Billions squandered in Johnson’s system

MR CHRISTLEY, tired of railing at Mark Drakeford and the Welsh Assembly, now turns his ire towards civil servants and state employees (“No efficiency in state run by bribery”, Mail letters, May 17).

He seems to have totally overlooked that billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted over the last two years directly by Boris Johnson and his government. Large sums have been given to their friends and Tory Party donors for PPE and track and trace. Often the goods and services have been unfit for purpose and have always cost far more than market rate. Most of the recipients had not done business in these areas previously, so there can be no question that the premium paid was for expert assistance.

Civil servants could have found the suppliers just as easily, and even if they agreed a price with the suppliers that was higher than that obtained by Tory Party friends the net cost to the taxpayer would have been substantially less as the many millions of pounds paid to the middlemen would have been avoided.

The headline to the letter was “No efficiency in a state ruled by bribery”. It strikes me that this statement applies equally to present-day UK as to Ceausescu’s Romania.

Alan Rumble

Ely, Cardiff