The current Prime Minister has apologised from the dispatch box for the derision directed at security attempting to close down a law-breaking party - they laughed at him and jeered - and the contempt shown to cleaning staff at Downing Street.

The security, custodians and cleaning staff were being put directly at risk of a highly transmissible virus. A virus they could easily have caught under the perilous conditions that existed in No 10 Downing Street.  A virus that could have killed them.  A virus that they could have transmitted to elderly, vulnerable relatives to children, to family, to friends. A virus that could have caused long term health complications and distress. 

Every person in this dangerous environment could have caught the virus that was rampaging around the country and the world. They all knew this. The Prime Minister knew this. We all knew this, which is why anyone with even the remotest care for others obeyed the rules set by the current Prime Minister and his government. Every member of Boris Johnson's staff and Boris Johnson himself were being put at risk, putting each other at risk and putting everyone they had contact with at risk.  Boris Johnson himself then caught Covid. It is hardly surprising he did. The NHS put themselves at risk bringing him back to health. It was their commitment to their vocation to save and protect that ensured his safe recovery.

The number of deaths in the UK stands today at 179 000 people. This is the official number - the real figure is probably greater.

179 000 people dead of a highly transmissible virus.

NHS workers on the frontline, working relentlessly to save and protect us, at enormous personal risk, did not have Wine Time Fridays. Their vocation to save and protect us was always paramount despite immense and seemingly unending strain, exhaustion, distress - and their families every day living in fear for their safety.

We were unable to be by the side of dying relatives, to hold their hands, to support them at this moment when no one should be alone.  We were unable to gather to mourn together, to grieve them, to comfort and be comforted

We all did this.

I am so angry at the disregard, fecklessness and failure of responsibility that has been rife in the heart of government. I am so angry at the abject failure of the current Prime Minister to follow his wholly insincere claim to accept responsibility by following that pronouncement of responsibility to its logical conclusion.

Sue Gray's report states plainly that information that was not given to her in interviews with government officials under suspicion of rule breaking she later learned via media investigations and reporting. News given to us all via newspaper and television journalism

I will continue to maintain this petition because one very important reason I feel so passionately about it is that independent investigative journalism is at the heart of a functioning democracy.

Information that has come into public realm would simply not have been available to us if journalism was not independent - if that independence was curtailed and suffocated by the control of those in power.

Please continue to sign and share our petition.

Channel 4 has award winning independent investigative journalism, hard hitting current affairs programmes, uncompromising news that we trust to report the truth. It is vital to protect their independence, to protect our democracy. Independent journalism that holds power to account and insists on the principles of honesty, integrity, decency, and responsibility in those who hold high office. 

It doesn't matter how you vote, we all are responsible for protecting democracy. It is all our duty - just as it was all our duty to care for others when a horrific virus was sweeping the whole world. Politics is not a game of rugby to be won with dominance and force. It is not a game between two teams with a winner at the end.  Politics is public service - it is the practice of ensuring the health, well being of us all. Those who do not participate in politics with the vocation to serve our communities with honesty, integrity and commitment must always be held to account.

We own Channel 4. It's for all of us. 96% of those who were consulted by the government's own process are against the sell-off.

It is not democratic to proceed.