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Mis sold PPE

Were you mis-sold PPE?

By Adrian Ekins- Daukes

Health Secretary Hancock  protests indignantly about the High Court judgement against him in three cases where PPE contracts were granted during the pandemic without competition and announcement delayed until long after the time period required under the  regulations.  His excuse based on urgency created by the pandemic seems  plausible enough . However he might do better to tread more carefully in what may well prove to be a minefield, in the interests of his own future credibility.
The purpose behind the regulations is transparency, in particular to ensure there is no suspicion of bias in the awarding of  public contracts. This suspicion is aroused in at least one of the three cases concerned where a contract worth £252m was awarded to a tiny company  founded by an associate of a Minister. 

Your last gasp?

There are other such cases before the courts, including one where the beneficiary company was owned by friends of Michael Grove and Dominic Cummings, who was responsible for awarding the contract.  If, as seems possible, findings against the government in this and other cases reveal the awarding of contracts at excessive prices, to firms unfitted to fulfil their commitments and  resulting in huge waste of public money , the full extent of ‘chumocracy’, verging on corruption, within the Cabinet Office during the first wave of the pandemic will come to light. 

In fact, there are grounds for suspicion that the Cabinet office, far from being desperately overworked in trying to find suppliers of PPE and other essential equipment at that time, may actually  have obstructed some offers of supply. Could it be that they were seeking to avoid granting contracts to suppliers outside  their own circle, preferring to wait until a favoured producer turned up? If that were so, the Cabinet Office is guilty of actually impeding the NHS  in its war against the pandemic. 

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Every Breath You Take

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la belle France

My love affair with la belle France

By Jo Wace

Chapter 1

It only takes a hour and forty minutes to fly from Stanstead to Hyeres; well, the airline calls it Toulon-St.Tropez, but it’s neither really. Toulon is another twenty kilometres away, while St Tropez is nearly forty kilometres down the coast.

Hyeres is a town that the mainline tourist trade has ignored, by and large; it maintains its air of a genteel nineteenth century seaside town, with lofty palm trees and gracious Provençal houses. The peninsula, or presqu’ile, leads out of Hyeres, directly south, taking you along the old salt flats, past the pink flamingos and out to the village of Giens. A backwater on the Cote d’Azur, if such a thing can exist. The coastline out at the tip of the presqu’ile is rugged; full of small calanques, and wind-twisted pine trees determinedly hugging the rocky, hilly terrain. If Marion takes you walking, you will discover all manner of fauna unique to the micro-climate on the peninsula. Orchids, in May, in such profusion that you are afraid to put your feet down.  Des bebes noix de cocos, gnarled old olive trees and jasmine; and in the background the constant murmur of the sea. This is the Provence that I love, but it’s not the only Provence.

Chez Ahmed

Here, in this villa, amongst gentle eccentrics – from Corsica, California and the whole wide world – you can still believe in the Riviera of the 1920s, when the rich, famous and interesting would descend en masse at various times of the year. Copious meals, a la fresco, with all manner of friends and neighbours; flamboyant botanists from Rome, complete with fresh mozzarella; American writers, or elderly Communist Jews with stories of daring escapes from Nazi-occupied Poland, under cover of a tarpaulin, in a horse-drawn cart. This place is an oasis of diverse cultures and philosophies.

Even getting here is a journey in itself, for the road is steep, and turns sharply before becoming a dirt track for the last kilometre or so. It is almost as if you are at the edge of the world. No, this is not the only Provence.

The real Provence is still beautiful, but it is a harsher place. The rugged, often arid, landscape gives one an idea of what the indigenous people of the region might be like. It is a tough land to earn a living from. Rocky earth, hot, dry summers and winters that can be quite cold. Few dairy products are produced here: olive oil and goats’ cheese, along with fish, fresh fruit and vegetables are the staple diet. The land can often be inhospitable; it is tough to farm.

Cezanne lived here, at Le Tholonet to be precise; there is still an artists’ colony there – Chateau Noir. And it was Cezanne who inspired me to come and live here, back in 1981. I was full of youthful, idealistic dreams of following in an artist’s footsteps, and fairly fresh from art school in Chelsea. I had played with being part of an artists’ co-operative in Wapping, East London, whilst working for the Arts Council, but felt the need to discover new horizons; and thus a work colleague put me in touch with a French female student who was offering free food and lodging for a fortnight, in return for English conversation. Monique lived in rue Campra, Aix-en-Provence, Cezanne’s home town. Aix in the 80s was a lively, southern town, with narrow streets and tall yellow ochre houses. There were students and bourgeois French, North Africans and Africans; some were well-off, others lived a frugal life-style, but pervading it all was that timeless feel of ‘doucement le matin, et pas trop vite l’apres midi’, that is so reminiscent of the South. The lively markets, full of excellent fresh produce – fruit, vegetable, fungi (in the autumn), poultry (often still alive), honey, spices, olives and olive oil were a wonder to behold. The bustling cafes in la Place de la Mairie, the timeless fountains in la Cours Mirabeau; the shop that sold les calissons d’Aix – if you’ve never tried them you have missed out on a delicacy that is sublime.

I only spent two weeks with Monique in Aix but already I was in love with everything.

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Fish Fucker

60 days of Brexit

60 days of Brexit and the massive success stories of Brexit keep coming in. Here’s a roundup of recent news and fake news by The Express, Mail and Sun.

Brexit realities

Millions face economic shock from COVID. Brexit simply multiples the problem into the long term. See New Economics.

Meanwhile, Kent Police are involved in Operation Mask Brexit, drawing in thousands of Police officers from 33 forces to cover up the effects of Brexit on borders, ports and roads.

Steve Cock, who runs a customs consultancy, regularly sees lorry drivers forced to stay in his firm’s car park at Ashford for several nights because they do not have the right paperwork to get into Europe. Such confusion is echoed by the Road Haulage Association (RHA), which says that 50-60 per cent of freight vehicles are leaving the UK empty. A haulage source was blunt: “We have become the world leader in exporting fresh air.”

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Daphne Franks writes in The Craven Herald about the realities of clapping for carers versus the hard realities of paying key workers properly. If you care about carers vote the Tories out on May 6th in the local elections.

“We need our nurses. They care for us. We need to care for them”.

A stitch in time saves nine

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Masking Brexit 1984 style

The media are now running ads to tell people how well Brexit is going. The ads are not paid for by Russian oligarchs or our enemies, but by OUR Government !!

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You know we have reached rock bottom when businesses ask Michael Gove for help with Brexit. The Gove – Johnson marriage of convenience is clearly under strain now that Johnson has put unelected mediocre bureaucrat “Sir” David Frost into the cabinet to fight Gove.

Distraction and gaslighting

Andrew Bridgen wants us to drink “Peckham Spring Water” and not that “smelly Euro water”. Satire made real in his letter to the House of Commons to distract us from Brexit realities.

Peckham Spring
Peckham Spring
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New research confirms that British fish are no longer happy to be British. Billy the Bragging Bass spoke at St James’ Plaice on behalf of all whiting and cod:

“I wanna swim wiv me mates – that Jacob Rees-Mogg is a fucking twat” – Billy

Meanwhile Boris Johnson is once again exposed as a liar. A whole book of it. Do we really want our politicians to lie to us?

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With thanks to Irina Fridman, Mike Cashman, Peter Daws, Helga Perry, Lisa Lanfranchi, Daphne Franks, Adrian Ekins-Daukes, Heike Wilms, Louise Hunter, Martin Housden, Carol Fraser, Paul Bowers and Susanna Leislle.

Selfish Shellfish

EU rules on some types of shellfish leave UK fishers ‘devastated’.

By Adrian Ekins-Daukes

Fishers around the UK have been “devastated” by fresh problems with exporting their produce to the EU, after the government admitted that exports of live mussels, oysters, scallops and certain other shellfish would be subject to ongoing restrictions.

Those are all classified as “live bivalve molluscs” – a category which also includes cockles and clams. Under longstanding EU rules, catches of live bivalve molluscs from non-EU member states can only be imported without treatment if they come from waters deemed of the highest quality. Vessels from non-EU states also cannot land live bivalve molluscs in EU ports.

These rules have closed off many exports of live bivalve molluscs from the UK, since Brexit took full effect. The market for such shellfish is a small and specialist one, valued at less than £12m a year, but for the small number of fishers who operate in it, it is often their main livelihood.

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The rules, and the disruption their enforcement has caused for fishers,  cannot be termed a “teething problem” as other red tape has been, because they will apply permanently under Brexit unless the government can forge a fresh agreement with the EU to make exceptions for UK produce.

The fishing industry called on the government to do more to try to resolve the problem. Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said: “This is devastating for those involved, and it cannot be left as a closed issue. Those of our members who produce mussels and cockles in particular are affected and are very seriously impacted – no exports to the EU as the UK is now a third country. This has to be sorted at government-to-government level and our understanding is that talks are under way, but so far without producing a satisfactory outcome.”

Alistair Sinclair, chair of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, blamed the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as well as the UK government for the difficulties, and warned that they were a foretaste of future negotiations. “This is possibly a demonstration of the difficulties that lie ahead Throughout the whole run-up to Brexit, our voice was not considered by the Scottish government and indeed the Tory grandees.”

Fishers could try to comply with the regulations by taking on further processing of the molluscs, to gain the health certification necessary for exports, but this can be costly and time-consuming. Many had hoped that the Brexit agreement would allow for their exports to continue. The EU is the main market for many such specialist fishers.

Brexit was sold on the promise of fish and ships

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Live bivalve molluscs such as oysters, mussels, clams, cockles and scallops can continue to be exported to the EU if they’re harvested from class A waters or cleaned, or have cleared end product testing in the UK. We will continue to raise the issue of live bivalve molluscs not ready for human consumption with the EU, to ensure the trade can continue securely.”

The European commission confirmed that the requirements were not temporary, and were applicable to all such shellfish imported from the UK.

Most of the fisheries affected are in England and Wales. Exports of bivalve molluscs are worth less than £12m a year, of which clams make up more than half, with oysters and mussels worth about £2.7m each. Defra said it could not estimate how much of this market would be affected as some are subject to “depuration” which would allow their export to continue.

The author
All at sea with Brexit?

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Tory deceit experts


During the 2019 general election campaign, the Conservatives rebranded their official Twitter account as “factcheckUK” during the televised leaders’ debate and used it to publish anti-Labour posts.  The inconspicuous Twitter handle remained as @CCHQPress, but all other branding was changed to look like an independent factchecking outlet.  It was not obvious to an individual glancing at the account’s tweets in their feed that it came from Conservative party HQ. The public have increasingly turned to factchecking websites, such as the independent Full Fact, the BBC’s Reality Check, Channel 4 News’ FactCheck and the Guardian’s Factcheck, to verify claims made by politicians.  Changing the site’s  logo to hide its political origins, and using it to push pro-Tory material was a thus flagrant attempt to deceive voters. This was not the only case of malpractice by the Tory digital team. Other examples included a bogus website presented as Labour’s manifesto, and an  interview with  Keir Starmer, then Labour’s Brexit spokesperson, edited to make it appear he was unable to answer questions about the party’s policy on leaving the EU.  

Topham and Guerin

The PR unit behind these deceitful stunts was Topham Guerin,  a New Zealand digital  team signed up by Isaac Levido, the Tory campaign leader. They were not in the least abashed by the criticism of their tactics, declaring that that the success in spreading the Tory message was well worth the controversy it  aroused. After the election, Levido, was ennobled  and in March 2020 Topham Guerin received a £3m Covid 19 contract from the Cabinet Office, without competitive tender, to work on the government’s public communications on the pandemic. According to PR Week’s site, they still play a key role in managing No10’s social media and digital output. 

With the local elections coming:

Don’t believe anything Boris Johnson says

Don’t believe his Ministers

Don’t believe anyone speaking for the Conservative Party

It’s all been masterminded by experts in spin and deceit. And it’s all specially designed to fool YOU.

 

So, remain particularly alert for Tory fake news at this time !

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Dead Cat Special

Dead Cat Special

In this Dead Cat Special, “The Daily Maul” features the news that our Government want to you read whilst the nation sleepwalks deeper into fascism every day ….

Dead Cat Special

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Sovereign Tea

Sovrinty

In the wake of absolute Brexit destruction, The Daily Excess reports on distraction via “Sovrinty”. Excess readers are easily fooled with colourful stories. Are you?

Sovrinty

Happy fish

Trade deals with rogue states

Buying nuclear weapons to make us feel safer

Asylum seekers being sent to Scotland and The Isle of Man

If you are not fooled by The Excess please join us at Re-Boot Britain.

Dying for Boris
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If you want to buy some Sovereign Tea here’s how:

Standard £48.52, empty box, comes with free gift of 3 books and 2 CDs.

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Reflections

Reflections

One year ago, COVID was put in the microwave oven by Boris Johnson. Let’s undertake some reflections on a year of unprecedented and unnecessary death, dither and delay.

“Dirty migrants bring disease” – Johnson

Boris Johnson reports that the third wave of COVID will “arrive on our shores” like unwanted migrants, in an attempt to sidestep responsibility for Stanley Johnson, who continues to exercise freedom of movement to service his Greek villa. Whilst the rest of us face a £5000 fine for going on holiday. Our Government now resembles the cast of “Dallas” in terms of policy making based on the needs of the Johnson family circle.

Priti Patel defends the breaking of international law on BBC Radio 4 – Click to read the latest on asylum policy
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Frozen Brexit

We are also reminded that Johnson was more interested in hiding in fridges and minting Brexit 50 pence coins than listening to experts. When other world leaders were listening to scientists, Johnson was listening to Winston Churchill speeches at Chequers. The impact in Britain has been “world beating” deaths approaching 130 000 and probably nearly as many unnecessary additional deaths. We continue to have no plan for the future, except distraction via flag shagging, purchase of tanks and nukes and the ceremonial decoration of No 10 Downing Street for propaganda purposes.

A stitch up out of time saves no-one

Denial is not a river in Egypt

Mike Cashman has articulated the stages of Brexit awareness. Many are still at “stage zero”, believing that Brexit is either a boost to Britain or of no consequence, as the impacts have been masked by COVID:

Brexit has been harmful
Brexit has no significant benefits
Brexit was a mistake
The Brexit mistake was predictable
The Brexit consequences are the inevitable result of the “Deal”
The Brexit leaders misled us
The Tories are still misleading us
The Tories have been damaging the UK
The Tories are not fit to govern

The provision of inconvenient facts demonstrate that Brexit is a much bigger long term destructive force for Britain. Much bigger and deeper than COVID, but more “slow motion”.

Brexit benefits
Click to read the full article

Check out Edwin Hayward’s running log of Brexit impacts via Google. What will happen on April Brexit Fools’ Day?

At a basic level, read this story of someone who bought a racing bike from Poland, having been told by Gov.uk that there would be no tariffs who now finds himself having to pay £2000 more to receive the bike and £1000 to return it.

In the Falklands, their economy is being wiped out by tariffs applied to seafood and lamb. Reports also indicate that there are signs that this makes the security of the Falklands (and Gibraltar etc.) less certain.

Women, know your place

Meanwhile the country is gaslit by talk of riots amidst the peaceful protests by women in Bristol. Mysteriously, the Police withdraw their statement of injuries. This report presents an interesting view on the protest. It is enough of an outrage that the police should be involved in the murder case but beyond belief that they may have been involved in gaslighting activities to distract people from the murder.

Image by Cold War

Back to the “Good Old Days”

Northern Ireland are beginning to understand the impact of Brexit on the resurgence of what was euphemistically describe as “the troubles”. We warned Johnson and his Government of this but clearly he may as well have said “Fuck Northern Ireland” as well as “Fuck Business”.

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Distraction politics

Meanwhile the real wars are in the race to have the best presidential style briefing platform, as Johnson spends an eye watering £2.6 million on home improvements for 10 Downing Street. All furniture is to be sourced from Ikea as this tweet shows.

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The other popular bloodsport in Brexit politics is to blame others for your own failures. Let’s remember that Britain has not exported a SINGLE VIAL of vaccine to other countries when we start pointing fingers at others. Even the Telegraph accept that Sir David Frost is not up to the job.

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Reflections

Corona crisis + Brexit disaster = Britastrophe

Every Breath You Take
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One year ago

By Adrian Ekins-Daukes

One year ago we were at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.  Even before, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine was warning  that acute care was struggling,  emergency departments were under-resourced and overcrowded, and often outdated in terms of facilities and equipment. However, this article is intended to give a snapshot of conditions 12 months ago, not a full history of preceding events. 

On 21 March 2020, 10 Downing Street put out the following statement on the situation : 

“Our response has ensured that the NHS has been given all the support it needs to ensure everyone requiring treatment has received it, as well as providing protection to businesses and reassurance to workers. The PM has been at the helm of the response to this, providing leadership during this hugely challenging period for the whole nation.”

This complacent and self-congratulatory declaration was issued on a day when the television news featured distressed NHS workers in fear for their lives because protective equipment was either unfit for purpose or lacking altogether. It is false in every respect.  

Far from being at the helm, PM Johnson spent much of February  at his country retreat, Chequers, with Carrie Symonds, then his new fiancee. His occasional visits to London seemed more  about social appearances and Conservative fundraising than the nation’s affairs. During January/February he  missed five consecutive meetings of the emergency “Cobra“ Committee during  when the pandemic had been on the agenda, Only on March 2 did he take over the chair, when the virus was firmly established. Then, for a further 3 weeks, he toyed with an impractical policy of herd immunity instead of immediate lockdown. This dithering cost over 20,000 lives and has probably cost more since that time.

Too little too late
Too little, too late – 2020 revisited

Regarding support for the NHS, a leaked email disclosed on 18 March 2020 that some hospitals were just 24 hours away from running out of protective equipment (PPE) for nurses and doctors. Shortages included visors, masks and gowns. and some other items had run out entirely. In another email, to directors of infection control, NHS England said that there were no visors left nationally, no long sleeve disposable gowns, only goggles suited for flu.

This situation was confirmed by television and newspaper interviews with hospital staff over this period.  One hospital manager who confirmed his hospital did not have enough PPE equipment to last the next 24 hours said that they’d been told  specialist respirator masks would soon run out nationally and only less suitable masks without visors were available. Eye protection and long sleeve aprons had run out and they were buying safety goggles from industrial wholesalers. The previous night he’d had to ration equipment across four wards – normally one ward would have held 10 times that amount. Asked what they made of the claims there was enough stock in the country, he added:

“We’ve been told for weeks that there’s stock, there isn’t”.

Towards the end of March,  one regional NHS  director of procurement said he was unable to get hold of any gowns from the NHS supply chain, exclaiming in desperation  “God help us all.”  The GMB union said the lack of PPE and testing for frontline workers was “a national crisis”.  Ambulance workers were  not being given access to PPE, even when being sent to treat patients suspected of having Covid-19. 

The consequences for patients of the delays and lack of essential equipment was horrendous, especially for the elderly.  Some hospitals were overwhelmed and a system, drawn up by the Governments chief advisors, was introduced to select which Covid patients should receive intensive treatment. This was a death sentence to anyone over 80 or with a serious underlying medical condition; in practice it was also applied to many over 60. These patients were consigned to death wards where they received little or no nursing treatment or even attention . Steps were taken to conceal this from the public, but some witnessed the conditions in which their dearest were to die.

The government failed completely to give the NHS and patients the support  needed at the height of the crisis. Its ‘reassurance’ to NHS workers was non-existent.*

WARNING. This lie is being repeated up to the present day as the Government attempts to rewrite history.

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Brexit Fools' Day

Brexit Fools’ Day

“Ever get the feeling you’ve been conned?” Johnny Rotten

On Brexit Fools’ Day we look at some of the things we’ve been fooled by:

World Beating COVID deaths

The “British vaccine”, developed by foreigners

£350 million per week for the NHS … we’re still waiting

Taking back control of our borders means a border in Kent

Taking back control of our fish means the destruction of our fishing industry

Shoplifters of the world unite – Art by Cold War Steve

The Turing scheme to replace Erasmus

There would be no border in the Irish sea

The main beneficiaries from Brexit turn out to be portaloo providers

Trade will be frictionless

Unprecedented red tape and companies going to the wall due to Brexit

A free trade deal that has non tariff barriers and many other faults

Unsettled status

VAT on imports from Europe

£37 billion spent on a failed Test and Trace system

Falkland Islands thrown under a Brexit bus

Gibraltar to gain independence

UK break up began

Police racists found not to be racists by racist Government

“20 000 COVID deaths would be a good outcome”

£5000 fines for leaving the country, unless you are Stanley Johnson

£2.4 million spent on some decor in 10 Downing Street

Statues are more important than women

What would you add to the list? Drop me a line

“Won’t get fooled again” – Roger Daltrey

Actually Roger, you will get fooled again if you vote Tory

Swing out sister
SuspEND Brexit
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