I’ve said it before and I will say it again. The government is money laundering, giving money to their cronies in the knowledge that some of it will be returned by way of donations. Totally corrupt and would be on every front page of the written media, if the Labour Party was doing it.
Sometimes difficult problems require radical solutions. The government are anxious about the splitting up of the Union when a solution is staring them in the face. Join England with Scotland as a single nation and rename it Scotland. Dump the Chump and put Nicola as PM . The greater majority of people would be very happy with that. PS In a recent poll a greater number of English voters would prefer Nicola as PM to the Chump.
Excellent article in the Grauniad about the continuing battle for visa-free touring for British musicians in the EU, and vice versa. Features an interview with Elton John, and Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood pitches in as well: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...JcMM4p8jXOq4hgrVyAfzFHJ8V5BV2n6dkoRM6iVcRZfDU
A 60 years old family business closing because of Brexit. Another triumph. https://www.theguardian.com/politic...91sO7BIoJ9LonfWBs3iKZgCcde93ZiUMTDqqpfYeLG_1E
Remember when Murdoch said he wanted us out of the EU, because they ignored him whilst the UK politicians did as he asked? Seems he has been spending a lot of time with Johnson and his gang. https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/08/...CsvTJFdYKquNf7bFyie2MKOGqS-7fj4x7qRI-XftseIqQ
Thank you for posting. The more you read the more it becomes apparent that there was little to no thought given by Government ministers to the Brexit process. This Government seems to take action without applying any analytical thought to the consequences.
But they knew what they were voting for. Which is quite strange when it is becoming increasingly obvious that the government didn’t know.
Taken from the Yorkshire Bylines. Welcome to Schrödinger’s Border. This is the border in the Irish Sea which the UK government negotiated and which the UK government says doesn’t exist, and which is both there and not there as long as it’s kept in a box and nobody looks at it. It’s twinned with Schrödinger’s Forms, which are the forms businesses in Northern Ireland need to fill in if they want to send/receive goods from Great Britain, but which the leader of the UK government categorically assured them they wouldn’t have to fill in, because there wouldn’t be a border. Except that there is. Or isn’t. Depending on who looks in the box. And when. Following protests from Unionist politicians who can’t quite get their heads round the philosophical niceties of a border which is simultaneously existent and non-existent, and who are furious about Schroedinger’s Border (and quite possibly Schrödinger’s Forms), the UK government is now in the tricky position of having to ask the EU if it would be kind enough to re-open some kind of talks on a border they claim doesn’t exist, to amend a deal they proclaimed (just five short weeks ago) would end EU involvement in Britain’s affairs. At which point we should add Schrödinger’s Triumph – where victory looks a very great deal like humiliating defeat – to the list of this government’s achievements. At the time of writing, it’s understood that even Schrödinger’s Gove (which is known to be able to adopt five different and entirely contradictory positions at the same time, both within and outside of any box which may be to hand) is finding its legendary ability to reconcile myth and reality stretched almost to breaking. Chalk that one up as another milestone in the ongoing Schrödinger’s Success which is Brexit.
More from the Good Law Project. → More PPE that can’t be used by the NHS THE JEWELLER, THE MIDLEMAN AND THE UK GOVERNMENT You may remember the tale of the jeweller from Florida and the Spanish intermediary who profited to the tune of tens of millions of pounds from vast PPE contracts, paid for with taxpayers’ money, writes Jolyon Maugham, QC, Director of the Good Law Project. Well, there have been developments. Government continues to fail to publish details of contracts within the legally required timeframe, but we have learned of another contract it entered into with the jeweller Saiger, worth £36 million, for face masks. The contract was for FFP2 masks – which protect the wearer, unlike the ones we all wear to the supermarket. But to protect the wearer they need to be adjustable - which means headstraps - and all of these masks have ‘earloops’. Earloop masks, Government has admitted in other cases, can’t be used in the NHS because they don’t give a proper fixing. We expect these £36 million of masks will also be unusable. Not only did Government buy PPE that can’t be used. It also appears to have paid well over the odds. For one type of mask, Government paid $2.93 per unit. The prevailing price paid by Government at the time it entered into the contract was about 60p per unit: more PPE, paid for at a premium, that can’t be used by the NHS. But that’s not all. Saiger was awarded a contract worth £70.52 million to buy 10.2 million sterile surgical gowns. We are challenging this particular contract in court. Almost all of the gowns supplied under that £70m+ contract are unable to be used as such because they are wrapped in such a way that their sterile quality can’t be maintained. At this stage, you might be wondering: shouldn’t a responsible Government just put up its hands and say “we got this wrong”? Instead, it is spending, quite literally, millions in public funds trying to defend the indefensible. And what we want to know is, who is this spending for - is it in your interests? Or is it to avoid political embarrassment? If you would like to support our attempts to deliver transparency, you can donate to the legal challenge here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/the-jeweller-middleman-ppe/ Thank you, Jolyon Maugham QC, Director of Good Law Project
The Institute of Economic Affairs, a very influential body that donates money to Tory MPs, including £32,000 to the Health Secretary, Hancock, doesn’t think that the NHS response to the pandemic has been anything special and if the NHS didn’t exist we would still have a health system, only a different one. Probably an insurance based one. I fully expect Hancock to get very angry about this, return the £32k donations, praise the NHS, give the staff pay rises and tell the IEA to **** right off, because that is what any decent Health Secretary would do. Right? https://amp.theguardian.com/politic...58aU_MfkTFNoeWhafJISxtDL3_oCdLxa4sY1Uw-ikF0UY
