Yet another example of the government handing out contracts to friends.

I’m not disagreeing with your OP, but I think your Maths are a bit awry ref the Garden Bridge

You're right, should be £53 million total cost. Thanks for pointing that out.

According to the Financial Times Boris Johnson's mythical garden bridge cost taxpayers £43 MILLION.

Garden bridge

NB. The Financial Times, not the Guardian, BBC or any other lefty outfit.

You’re making jabs at ‘lefty’ media while admitting the current right wing government are corrupt Riverwalk? Do you see the irony there?

Er, no jabs from me Gaga - you must have missed my irony!

Or missed my many posts over the years.

Riverwalk

According to the Financial Times Boris Johnson's mythical garden bridge cost taxpayers £43 MILLION.

Garden bridge

NB. The Financial Times, not the Guardian, BBC or any other lefty outfit.

That's correct. The remainder was donations. I wasn't quoting the taxpayers' cost. I suppose that one should be thankful that some Tory benefactor's money was wasted.

GagaJo

You’re making jabs at ‘lefty’ media while admitting the current right wing government are corrupt Riverwalk? Do you see the irony there?

I think that Riverwalk was intending to forestall the 'What do you expect from the lefty Guardian' type remarks, GagaJo.

I quite often purposely avoid linking to the Guardian because I know that some people shoot the messenger (i.e the newspaper) and don't bother with the message

There have been a worrying series of contracts being awarded without full bid evaluations taking place. Covid19 is being used as a convenient excuse to sidestep proper procedure and democracy.

This is a corker, also reported in FT. bylinetimes.com/2020/07/09/another-strange-contract-the-loophole-allowing-the-government-to-avoid-ppe-procurement-rules/

Jolyon Maugham, QC, of The Good Law Project, is seeking a judicial review of three of the PPE contracts.

There is information here about the action, including copies of the pre-action correspondence between Maugham and the government Legal Department. You can contribute to the crowdfunder if you want, link's on that page.

goodlawproject.org/news/the-ppe-fiasco/

There are details of yet another dodgy contract here:

www.crowdjustice.com/case/a-river-to-my-people/?utm_source=Good%20Law%20Project%20Updates&utm_campaign=2713f3a05c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_10_06_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_87c5650d82-2713f3a05c-66205043

It's a crowdfunder page but obviously you can read the details without having to contribute.

It really is sad that people don't seem to care. It's weird because so many claim to care about their country.

Rich Head
9 hrs
"LOOK AT ALL THE MONEY WE STOLE FROM YOU AND GAVE TO OUR MATES WHILST WE LET THOUSANDS OF YOU DIE AND MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS RISK THEIR LIVES, BUT HERE'S A TENNER FOR A NANDOS"

Thank you to Gordon Young for compiling the list. Please share it if possible.

"£252m of public money given to Ayanda Capital, registered in Mauritius for tax dodging, to supply PPE that never appeared.

£186m of public money given to Uniserve Ltd of Essex, the UK’s largest privately owned logistics and global trade management company, to supply PPE that never appeared.

£116m of public money given to P14 Medical Ltd of Liverpool, which had liabilities exceeding assets by £485,000 in December 2019 with just £145 in the bank, for PPE that never appeared.

£108m of public money given to PestFix, with 16 employees and net assets of £19,000, for PPE that never appeared.

£14.2m and a subsequent £93.2m of public money given to Clandeboye Agencies Ltd, a confectionery wholesaler in Co Antrim, for PPE that never appeared.

£40m of public money given to Medicine Box Ltd of Sutton-in-Ashfield, despite having assets of just £6,000 in March, for PPE that never appeared.

£32m and a subsequent £16m of public money given to Initia Ventures Ltd, filed for dormancy in January this year, for PPE that never appeared.

£28m of public money given to Monarch Acoustics Ltd of Nottingham, makers of shop and office furniture, for PPE that never appeared.

£25m of public money given to Luxe Lifestyle Ltd, to supply garments for biological or chemical protection to the NHS. According to Companies House, the business was incorporated by fashion designer Karen Brost in November 2018. It appears to have no employees, no assets and no turnover.

£18.4m of public money given to Aventis Solutions Ltd of Wilmslow, with just £322 in assets, for PPE that never appeared.

£10m of public money given to Medco Solutions Ltd, incorporated on 26 March (three days after lockdown) with a share capital of just £2, for PPE that never appeared.

£1.1m of public money given to Bristol shoemaker Toffeln Ltd, had seemingly never supplied any PPE whatsoever in the past, for PPE that never appeared.

£825,000 of public money given to MGP Advisory, described as a venture and development capital business that was in danger of being struck off the companies register for failing to file accounts, for no one knows what...

Meanwhile the nurses and carers, of whom over 300 have died whilst trying to save over 65,000 lives that have now been lost, had to resort to wearing bin bags."

Dinahmo You've raised some very interesting - and concerning- issues. No doubt the Covid situation will be used as an excuse to cover up all sorts of unusual procedures, though your post notes that similar things were happening in 2010.

In The I today is an article about "unlikely NHS contracts" being allocated for the manufacture of PPE. Apparently Jolyon Maugham, who is a QC, and who runs the Good Law Project (a not-for-profit group which is seeking a judicial review of at least one of the PPE deals) has expressed particular concern about a PPE contract being given to an "opaque family fund owned through a tax haven" and said:

"The more we uncover about PPE contracts awarded by Government, the more questions arise. Enormous sums of public money have been dished out on the basis of a highly unusual process that breaks all the normal procurement rules".

I posted links to Jo Maugham's Good Law Project pages at 18.00, Eloethan.

Lots of information there.

I'm staggered by the list Grany posted. Did none of them supply any PPE?

Sorry Maizie. I don't know how I overlooked it.

We could start a thread about Government contracts that have been awarded properly but there wouldn’t be anything to post would there?

Then there is this post from Richard Murphy's blog:

Start

The government has claimed it has spent £15 billion on PPE as a result of coronavirus. Given that we know there shortages of PPE until very recently I am taking ‘spent’ as meaning that amount has been used.

Now, there are 500,000 front line staff in the NHS who need PPE.

That’s £30,000 each.

If care staff are added maybe 2 million people are affected, but many of the others will have much simpler PPE need.

Assume it’s spread evenly. That’s £7,500 each.

And the crisis is 120 days old at most. But in work terms call it 100 days at most each.

So that’s 200 million work days.

Or £75 per person for PPE per work day.

People I speak to say this sounds absurd. A gown is 50p. Gloves and masks are normal and used all the time. They cost pennies each. OK, lots are used, but not that many. And sure full suits are more, but most aren’t wearing them. And visor masks? How much are they?

Something about this does not stack, especially when we know most could not get PPE for love nor money during this period.

Who is not telling the truth?

And who is making a fortune?

Or is there fraud somewhere?

End

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2020/07/09/15-billion-for-ppe-really-something-feels-very-wrong-here/

The comments on that blog are very interesting too.

Here's one.

Ross says:
July 9 2020 at 2:32 pm
This is a scandal that should bring this government down. We have contracts handed out, to companies that have no relevant experience, no manufacturing capability, no supply chain contacts; it’s not even clear if anything was delivered. I’m afraid this looks like exactly what it is, rats looting a sinking ship. This money is being funneled to offshore companies, so that it can be distributed to friends and supporters of the party. It’s banana republic stuff, and evidence that at least some of this loot goes into the pockets of MSM opinion makers can be gleamed from their near complete silence on the issue.

If a Corbyn government has given a contract for 20 quid to similar companies, it would be headline news everyday for at least a fortnight.

When Boris Johnson told us to move on from the Dominic Cummings affair and the matter was closed it told me that this man was corrupt and not a genuine leader
He didn't care one jot what the voters said
He acts more like a blundering dictator than a prime minister
I'm ashamed to be British right now with these clowns in government

It's horrific. What can we do about it?

Did Dyson get paid to make the ventilators that he didn’t make ?

Grany, where did you get the information in your post of yesterday at 20:51? The one with the list of companies making shed loads of money for doing nothing? I want to share it, but it will be accepted by more people if I can reference the source properly.

Grany- that is truly shocking. and despicable. How can anyone still stand by them?

Drum1234

Grany, where did you get the information in your post of yesterday at 20:51? The one with the list of companies making shed loads of money for doing nothing? I want to share it, but it will be accepted by more people if I can reference the source properly.

Drum you do well to question this list.
An internet search brings up nothing political for Rich Head, whoever he is! The same for Gordon Young, who funnily enough founded an online page called The Drum , media and marketing and a a bit of politics thrown in, who is an SNP supporter.That’s all I could find.
Grany perhaps you can say more? Is it from somebody in politics up there in the North East, around Durham perhaps.

I can't give the source I just copied pasted from FB as I know the government did source contracts from just these sorts of companies. You could google to find out more.