Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Nov 19, 2020 18 tweets 7 min read Read on X
In March, I asked why the director of a UK company making PPE were exporting all over the world but hadn’t had orders from the UK

NHS frontline staff were dying

Were million pound contracts being held back to give to govt-linked companies that had no PPE procurement background?
“There were no gowns, visors, swabs or body bags in the govt’s pandemic stockpile when #Covid19 hit UK.”

“The govt ignored warnings from advisers about shortages.”

“NHS staff are being put at risk because of the shortage of PPE.”

Report by @BBCPanorama.
In April, @Channel4News has seen the inventory of the UK govt’s pandemic PPE stockpile. Almost 80% of respirators were out of date when #coronavirus hit.

The UK had had a three month head start to prepare for #COVID19

Covid wasn’t an “invisible mugger”
In early March, the UK had developed 10-minute #COVID19 tests that they were manufacturing...and then exporting around the world!

It would be many months before even frontline NHS staff could be guaranteed swift testing! #PPEScandal #ContractScandal
The #ContractScandal is part of a far bigger & scarier scandal

Contracts for running the COVID data store were given to the shadowy surveillance firm, #Palantir, who are doing the same in scores of countries

Palantir are connected to #CambridgeAnalytica.
Fast track for PPE firms with political ties

144 referrals originated in the private offices of government ministers

A further 64 suppliers were referred directly by MPs or members of the House of Lords

The CEO of Ayanda is asked about this here by BBC.
How did an ex-neighbour of @MattHancock win a big #COVID19 contract?

After initially denying it, Alex Bourne finally admitted he’d exchanged text & email messages with Hancock over several months & participated in a meeting attended by Hancock & Johnson.
theguardian.com/world/2020/nov…
“If we already know this much about the only 3 contracts we’ve looked at in detail, what else is there to uncover? There are hundreds of further contracts - some of which we are examining - & many of these will be as bad or worse.” @JolyonMaugham @GoodLawProject #ContractScandal
“If we already know this much about the only 3 contracts we’ve looked at in detail, what else is there to uncover? There are hundreds of further contracts - some of which we are examining - & many of these will be as bad or worse.” @JolyonMaugham @GoodLawProject #ContractScandal
Wow!

On Friday, @MattHancock’s ex-neighbour told the Guardian that he didn’t have safety certification for vials he’d been supplying since June as part of the £30m govt contract he ‘won’.

Later the same day, it appears they were granted certification. theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
Last week, @MattHancock’s neighbour admitted exchanging personal WhatsApp messages with him offering his services to produce #Covid equipment

Today, Hancock says he “had absolutely nothing to do with that contract”. #ContractScandal #COVID19 #coronavirus
You’ve head of ‘Oligarchs’

Now meet the ‘Covidarchs'

Unlikely business people who, with the help of the govt, have filled their bank accounts with millions in tax-payers money on the PPE gravy train.

Govt-facilitated pandemic profiteering on a big scale
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
About £9 billion in PPE contacts went to companies run by friends or associates of Tory MP’s

In some cases they delivered unusable goods

The govt PPE tsar has financial interests/personal ties to at least 7 companies awarded hundreds of millions of £ in contracts @paraicobrien
“Wow. A PPE supplier speaking to the Public Accounts Committee says they warned the government in DECEMBER 2019 that there would be a shortage of equipment.

They were ignored.”
@WritesBright in @BylineTimes #HerdImmunityScandal #HerdImmunity #COVID19
bylinetimes.com/2021/05/24/gov…
“Ministers used their private emails to hand out taxpayers' money to their mates

The govt admitted it

Now the govt won't search Ministers' private emails to investigate what has gone on & won't secure them for the public inquiry.” @AngelaRayner
#COVID19 bbc.com/news/uk-politi…
"Michael Gove was secretly involved in the process through which a PPE company linked to the Tory peer Michelle Mone secured huge government contracts, according to newly released documents that show private emails being used for govt business." #COVID19
theguardian.com/politics/2022/…
PPE the govt bought for £122m from a company linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone was purchased from China for just £46m

Despite being bought at the start of the #COVID19 pandemic, the 25m gowns were never used by the NHS after govt officials rejected them theguardian.com/politics/2022/…
Gove asked about profiteering on unusable PPE. It smacks of corruption👇

“You forwarded on a contact from Michelle Mone...how do you feel that millions of pounds was wasted because of that introduction?” @KayBurley

“I don't know the details”@michaelgove

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Mar 9
1/. “It is the greatest mass-killing in recorded history; & it goes on daily, hourly, as regularly as the ticking of your watch”

Arthur Koestler’s 1944 essay expressing frustration at the failure of the world to acknowledge Nazi atrocities resonates today
wethescreamers.com
2/ “There are a few of us…yelling at you in newspapers…Now & then we reach your ear…But it only lasts a minute. You shake yourself like puppies who’ve got their fur wet; then the screen again descends & you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier which stifles all sound”
#Gaza Image
3/ Koestler notes maniacs lose contact with reality so “perhaps it’s we, the screamers, who react in a sound & healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotics who totter about in a screened fantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts” Image
Read 8 tweets
Feb 23
“They got me!” Liz Truss tells far-right kingpin, Steve Bannon, before going on to explain that, to have effectively tackled “the deep state” that runs Britain & its institutions, she would have “needed a bigger bazooka”! #LizTruss #BritanniaUnchained
"I was just saying it like it is & that’s what people respect me for"(!)

Liz Truss’ compares her premiership to a one night stand & says she was just “fattening the pig” for slaughter & that she should have gaslit the public like Rishi Sunak is doing (!)
"I faced the most almighty backlash...from the usual suspects in the media” Liz Truss

“Truss's decline is simultaneously tragic & horrifying but the claim that the media conspired against her can't go unchallenged. There are front pages praising her to the rafters” @mrjamesob



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Read 4 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
Despite previous denials, Michelle Mone finally admits her involvement in failed PPE supplier Medpro

There should be a criminal investigation into possible intentional breach of beneficial ownership disclosure rules

The govt VIP Lane needs investigating

Something about the #MichelleMone interview doesn’t pass the smell test

Why are Mone & her husband - currently under criminal investigation in UK & Spain - being given a prime time slot to tell ‘their side of the story’?

5 questions @bbclaurak should ask

@bbclaurak “I don’t honestly think there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong” @MichelleMone

Wow! #MichelleMone & #DougBarrowman on @bbclaurak’s programme, this morning

Read 13 tweets
Oct 3, 2023
As the 2nd module of the #CovidInquiry begins covering “core UK decision-making & political governance”, comes news that Rishi Sunak - like Boris Johnson - has also fail to fully comply with the order to hand his WhatsApp messages

Both claim they can’t access key messages
#COVID
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“The govt needs get professional IT experts to recover these messages”

Charles Persinger who lost his wife & mother to #COVID, echoes the call of @CovidJusticeUK’s lawyers calling on the @covidinquiryuk to commission experts to retrieve Sunak & Johnson’s ‘lost’ WhatsApp messages
“It was like watching his death approach & seeing every mistake that was made”

@LoreleiKing describes listening to the timeline of govt inaction in the months leading to her husband’s death of #COVID19

Bereaved families want accountability #Covidinquiry
Read 19 tweets
Sep 9, 2023
Twitter's new privacy policy takes effect on 29 September

It gives X the right to use your posts - including DMs - & all your data - including phone, email, biometrics (e.g. face scans & eye scans) to train their AI & to share with any partner X wants👇
twitter.com/en/privacy



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“I do not accept that Twitter has deteriorated in any way since Elon Musk took over”
A week before Twitter’s change in privacy policy, some questions for @elonmusk

1. What biometric information will be collected & what are the intended uses?

How will X ensure that that the data of X’s 530 million users isn’t used for unlawful purposes?
mashable.com/article/x-twit…
Read 13 tweets
Aug 7, 2023
1/. “I am often asked why the UK doesn’t have a successful far-right populist party. My answer is: because it doesn’t need to” @julie_renbe

Far-right politics are becoming mainstreamed in:
Italy
Finland
Sweden
Greece
France
Hungary
Poland
Germany
Spain
UK
theguardian.com/books/2023/jul…
2/. The far right is being increasingly mainstreamed in both European & US politics

Last October, Giorgia Meloni - head of the Brothers of Italy party, which has historical roots in the post-war neo-fascist Italian Social Movement - won Italy’s election
nytimes.com/2023/07/31/pod…

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3/. “The far right don’t need to win elections to spread their malign ideas” @kenanmalik

Last month, a coalition of the centre-right PP & the far-right Vox failed to win Spain’s election

Ystdy, Vox pledged it wouldn’t impede PP’s efforts to form a govt
amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/…




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Read 12 tweets

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