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Jo Maugham Profile picture
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16 Nov, 4 tweets, 2 min read
"There was no good reason — but obvious bad reasons — for government to keep the public in the dark about these links... We now need some transparency about the equivalent VIP lane for Test and Trace contracts — on which £37bn of public money was spent." politico.eu/article/conser…
This is quite a quote from Lord Feldman.

Note, first, how it's carefully crafted to admit of the possibility he had non-commercial relationships with SG Recruitment, Skinnydip, Maxima and/or their owners.
Note, second, how there is no mention of those he does have commercial relationships with - Bunzl and Oxford Nanopore - and who won huge public contracts.

Here's the excellent @phill_kemp's story on Oxford Nanopore: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-549755…
And here's the details of the case we are bringing in relation to the contract Bunzl won.

Bunzl was a client of Feldman's lobbying company (Tulchan) - and it won the contract after lobbying by Feldman when he was working as an "unpaid volunteer" at DHSC. crowdjustice.com/case/bunzl-lob…

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More from @JolyonMaugham

Jo Maugham Profile picture
15 Nov
The Establishment is not evil - so why is it getting things so badly wrong on trans issues? At the heart of it is this. Unless you are from or alongside a marginalised community it is hard to imagine how others experience the Establishment.
If you are inside the Establishment your experience is that it behaves in ways that are fair, reasonable and which give proper weight and protection to your interests. Outside the Establishment things are... different.
If you have never lived in or alongside a properly marginalised community you really need to try hard to listen. Until you really 'get' that your experience is not universal you are likely - however good your intentions - to be a force that perpetuates unfairness and inequality.
Read 4 tweets
Jo Maugham Profile picture
14 Nov
To an economist, the benefit of an interest free loan is the interest you would have had to pay had you borrowed the money on the open market. And the benefit of a cheap loan is the difference between the amount of interest you paid and the open market interest rate.
Putting it another way, the amount of interest the borrower pays that is less than the rate s/he would have paid had s/he borrowed on the open market is a transfer of a benefit by the lender to the borrower.
This is economic commonsense.

And it's also what the tax code says. If you are a director and you receive an interest free or cheap loan you are taxed as if you received a 'benefit-in-kind' and its value is the difference between the interest you paid and the "official rate".
Read 17 tweets
Jo Maugham Profile picture
13 Nov
This letter seems to misunderstand the Met's role. It's not @PeteWishart's job to gather the evidence. He doesn't have power to compel the production of documents and interview witnesses. That's the Met's job. So why won't they look?
It's hard to think how you might read a piece like this and think to yourself 'nah, nothing here to investigate'. Surely, you'd at least take a look.

Once again, we are left wondering whether political interference with policing means the Tories are above the law.
It's just like PPE procurement. Everyone knows - with huge payments to politically connected middlemen - there is at least a whiff of out-and-out corruption. And yet the police are nowhere to be seen.
Read 5 tweets
Jo Maugham Profile picture
11 Nov
You may remember Ayanda which won a £252m deal to supply facemasks of which £155m worth were unusable by the NHS.
And you may remember that civil servants were worried about not giving Ayanda a contract because of the political connections of Andrew Mills who worked for Ayanda as a consultant.
And that the Department of Health didn't consider a potential conflict of interest before giving Ayanda that £252m contract. nao.org.uk/press-release/…
Read 8 tweets
Jo Maugham Profile picture
9 Nov
Yesterday we published this about @Siobhan_Baillie. We stand by every single word - and we have linked to all the documents so readers can make their own minds up. goodlawproject.org/news/siobhan-b…
Ms Baillie has - as is her entitlement - published a lengthy response in her local newspaper which you can read here. stroudtimes.com/mp-refutes-cla…
As I have said, we stand by every word in our blog and we have published all of the underlying documents so you can make up your own minds.

But what I do want to draw attention to is this bit which I've highlighted in yellow.
Read 8 tweets
Jo Maugham Profile picture
6 Nov
Remember the public outrage when Government voted to allow privatised water companies to continue the routine dumping of raw sewage into our rivers and our beaches?

Here is what Government proposes to try and rescue itself from shit-creek.
It is a cruel trick on those of us who want to be able safely to swim in our rivers and beaches. And who don't understand why Government falls over itself to protect water companies who have taken £57bn+ in dividends whilst destroying our waterways. theguardian.com/environment/20…
The proposal isn't worth the paper it is written on for two reasons. It's a confidence trick on the public, a political ruse. Let me explain why.
Read 7 tweets

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