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Establishment networking, sleaze and corruption. A handy compendium.

Good law project today:

One of the ways we believe Good Law Project can hold Government to account is by fighting for transparency. Litigation is a powerful tool for bringing information into the light and keeping those in power honest. It’s why we publish our legal correspondence.

Last month, we shared the Government’s response to our legal challenge over its outdated energy policy that promotes the development of fossil fuel projects. That response showed how even Government now accepted its policy on climate change needed review. We posted the documents on our website and sent them to you in an email. We believe that you have a right to know what Government is doing - or not doing - to tackle this existential crisis.

The Government disagreed. Their lawyers wrote to us claiming it was a ‘misuse of the documents’ and threatening sanctions over our preference for transparency. However, legal advice commissioned by Good Law Project shows we were entirely right to share this important information with you and we have told the Government just that. We will not be bullied into silence.

This Government is bent on keeping us in the dark, whether on timely information on who is winning Covid-19 contracts, the prices they are paying to their friends, or how much they are spending on ‘Operation Moonshot’. This latest attempt to keep us silent on important litigation addressing the climate emergency shows the lengths they will go to in order to dodge scrutiny.
 
Hi Teqniq

Our challenge to Government’s decision to hide COVID-19 spending has led it to disclose that the Department of Health has handed £17 billion worth of COVID-19 contracts to private companies since April. Fresh analysis by Tussell reveals Government has failed to publish details of £4.4billion of these contracts.

In October we revealed £3 billion of spending was unaccounted for. A month on, this figure has jumped.

Moreover, although Government is required by law to publish contract details within 30 days of the award, the average length of time taken to come clean about COVID-19 contracts now stands at a remarkable 78 days. These persistent failures to adhere to the law make it hard for MPs and journalists to perform their vital scrutiny function and harder still for lawyers to challenge procurement choices.

The contracts we do know about are alarming. Take Ayanda Capital, a politically connected firm given a £252 million contract to supply facemasks, the majority of which could not be used by the NHS. Ayanda was guided through the process by the Cabinet Office and enjoyed staggering margins compared to the prices paid to others.

Or PPE Medpro – the £100 company, set up by a former business associate of Conservative peer Baroness Mone, which was awarded contracts worth £200 million, just seven weeks after it was set up.

According to Government our claim for transparency in accordance with UK law “should not be used for the transparent purpose of trying to use the judicial process to embarrass the government at a time of national crisis“.

That this Government views transparency law as something which “embarrasses” them tells you everything you need to know about their disastrous COVID-19 response.

We are left with no choice but to seek answers through the courts. That’s why we – along with cross-party MPs Debbie Abrahams, Caroline Lucas and Layla Moran – are suing Government for their persistent failure to publish contracts. We await permission to proceed from the court.

Thank you,

Jolyon Maugham QC
Director of Good Law Project
 
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...

Covid vaccine PR executive linked to Dominic Cummings’ father-in-law:mad:

A director of the public relations firm paid £670,000 to advise the head of the UK government’s coronavirus vaccine taskforce is a longstanding business associate of Dominic Cummings’ father-in-law. On Sunday it was reported that Kate Bingham, chair of the task force, billed taxpayers £670,000 for a team of boutique public relations consultants called Admiral Public Relations. Since June, she has used eight full-time consultants from Admiral to run the vaccine taskforce’s media strategy — equivalent to an annual £167,000 salary for each consultant. The disclosure in the Sunday Times prompted questions over the generous payments, given that the government has hundreds of civil service press officers it can call upon. According to Companies House filings, Admiral Public Relations has two directors: managing director Georgina Collingwood Cameron and her husband Angus Collingwood Cameron, who is also park manager for Chillingham Castle Wild Cattle Association. Mr Collingwood Cameron has since 2004 been a director of the association along with Humphry Wakefield, who also owns the castle. Sir Humphry is the father-in-law of Mr Cummings, who is prime minister Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser and one of the most powerful figures in government. The 84-year-old baronet caused trouble for Mr Cummings this summer when he speculated that the prime minister would quit within six months, comparing him to an injured horse. An ally of Ms Bingham said that Admiral had been recommended by a “senior medic”. She then passed the suggestion to civil servants who negotiated and agreed terms. “They were recruited to do strategic communications, not personal or other PR,” the ally said. “The [vaccine taskforce] has dozens of other specialist contractors as well.” One government figure admitted that there had not been an open procurement process but said this was usual practice for Whitehall in some circumstances. Neither the government nor Admiral had provided a response by noon on Tuesday. A recent LinkedIn advert shows Admiral seeking to recruit several new employees to support the UK pandemic response, for roles ranging from six month contracts to full time positions. The advert stated that experience of working within healthcare or research settings and in a government department was “an advantage” but that skills in crisis management were “essential”. Pay would be “excellent for the right candidate”. Rachel Reeves, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said Downing Street needed to be more transparent about its procurement processes. “These revelations raise yet more serious questions about how taxpayer money is being spent during the pandemic and how the government is being run,” she said. “The public deserve urgent answers as to how a small PR agency with close links to the PM’s closest adviser was simply gifted such a large contract — and what exactly was delivered for such a price tag.” Another public relations professional questioned why the government had not gone through a competitive tender process and the size of the fees paid to Admiral. Ms Bingham, a 55-year-old venture capitalist, was hired in the summer as head of the government’s vaccines task force but her contract will not be renewed after December, government officials confirmed on Monday. She was recently criticised for giving an hour-long talk to financiers at a $200-a-head event for US venture capitalists — in which she outlined the government’s investment priorities in potential vaccines. Matt Hancock, health secretary, on Tuesday thanked Ms Bingham for her “incredibly important” work in putting the UK at the “forefront” in vaccine procurement. “It was always a six-month job and she was always clear she couldn’t do it for longer than that,” he said. “The vaccines taskforce has done a great job.” Recommended UK politics & policy UK vaccine tsar to step down at end of year Ms Bingham has led the taskforce in securing access to six coronavirus vaccines out of 240 under development worldwide. This includes a contract for 40m doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which got a big huge boost on Monday when an independent analysis found it was more than 90 per cent effective. Admiral PR relocated from Newcastle to London several years ago and has also recently opened a new office in Manchester as part of its expansion plan. Mr Collingwood Cameron is a descendant of Lord Admiral Collingwood, according to one profile of the couple. His other directorships include a group called Caspian Caviar.
 
Leaked emails seen by Good Law Project reveal that the Government suppressed an official report showing that one million rapid antibody tests it purchased from Abingdon Health were not fit for

The purchase of these tests has been shrouded in mystery, but what we’ve uncovered from the leaked emails lays bare serious failings in Government

The Government supported the creation of the UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC) back in April. The idea was that the companies and institutions involved, including Abingdon Health, would create a rapid antibody test. On 2nd June, Government awarded a contract worth £10million to Abingdon Health for the materials needed to produce the test. On 14th August, they handed Abingdon another contract worth a staggering £

But in choosing to spend these vast sums, Government seems to have ignored widely held concerns that these tests were not fit for purpose. The £75million contract was awarded without competition and on the basis of profoundly flawed

When confronted with evidence of the flaws, the Government blocked Public Health England from publishing the findings until after they could make the announcement that they had purchased one million antibody

These are serious charges, so we have set out the publicly available evidence in this chronology, which we will update as more evidence is


To protect public money and to encourage Government towards honesty, we have issued judicial review proceedings in respect of the Abingdon Health contract awards. Our case rests on the following
  • Government’s apparent failure to conduct any lawful or sufficient inquiry or evaluation of the accuracy of the rapid antibody tests.
  • The award of these contracts seemingly without any advertisement or competition between

We have instructed Joseph Barrett of 11KBW Chambers and Rook Irwin Sweeney and will crowdfund the case. If you’re in a position to do so, you can donate here.
 
Saw that from the BMJ

Pretty damning. Not that the disgraced government listen to experts :rolleyes:

Good to see and even the Daily Wail have made accusations of corruption this week.

Hope (faint) that some of this shit sticks.
 
Not much chance of that, and I wouldn't even necessarily advocate it even though it is little more than a government mouthpiece these days. There is always a chance it may change for the better. As for myself I haven't had a tv (or a license) for years. :)
 
This was mentioned by an MP, showing links between tories and their pet companies. I don't fully understand it myself but the idea is interesting. Any thoughts?

sophieehill.shinyapps.io

My Little Crony

An interactive visualization of Tory cronyism during the pandemic
sophieehill.shinyapps.io
 
two sheds said:
This was mentioned by an MP, showing links between tories and their pet companies. I don't fully understand it myself but the idea is interesting. Any thoughts?

sophieehill.shinyapps.io

My Little Crony

An interactive visualization of Tory cronyism during the pandemic
sophieehill.shinyapps.io
Click to expand...
tbh it would be a lot more useful if it wasn't some bastard social network analysis thing and organised more like this
1605622835268.png
because as it is the associations don't make the contexts clear - there should be a box for the tory party, in which are other icons for eg boris johnson, making their corrupt relationships with others more obvious
 
Last edited:
two sheds said:
This was mentioned by an MP, showing links between tories and their pet companies. I don't fully understand it myself but the idea is interesting. Any thoughts?

sophieehill.shinyapps.io

My Little Crony

An interactive visualization of Tory cronyism during the pandemic
sophieehill.shinyapps.io
Click to expand...
this maybe makes it clearer:
1605622811090.png
you start by finding out who knows who, move on to who does what and then show the activities, organizations and individuals in context
 
teqniq said:
This is disgraceful wrt to the BBC:

View attachment 238918
Click to expand...
The BBC have now run a piece on this but interestingly it focusses on an American individual and entirely fails to mention connections with companies that either donated to the vermin or have connections to those actually in the government. Why is that I wonder?

www.bbc.com

Go-between paid £21m in taxpayer funds for NHS PPE

A US jewellery designer struck "lucrative" deals with the Department of Health at the start of the pandemic.
www.bbc.com
 
Nothing will happen for years if ever but...

You recently signed the petition “Hold a public inquiry into Government contracts granted during Covid-19”:

petition.parliament.uk

Petition: Hold a public inquiry into Government contracts granted during Covid-19

There should be a public inquiry into Government contracts granted during Covid-19. Many contracts have been granted without full and open procurement processes. A public inquiry would be able to ascertain whether contracts had been procured fairly and represent value for money for tax payers.
petition.parliament.uk petition.parliament.uk

The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) have considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt that the response did not directly address the request of petition and have therefore written back to the Government to ask them to provide a revised response.

When the Committee have received a revised response from the Government, this will be published on the website and you will receive an email. If you would not like to receive further updates about this petition, you can unsubscribe below.


Thanks,

The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament
Click to expand...
 
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