The High Court has found that the Government's VIP lane - that channelled riches to its friends, donors and associates - was illegal. glplive.org/vip-lane-12012…
As regards the products supplied by the parties, the Court made, amongst others, the following findings. Pestfix's aprons:
More of Pestfix's aprons (Mr Jordan is International Sourcing Lead, PPE within the DHSC: see paragraph 103).
Pestfix's gowns.
Pestfix's FFP2 masks.
Pestfix's FFP3 masks.
Ayanda's FFP2 masks (which cost £155m).
The Court made no negative findings about the product delivered by Clandeboye. However, an investigation by the BBC revealed issues with the product Clandeboye supplied. These were not disclosed to the Court. We think Government misled the Court.
Don't forget: how they weaponised hate, what they've done to the National Health Service, how they raised your mortgage and how they trashed the economy.
Don't forget: the money they stole under cover of Covid, the Parties they held while your parents were dying, the science they ignored, the bets they placed and the Veterans they dishonoured.
Don't forget: the children going to bed and to school hungry, the state of your beaches and rivers, whose taxes they cut and whose benefits they wouldn't and their sweetheart deals.
Over the weekend, and into Monday, we were communicating with the Department of Health as to why, it said, we should not publish our story. We asked for and obtained further details of those reasons. 🧵
We took the view, having consulted with our specialist lawyers, that its reasons as then stated did not amount to a proper basis for us not to publish. Late last night, when it shared with us details of its proposed injunction application, it significantly refined its position.
It moved from saying the information was commercially sensitive to detailing how that information is said specifically to relate to an ongoing criminal investigation.
If you wanted to use the pandemic as cover for passing money to your dodgy friends and donors who didn’t actually have anything to sell you would set up procurement exactly as the Conservative Party did in the pandemic.🧵
You would identify the PPE you wanted and then, instead of buying it from the Chinese manufacturer, you would buy it from a UK intermediary. And then choose who the intermediary was.
Putting together a good offer was not easy. It helped to have connections on the ground in China; you needed to gather lots of complicated documentation together; and you had to keep the supply available for long enough to get it over the line with Government.
Every mother who has sent her children to bed hungry, or victim who has watched her rapist go untried, or domestic violence victim who cannot leave because there is no emergency shelter, or mum who can't work because of childcare costs, knows exactly which party hates women.
And in a couple of days, when the polls with fieldwork after JK Rowling's attacks on Labour drop, we'll know her actual impact. And it will be, despite the best efforts of our noble fourth estate, exactly none.
A new Government must get serious about the tide of misogyny and violence that leaves so many, too many, women bearing trauma. And how some women feel about trans women is relevant too. The challenges posed must be resolved with care and sensitivity: there is no other way.
On Wednesday evening I spoke to a prominent journalist about a mind-blowing PPE case that will soon emerge - it looks like a small group of senior civil servants created false evidence trails to try and cover up the fact that valuable PPE contracts were diverted to Tory VIPs.
Our conversation followed a meeting we had with the lawyer - in a well known firm - acting in the case. The lawyer spoke of how it had taken him a long time to believe the evidence. He had it, but it cut so violently across his own understanding of what the State in England is.
The journalist had made their name writing about a long-running scandal involving the creation of false evidence by other trusted public bodies.
It hadn't occurred to them that there are profound similarities between that scandal and this.
I have now seen further evidence that, since the Bell decision in the High Court (1 December 2020), there has been a huge increase in deaths of young trans people on the NHS waiting list - and that NHS management has sought to suppress that evidence.
CW: Suicide 🧵
When the High Court handed down its decision in Bell, the NHS immediately pulled down the shutters on healthcare for young trans people.
But when the Court of Appeal overturned that decision - on multiple grounds - the NHS unaccountably left those shutters in place.
Kemi Badenoch has explained that much of this happened because her Government chose to prioritise ideology when it came to appointing key positions in health.
But the evidence shows the outcome was predictable (and predicted): a huge increase in deaths of young trans people.