are government drones seen as exempt from the laws that govern the rest of us, and why does their leader think that not seeing their gatherings as a 'party' makes them OK?
It's not OK.