By late summer, the volume of useless PPE that Uniserve was importing started to cause problems. Warehouses were full and shipping containers stacked up at Felixstowe, blocking our largest port.
Paying for the same 'mistake' many times.
How many children will be exposed to SARSCOV2 in unsafe schools? How many will die, how many will go through long covid, how many will be traumatised by the confusion, by the possibility that they spread the virus to a friend, a relative or any other who became seriously ill? There is a link between these harms and those dodgy contracts.
We have an elected dictatorial Government, secure in an 80 seat majority, in the House of Commons, awarding dodgy contracts for useless kit to friendly associates, a government that cruelly withdrew £20 a week Covid uplift' from Universal Credit recipients for no good reason, even as the epidemic continues apace, with circa 1000 deaths from Covid every week, a government that is now paying a subsidiary of the dodgy contracted party Uniserve to store the useless PPE kit, a government that is basically funnelling public cash into private coffers, for doing nothing much beyond being a friend of the relevant Government ministers, or a party donor.
Waste and tragically, in the context of the Covid Epidemic in the UK, part of the guarantee of more spread of the virus. Layers of harm.
The damage to our democracy, to our people, to our nations health and safety - is the profit gouged by this behaviour really worth it?
Private Eye's special report, in the form of a podcast 'Profits of Doom', and also reported in issue 1560, suggests that for those on the take, and on the make, it certainly is.
"Richard Brooks and Solomon Hughes cover both ends of the Covid wealth gap - from the companies making mega-millions out of lazy procurement processes all the way to the workers having their wages levelled down rather than up. Free major government contract with every download!"
We all know, of course, that for those who have died, who have contracted Long Covid, those whose businesses have collapsed due to mismanagement of the epidemic on these islands, their families and for the low wage working population in general, the costs are not worth it.
The Tip of The Corruption Iceberg.
Another Angry Voice published a short list of crony capitalist 'entrepreneurial' activity: their article lists a long list of this corruption,
Johnson Lied, people died.
Johnson used the COP26 platform to declare that 'the UK is not remotely a corrupt country'.
The UK is 'not remotely a corrupt country', says Boris Johnson. pic.twitter.com/zFubXGZu2V
— LBC (@LBC) November 10, 2021
A classic gaslighting ploy. A deliberate deflection.
The issue is not that the country is corrupt.
The issue is that many members of the Conservative Party in Government (and beyond) are engaged in blatantly corrupt behaviour. Johnson also suggested that there are rules governing MPs lobbying and consultancy work, and that those found to have 'broken the rules' must be held accountable.
Here's an idea.
Make all those MPs and their associates who have extracted such great wealth from the public purse hand back every penny they have 'made' to their local constituencies councils, bar them from political and Government positions and bar them from directorships of companies for life.
Make the companies that 'donated' or 'employed' these MPs match their payments of their 'consultancy fees' and 'salaries' to each MPs local council social care services, and bar them from political lobbying for ever.
Cameron should never be able to lobby Government ever again. He is reputed to have taken £7.2 million in salary, bonuses and shares from his involvement with Greensill. He must be made to return every penny to the public purse.
Back in February 2010, before the election which made him the Prime Minister Cameron had this to say:
"We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way. In this party, we believe in competition, not cronyism.
"So we must be the party that sorts all this out. Today it is a £2bn industry that has a huge presence in parliament. The Hansard Society has estimated that some MPs are approached over 100 times a week by lobbyists.
"I believe that secret corporate lobbying, like the expenses scandal, goes to the heart of why people are so fed up with politics. It arouses people's worst fears and suspicions about how our political system works."
International Trade Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan on Sky News, 8th November 2021 cited in Private Eye, issue 1560, November 2021."I don't think we should have a removal of the ability to maintain or have a second job, because it brings a richness to our role as members of Parliament."
Choice of words, eh?
AI : Another layer of Influence.
Parliament should make 'the rule's going forward much more robust, including making this kind of corruption a criminal offence, with custodial sentences mandated for for such behaviour.
There's no need to apply such harsh obligations in retrospect. The return of all these corrupt profits would suffice for now.
My Little Crony
There's a rather superb website, a clever resource that is tracking the links and webs of crony capitalists operating within this English Government
What will future historians write of the failures of this Parliament and the British Corporate Media to hold this government to account? What will they say about the population that let that happen?
Corruption, legal or otherwise is an affront to democracy.
For any politician to take money from a business, or any other sponsor, and then attempt to influence legislation or contracts for that business or sponsor is fundamentally anti-democratic.
Not every MP, not even a majority of MPs are involved. Yet those who do not stoop so low seem loathe to root this adverse behaviour out. They bleat about the erosion of public trust in parliament, but do nothing meaningful that would prevent this abuse of power, let alone punish it.
This behavioural dynamic - the corruption of a few and the feeble response of the many - denies the democratic mandate of the electorate. It undermines justice. It pollutes everything it touches. It imposes immense costs on the population, the tax paying working class, in terms of resources diverted from serving our genuine needs.
This behaviour causes great harm.
So it goes within all violence hierarchies. If my readers do not recognise the violence of this hierarchy, I suggest assessing the non-avoidance of fatalities and chronic disease as an act of institutional violence. A Plague enhancing Government. Medieval in attitude, scope and effect.
21st Century
This call for democratic and legislative regulation of harmful practice is necessary in order to prevent the harms being caused by the way the industrial system is operating. That would be a healthy movement. The only way through this, safely, must start with ruthless honesty, accountability and for those who are causing deliberate harm, sanctions.
I am merely a grass roots singer, and old man, poor and toothless. Justice can only be done by a united grass roots. The best I can do is sing it like I see it in the hope that having a laugh at it all somehow helps to blow the veil off, clears the air a bit and helps build the bridges of solidarity we so desperately need.
5. Cash For Questions
In my view there is an Abuse Relationship, with the English Ruling class in the dominant abuser position, unwilling to cease it's abusive behaviour even as it can see the harms it is causing, and the working class population at large exposed to those harms.
Corneilius
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