Current Affairs The Conservative Party

[NilSatisOptimum]

Westferry planning row: Jenrick texted property developer, documents show

Labour say documents show "discrepancies" in housing secretary's account of controversial scheme.

www.bbc.co.uk

‘Move on’ ‘matter’s closed’ no one gets sacked, no accountability. Pretty disgusting state of affairs. Well in lads

Keeping Jenrick in post is exposing the larger truth about how the Tories don't go about representing the majority of us..

Exclusive: Property tycoons gave Tories more than £11m in less than a year

Conservatives accused of being ‘in hock’ to developers as donations from property and construction soars amid ‘cash for access’ accusations against housing secretary Robert Jenrick.

www.opendemocracy.net

 

[peteblue]

Keeping Jenrick in post is exposing the larger truth about how the Tories don't go about representing the majority of us..

Exclusive: Property tycoons gave Tories more than £11m in less than a year

Conservatives accused of being ‘in hock’ to developers as donations from property and construction soars amid ‘cash for access’ accusations against housing secretary Robert Jenrick.

www.opendemocracy.net

You’re right, but at least he’s not anti Semitic.......

 

[orchard]

 

[orchard]

TheWeekInTory (Wed to Sun)

1. Let’s start with the milder corruption: it was revealed Matt Hancock tried to block 400 homes and a primary school near Newmarket racecourse, after receiving at least £65,000 in donations from horseracing bigwigs who opposed the scheme
2. And then Robert Jenrick, the Housing Minister, overruled his dept and planning officers to rush through planning permission that saved Richard Desmond a £45m fee. Desmond is a billionaire pornographer, former-Express owner, and (subsequent to this) a Tory donor
3. The Tory Manifesto says: “we will offer more homes to local families, enabling councils to use developers’ contributions via the planning process”
4. The lost £45m was the “developers’ contribution”. One of Britain’s most deprived areas lost it. A billionaire kept it.
5. And then, I'm sure coincidentally, Desmond donated £12,000 to the Tory Party the next week. A bargain – only 0.02% of the £45m he saved
6. So this week Jenrick denied he had done anything wrong
7. Unfortunately, he had already admitted his actions were “unlawful” on 29 May
8. And then the business minister said voters could “raise their concerns at Tory fundraisers”
9. So now have to donate to the Tory Party before we can complain about the Tory Party doing illegal things for their donors
10. In Coronavirus news: Boris Johnson announced more relaxations of the lockdown, saying he would “trust the British public to use their common sense”
11. 48 hours later a major incident was declared on the South Coast, as 500,000 people common-sensibly crowded the beaches
12. Boris Johnson said he “would not hesitate” to bring back lockdown if the rules on social distancing weren’t observed
13. 48 hours later, he hasn’t brought back lockdown
14. Then the govt announced councils would have the “power and resources” to enforce local lockdowns
15. But council leaders wrote to the govt to explain that they don’t actually have the legal powers to do this
16. And then 8 out of 10 councils in England have declared they are at risk of bankruptcy, having absorbed cuts of between 26% and 50%
17. Health leaders, including the presidents of Royal Colleges of Physicians, Nurses, GPs and Surgeons wrote to the govt asking for an urgent review of preparations for a second wave
18. The govt declined to do a review
19. And then the WHO warned of global shortage of oxygen and breathing equipment
20. So naturally, the govt opened pubs and cinemas
21. Then, after a month of not telling us the daily test numbers, the govt went a step further and cancelled the daily briefings altogether
22. UK Statistics Authority issued a 2nd official warning about the “trustworthiness” of the govt’s figures
23. Association of Medical Research said 74% of clinical trials had been put on hold in 2020 due to cuts
24. So we spent £900k painting a flag on Boris Johnson’s plane
25. And then it was revealed the govt spent £12m on the “world beating” contact app that didn’t work
26. If you paid the average £50,000 programmer salary, £12m buys 320 programmers
27. The German app code is open-source, and the free repository for it lists 34 programmers
28. The UK has repeatedly declined to use the free German App
29. Boris Johnson claimed in Parliament that "no country in the world has a working contact tracing app”
30. There are working contact tracing apps in: Angola, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh... ... Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Rep, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Malaysia, Morocco, N Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, NZ, Poland ... ... Qatar, Russia, S Africa, S Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and Vietnam. That's 42 countries.
31. The gov declined to publish its report on food and medicine shortage risks from no-deal Brexit, which surely bodes well.
32. Boris Johnson said Brexit must be delivered, as we have a “democratic duty” to listen to the people
33. A report this week found 9m voters – most thought likely to oppose the Conservatives – will vanish from the electoral roll when new Westminster seats are drawn up
34. When the govt (breaking pre-election promises) merged the Dept for International Development into Foreign Office 2 weeks ago, they said there would be no cuts to overseas aid
35. This week the Treasury asked govt depts to find "a minimum of 30%" cuts, including overseas aid
36. The govt continued to decry the removal of statues connected with slavery, as this might “diminish public knowledge of British history”
37. Govt cuts led to the closure of 773 public libraries, and I suspect many of them contained books about British History
38. The Minister for Arts said the govt was “committed to supporting the Arts Sector in through crisis”
39. Emergency funding for the arts (converted into £)

• France £6.3bn
• Germany £900m
• Canada £295m
• Italy £221m
• NZ £90
• Spain £68m
• Ireland £18m
• UK £0
• In 2019 the govt committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050

1. A year on a report found at the current rate, the govt would hit its target by the year 3650, which is 1500 years from now, a mere 1470 years too late
2. This week it reached 38°C in the Arctic
3. The govt said it would “fairly and courageously to maintain law and order” in the light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement
4. And then the govt announced it wants to abolish trial by jury in order to address a 41,000-case backlog caused by its own cuts
5. It's Friday. Not even very late Friday. There are 2 more days of this week to go. Amongst those trying to hold this govt to account are @GoodLawProject, which uses donations to bring cases that lead to a fairer society and uncover political corruption.

 

[Catfish Blues]

But people are concerned about the cost feeding kids

Did a minister, find this company, review its capabilities and then make out a contract for it. No. The Civil Service did all that and you know it.....

On the surface, giving a Pest Control company a large contract for PPE seems bizarre, but I'd imagine they responded to

COVID-19: guidance and support

Find information on COVID-19, including guidance and support.

www.gov.uk

... saying they could help, and were then fast tracked. Under normal circumstances, you have to go through hoops to become a supplier, and would be expected to go through a competive tender process, but sometimes you have to rip the rule book up.

They've also been quoted in

The UK government is being sued for awarding a pest-control company with 16 employees a $135 million PPE contract

The UK government didn't consider any other firms for the contract and didn't appear to advertise it at all, according to the Good Law Project.

www.businessinsider.com

as saying

It told the Financial Times on Monday: "We are a success story. We have not been sitting around on social media casting around for equipment; we had a thriving supply chain with China before the contract. We have nearly fulfilled our NHS contract and supplied over 67 million pieces of equipment."

There are a few possibilities here :-

1. A small company in Littlehampton has slipped a backhander to someone and someone should be prosecuted
2. The company is delivering PPE at standard commercial rates, giving value for money and a high ranking civil servant and minister has signed it off, knowing the risks of not going through normal processes
3. The company's pulled a fast one and is profiteering from the situation.

 

[Tea_drinker]

Andy Burnham was on any questions r4 this weekend. He actually supported jenrick as 'a good guy who's made a couple of mistakes'. Bizarre. All snouts in the trough together.

 

[orchard]

 

[peteblue]

Telegraph....looks like the overhaul of the CS is about to begin....

”Sir Mark Sedwill, the UK’s most senior civil servant, looks set to announce his departure as early as this week under Boris Johnson’s plans for a Whitehall revolution.

The ousting of Sir Mark will be the most obvious signal that a long-planned shake-up of the Civil Service by Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief aide, is gathering pace.

Several sources told The Sunday Telegraph that an announcement would be made about Sir Mark’s future as early as Monday.“

Probably worth keeping him in the NSA role though, he seems more qualified for that.....

 

[Blues Harp]

You’re right, but at least he’s not anti Semitic.......

What the Feck? Elliman shagger you. I was a member of the Lp in her constituency you haven't got a clue never saw you at any meetings..

 

[peteblue]

What the Feck? Elliman shagger you. I was a member of the Lp in her constituency you haven't got a clue never saw you at any meetings..

Correct. Why would you, I vote Tory remember. If you ask nice I’ll tell you......

 

[orchard]

What a pile of bollocks...


Web shoppers face levy on deliveries to cut pollution

Next-day delivery deals and free returns have led to “over-ordering”, according to a report
JOEL SAGET/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Graeme Paton, Transport Correspondent
Monday June 29 2020, 12.00am, The Times
Internet shoppers could be hit by a compulsory delivery charge as part of a campaign to cut congestion and toxic emissions, The Times has learnt.
The government is considering a range of measures to reduce the damaging impact of the e-commerce boom, which has led to a rise in delivery vans on British roads.

 

[Tea_drinker]

This lot are worse than any that came before them. And I mean as individuals and as a group. They're just an load of posh idiots with no idea of the real world.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

This lot are worse than any that came before them. And I mean as individuals and as a group. They're just an load of posh idiots with no idea of the real world.

Johnson tenure reminds me of Thatcher's tenure, just on steroids and his government is behaving as if it's in the last days of Rome... There certainly seems to be a lack of speaking truth to power, which in any organisation is just plainly bad on so many levels. Does mean people will suffer, however, that's democracy.

 

[Hickson9]

@peteblue Is this the Civil Servants' fault or the Tory Minister's fault?

 

[Hickson9]

BoJo still looks really quite unwell.

So much of what he is talking about in this speech is just reiterating previously stated funding btw.

And the acceleration of infrastructure spending on existing schemes, means we are throwing money at schemes with poor value for money because they can be delivered sooner.

The rhetoric is great. I hope at the Budget we actually see the funding to back it up, and with a long enough time horizon to actually get good value.