We hate them all for their hypocrisy
VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE!
WHEN we first heard about the VIP list for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) supply, under which businessmen ‘known’ to ministers were put on the fast track for being awarded Government contracts, it may have seemed like a necessary bit of corner-cutting in an emergency.
After all, with the NHS stockpile of PPE having been run down by 40% from 2014 to 2019 due to Conservative austerity restrictions on NHS spending, there was a terrible danger that the NHS would run out of masks and aprons altogether.
It might therefore have seemed that any shortcut, however irregular, was justified in the mess we were in, and that Labour criticism of the VIP list was missing the point.
However, it has now emerged that the VIP list was actually hampering the procurement of PPE.
A civil servant wrote at the time that the procurement system was jammed up with poor-quality submissions from Tory cronies and party donors demanding to be at the front of the queue for taxpayer-funded contracts even though they had not supplied the necessary information on what they were offering, which actually delayed purchasing the PPE the NHS desperately needed.
We also now know that some of the equipment supplied by the VIP listers was sub- standard and could not be used – for example, masks like those from DIY stores, more suitable for stripping paint than protecting against infection and death.
So like the Prime Minster sorting out the tax problems of the well-heeled people he’d given his mobile phone number to, or the minister who rushed through planning permission to help a property developer and Conservative Party donor avoid contributing some of his profits to fund local community facilities, this was just cronyism.
Tax payers money that we have all contributed lining the pockets of Tory supporters.
Ian Gibson via email
ONE of the main reasons people hate politicians is their hypocrisy. Labour politicians and supporters are happy to attack the Conservatives over allegations of cronyism in the awarding of PPE contracts and the way former ministers, most notably David Cameron, has access to lobby current ministers.
However Labour politicians are no better. As Labour are not in power at the moment, some of the allegations against them go under the radar, but there are many.
Allegations of cronyism go back to the Labour Government of Harold Wilson in the 1970s. His resignation honours list of 1976 included honours for several wealthy businessmen who supported the Labour Party. Then, when in power, Labour Governments did not introduce any legislation to change the lobbying rules in Parliament.
More recently former Labour MPs who still have a parliamentary pass carry out lobbying for certain questionable groups. Former Labour minister
RESIDENTS HUNG OUT TO DRY
WHILE Boris Johnson derided John Lewis furnishings as a “nightmare” and spent £58,000 on £860 rolls of wallpaper to redecorate the Downing Street flat just three years after Theresa May had spent £30,000 of public money on removing David Cameron’s furnishing choices, one group of people has been neglected.
Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders in buildings lower than 18m have been hung out to dry by the Government’s refusal to fund the removal of the same kind of flammable cladding which killed 72 residents of Grenfell Towers.
The cladding would never have been installed if the Government had not deregulated building safety for ideological reasons. Over 300 Conservative MPs last week voted against Labour’s plan for the Government to pay for the work and then go after the building companies and developers.
Chris Leslie lobbies for the debt collection industry and Michael Dugher lobbies for the gambling industry. Labour’s general secretary, David Evans, has also been the subject of cronyism stories.
The Unite union, a large financial backer of Labour, is facing allegations of links to firms investigated for bribery.
Cronyism, sleaze even corruption applies to both of the main parties, who are as bad as each other.
(As for the Lib Dems) their former leader, Sir Nick Clegg, now works for Facebook.
In Scotland the SNP want independence to make their own decisions, only to lose it again by rejoining the European Union. You cannot become much more hypocritical than that.
We need a totally new political system in this country, but that is never going to happen. So we are stuck with the political parties we have, none of whom come up smelling like roses.
John Williams via email
These innocent residents, who didn’t cause the safety defects, none of this was their fault, find their homes essentially worthless because they require 24 hour a day fire watchers to be employed, at a typical cost of £1000 a month per flat, and no potential buyer can get a surveyor to sign off on a mortgage.
The Government is offering loans to cover the cost of the work on buildings lower than 18m, but the loans have to be repaid, gobbling up any equity they have in their homes. Loans to repair flats which as leaseholders they will never own outright.
For such people, the “nightmare” is not John Lewis furniture but inability to move home to find work or pursue a relationship or care for elderly relatives, and the threat of personal bankruptcy. But apparently that’s less of a concern for Boris than getting the right wallpaper.
Phil Tate via email