Sign of ‘Chumocracy’ not pride over supply of PPE
ALTHOUGH the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid-19 crisis has made our Prime Minister proud, the National Audit Office recently published a damning report on the PPE gravy train.
Clearly, the Government needed to act quickly, but it still seems astonishing that firms recommended by MPs, peers and ministers were fast tracked and given priority status.
As a result, these firms ended up being 10 times more likely to receive a Government PPE contract, over £10billion of which were handed out without a tender process.
Not only was the procurement of PPE shot through with cronyism, there is little doubt an enormous amount of money has been wasted, as firms and individuals who had previously had nothing whatsoever to do with PPE were handed lucrative contracts. A good example of this is the jeweller based in Florida who could afford to pay £21m to a Spanish businessman to act as a go between to help deliver a PPE contract he had been given by the Government. £21m is of course a figure which is remarkably similar to the £20m the Government
refused to stump up to pay for the cost of free school meals during the recent autumn half-term school holiday.
All of this is just another example of cronyism to add to the list which includes the Head of Test and Trace Baroness Harding,the Head of Vaccine Procurement Kate Bingham and the peerage given to Jo Johnson. Welcome to the ‘Chumocracy’ we now find ourselves living in.
It’s your letters
I THINK the letters page has become a miserable affair. Once upon a time letters covered scores of different topics. Now it is reduced to two or three letters, mainly the predictable ramblings of a small handful of correspondents who cannot find anything more interesting to do than knock the establishment, past and present. I am sure I am not the only one to read either the first line of the letter or the name of the writer and then immediately skip to the next page without bothering to expose myself to the bile contained within.
Can I make a plea to readers to start sending in letters of a varied nature – humorous anecdotes, historical tales, local news and events, opinions on anything other than Covid and Brexit, or just the odd joke..
Getting ‘green’ light
RE: Council switches to to lights powered by ‘green energy,’ Examiner November 24. How does this work? If the power in the road comes from the National Grid, then tell me how the council will get its power from renewable sources only. Or are they going to dig all the roads up to lay new cables?
Love’s Labour’s lost
ONCE again we have a PR newscast on behalf of the Labour party from Mr Shackleton (Monday, November 23).
Just how much hate have you in your heart for the Conservatives? Time after time we read your letters and after a while they get so depressingly similar. I feel you are doing the Labour party more harm than good, but please carry on.