Irish Examiner view: Fade to Gray amid the antics at No 10

Sue Gray's investigation is serious — but it is attracting much levity, including the viral 'Line of Duty' spoof 

Senior British civil servant Sue Gray is examining the apparently restriction-breaking party at No 10 Downing Street. 

No doubt Sue Gray, the senior British civil servant who is investigating the party antics at 10 Downing Street, will have learned a lot about the correct manner of calling time when she ran her pub, the Cove, on the Rathfriland Road in Newry.

Ms Gray has a fearsome reputation — “she makes Robespierre look like a choirboy” said one former colleague — and it was originally hoped that she would produce the results of her deliberations yesterday. Whether the delay has been caused because a “smoking gun” email has been drawn to her attention at the last minute, or because new evidence has emerged about jaunts and frolics on the garden slide and swing normally used by Boris Johnson’s young son, Wilf, we do not know.

What is certainly the case is that the attendant levity has greatly contributed to the gaiety of nations. Nearly 10 million people have viewed the spoof of Superintendent Ted Hastings and his Line of Duty team interviewing the British prime minister (although it might be said that Ted would have been tougher with him under caution). 

Equally, the black propagandist who devised the idea that the campaign to help Johnson out was called “Operation Save Big Dog” has a wicked sense of humour. Everyone will remember this long after Johnson has departed.