And now the Government's pursuit of those fraudsters has been quietly dropped. I wonder why? It couldn't be that turning a spotlight on the massive fraud could highlight the Government's incompetence, and also their own corruption, could it? I hope Rachel Reeves is as good as her word and Labour will pursue these fraudsters, including the useless PPE provided by Tory "friends", and get as much of the tax payers money back as possible.
Agreed. Anyone taking advantage of the situation should face the severest of penalties. I do feel we need to temper the anger with a reality check though. We can investigate but at what cost? Financial litigation is hugely expensive and complex and would we get the money back? There's justice and there's throwing good money after bad in a time when every penny counts. I hate to say it but I think we need to limit the investigation to those in power that were making the decisions. If they are found to be deliberately fraudulent, and or profiteered then chuck the book at them. If they are found to have simply made bad choices at a time of huge stress, panic but were made with the general intention of doing good then I'm inclined to throw them a pass. I think we need to be effective, but also efficient.
Absolutely. In all seriousness I don't trust any of them with the economy. Vote Martin Lewis for President!
Lawyers and investigators would be queueing up if offered 5% of any of the "eye-watering" (to use the current vogue phrase) sums recovered. Members of the government and their cronies were no better than wartime spivs operating at a multi-million pound level. I sincerely hope we don't go soft on them - there is no upside for the ordinary members of the public in doing so. It looks as though the Tories are saving a whole heap of pain for the incoming government to deal with and in 2025/26 and we are going to need every million we can get back. I am not normally a vindictive person, but this situation is an exception. Oh and don't forget, while those in the VIP lane were getting their juicy contracts, the calls of British firms with capability and expertise were being ignored! B*st*rds.
My patented IRON-EE-METER (moog industries, £1.99) has just exploded: Owen Paterson taking UK to human rights court after lobbying scandal Former MP, who once argued UK should break free from Strasbourg court, is challenging finding he repeatedly broke rules That's disgraced former MP, Brexit loony and rabid anti ECHR campaigner Owen Paterson.
Theresa "1212 majority" Villiers showing she really has the aspirations of future Tory voters at heart: Rishi Sunak faces MPs’ rebellion over local housebuilding targets About 50 MPs sign amendment to scrap mandatory local housing targets for councils
Now revealed that Tory Peer Michelle Mone got £29m personally from the PPE VIP lane contract she recommended. Absolute scandal. Lock her up. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-secretly-received-29m-from-vip-lane-ppe-firm
In another parish I frequent we have a lengthy "Life Imitating Brass Eye" thread - I think I'll post this there: https://twitter.com/Bren4Bassetlaw/status/1595321892189224960 Well worth looking at that thread for its heady mix of s**thousery and f**kwittery.
Aaaaaaaaaaaah the dignity of high office: https://twitter.com/Iblogtoglasgow/status/1595531218493267985
Kay Burley very nearly lands a glove and the extremely slippery Gove: https://twitter.com/BestForBritain/status/1595705704576229376 As it's normal practice to receive a commission for acting as a conduit in a business deal woonder if any of the alleged £29M ended up in Gove's hands... EDIT: As an aside, Gove's very much at the forefront of the 'campaign' against organisations getting taxpayers' money and housing people in mouldy/damp/unfit housing but he was also at the forefront of a campaign not to compel private landlords to house people in mouldy/damp/unfit housing...
I love the way "flat screen TVs" are still used as a measure of luxury and decadence. They should start making CRT TVs again for those people on benefits imho
Absolutely this. You can't get any other kind of TV than a flat screen TV. Even expensive big screen TVs are stunning value for money. Compare to coffees and pastries in a chain cafe, a trip to the cinema, a Premier League or Football League match, a weekend in a British B&B, an extra-curricular class for a child (such as a football class, dancing etc) and a telly is extremely treat. For some people TV is literally their only entertainment. It's a blatant indication of someone's lack of grasp on how money works and how society is structured when they rail against the poor having televisions. Same goes for smartphones. "Oh, they've all got smartphones haven't they." Well, yes, they have. For many, it's their only way to connect to the internet. And accessing, applying for and using a great many Government services requires internet access.
As much as we miss ZZ and wish him all the best, this was an argument he trotted out on numerous occasions, usually adding fags into the mix of TVs and smartphones for the win.
Should have said a 'telly is extremely cheap' not treat there! Darn it. To illustrate, a 55inch Samsung Ultra Smart 4K HD TV on John Lewis (not exactly the cheaper end of the retail pyramid) is £499. That works out at £1.36 a day over a year. And the life-span of a big telly is way more than a year. A Toshiba 50inch TV at Argos is £289. That works out at 79p per day, again over a year, when a TV will last much longer than a year, so you're talking pence pennies per day. Licence fee required on top, of course, but watching television is not some kind of luxury. For many it is the only leisure they can afford and so suggesting that people who have almost nothing should also do without that is a particularly weird kind of insistence that the poor should have absolutely nothing. Anyone arguing that a massive flatscreen TV is some kind of indicator of feckless, frivolous spending is, I'm afraid, literally an idiot.
You won't catch me saying this much. But to be fair to them.... Checks take time and cost money. Given the government was telling everyone to stay in their homes immediately, a proportion of businesses would likely have folded and no government department would have had the capacity to check and process claims from every business. So I don't blame them for the fact there was significant fraud, as I see why they went for the faster option. But now, yes. Given they are scraping around for money from anywhere possible that would avoid tax rises, I'm sure they'd try to get money back if they could easily. I imagine it will be exceedingly difficult, minimal money will be clawed back and it will only draw more attention to the amount of fraud and taxpayer wastage, given the above is hard to explain.
She was really highly rated in Tory circles. I know people who bet on her being a future PM. Elected at 27 and a junior minister by 30. Brexit supporting, bisexual woman who favoured economic liberalism but was from a very working class background. She was open about previous mental health problems and voted against Boris in his vote of no confidence. Her Dad was killed when she was 13 and she represented her own family at a tribunal a few years later. If you could write the perfect Tory candidate to win over middle England, red wall seats and her members, it would probably be her. For her to leave, she probably, quite rightly, believes the next election is going to be disasterous and it will be a very long time before the Tories are back in power.
I think that's extremely unlikely as she was an intern for JRM and so would have actual experience of how bad it could get.
Or realised that her entire political philosophy is based on lies and exploitation, but I won’t hold my breath.
They have gone . Next GE unless Labour shoots it's self in the foot with some tail eating. A shoo-in . Are they fit for purpose ? Let's wait and see .
Of course Labour arent fit for purpose, not as unfit for purpose as the Tories but still unfit for purpose. Whoever the public faces are they arent the ones in control, why do you think Labour never attacked the Tories over Tufton Street and powerful lobby groups? The same slimey toads accepting the same dirty money at the top while the whips keep the foot soldiers in line.
Labour will win but they'll be a one term government that are blamed by the press and the Tories for the state of the country and the electorate will swallow it. There'll probably be a recovery of sorts when the Tories come back in and even though our overall decline will continue they'll be back in for another generation. Starmer should view it as a five year window to make whatever long term reforms he can like House of Lords, electoral system etc because if he doesn't it'll just further our decline.