Best Of

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Very unlikely but it would be welcome. Most fair minded people can see that she's been held to far higher standards than those expected of Farage.

Rayner's problem is she got caught. Farage is so smart he won't get caught and besides the media or social media have no desire to catch him out. Farage is the working man's working man. Now doff your cap in awe!

Rayner's problem is the amount of hay she made with her opponents. Most fair minded people can see she's been holding others to standards she is failing to reach herself.

But your lot were corrupt as can be, PPE scandal, Freebies from their Lordships and loads more and they got caught out, but no one followed it up.

Suggesting Starmer Labour have unfairly punished your bunch, they have been guilty of dereliction of duty and done nothing.

What PPE corruption is this? Do the police know? Do you have any evidence of anyone in the government involved in PPE corruption?

Try this for size.*

https://www.transparency.org.uk/news/new-research-raises-corruption-questions-over-billions-covid-public-spending

I have absolutely no idea why there have not been police investigations and subsequent charges and prosecutions.

* I could have cited loads more studies.

"These figures show Whitehall departments award almost £4.1bn to suppliers with political connections"

I will save you reading the report. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew any firms that could help in the supply of PPE or in the distribution of drugs. They were given an exclusive weblink to send queries to. This is what happened to the infamous "hancock pub landlord" who also ran a packaging firm, messages his MP, who is health minister, MP sends him the link, and then on his request sends a follow up. And that was it.

There has been no charges of prosecutions because outside of the fantasies, there wasn't corruption. You could argue the Marone woman (who is not a member of the government), her company acted fraudulently, but that's not the same as corruption.

We have a police forced that broke a government minister for his wife accepting points on her driving license, a police force that fined both the Prime Minister and Chancellor for something that, if they appealed would have been thrown out quite sharpish. If there was corruption there, those involved (and MPs and ministers are never involved in the awarding of contracts) would be getting chased without mercy.

Was there corruption? I dont know, but I do know if there was evidence the police would not be taking cover for those politicians involved.

How about this one?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservative-mps-ppe-covid-contracts-b1958500.html

Don't forget a Labour MP has been prosecuted. I suspect at some stage when all the inquiries are complete there will be prosecutions.

Starmer is also twinned with Sleepy Joe as far as prosecuting his opponents for genuine industrial scale wrongdoing is concerned.

Their first act of the COVID crisis was to tie suspension of procurement procedures to the emergency measures bill.
They then proceeded to ignore experienced suppliers in favour of their spiv mates, the reason there aren't prosecutions is that the NCA weren't given the funding needed to investigate.

It is possible for two things to be true at once:

1) For at least the that six months we needed a permission procurement regime and to buy what was offered, even if some it turned out to be useless tat, in order to ensure we had some stuff and we had it quickly; and

2) some people took advantage.

Category one will include thousands of hardworking public servants, well meaning politicians, and suppliers who through they could do a job and failed in good faith. Let’s not tar them all with the brush of category two. If we do, more people will die next time.

Instead, let’s find those who took advantage wilfully and throw the book at them.

They ignored trusted suppliers who had stock they could supply, the MD of ARCO was interviewed in the ITV doc, he said on the record that they were ignored by Ministers and resorted to supplying direct to NHS trusts on credit because they knew they were in desperate need of PPE.

The accusation is aimed at Johnson's cabinet, who decided to suspend procurement procedures, those who ran the "fast-track" lane and those who got themselves referred to it.

Let's not pretend that people, with absolutely FA experience of supplying compliant PPE and the requirements, who lobbied political contacts to get on the fast-track lane for £100ms of contracts and then supplied non-compliant equipment did so out of a sense of public duty. They were profiteering and they put NHS workers lives at risk.

...

Very unlikely but it would be welcome. Most fair minded people can see that she's been held to far higher standards than those expected of Farage.

Rayner's problem is she got caught. Farage is so smart he won't get caught and besides the media or social media have no desire to catch him out. Farage is the working man's working man. Now doff your cap in awe!

Rayner's problem is the amount of hay she made with her opponents. Most fair minded people can see she's been holding others to standards she is failing to reach herself.

But your lot were corrupt as can be, PPE scandal, Freebies from their Lordships and loads more and they got caught out, but no one followed it up.

Suggesting Starmer Labour have unfairly punished your bunch, they have been guilty of dereliction of duty and done nothing.

What PPE corruption is this? Do the police know? Do you have any evidence of anyone in the government involved in PPE corruption?

Try this for size.*

https://www.transparency.org.uk/news/new-research-raises-corruption-questions-over-billions-covid-public-spending

I have absolutely no idea why there have not been police investigations and subsequent charges and prosecutions.

* I could have cited loads more studies.

"These figures show Whitehall departments award almost £4.1bn to suppliers with political connections"

I will save you reading the report. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew any firms that could help in the supply of PPE or in the distribution of drugs. They were given an exclusive weblink to send queries to. This is what happened to the infamous "hancock pub landlord" who also ran a packaging firm, messages his MP, who is health minister, MP sends him the link, and then on his request sends a follow up. And that was it.

There has been no charges of prosecutions because outside of the fantasies, there wasn't corruption. You could argue the Marone woman (who is not a member of the government), her company acted fraudulently, but that's not the same as corruption.

We have a police forced that broke a government minister for his wife accepting points on her driving license, a police force that fined both the Prime Minister and Chancellor for something that, if they appealed would have been thrown out quite sharpish. If there was corruption there, those involved (and MPs and ministers are never involved in the awarding of contracts) would be getting chased without mercy.

Was there corruption? I dont know, but I do know if there was evidence the police would not be taking cover for those politicians involved.

How about this one?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservative-mps-ppe-covid-contracts-b1958500.html

Don't forget a Labour MP has been prosecuted. I suspect at some stage when all the inquiries are complete there will be prosecutions.

Starmer is also twinned with Sleepy Joe as far as prosecuting his opponents for genuine industrial scale wrongdoing is concerned.

Their first act of the COVID crisis was to tie suspension of procurement procedures to the emergency measures bill.
They then proceeded to ignore experienced suppliers in favour of their spiv mates, the reason there aren't prosecutions is that the NCA weren't given the funding needed to investigate.

It is possible for two things to be true at once:

1) For at least the that first six months we needed a permissive procurement regime and to buy what was offered, even if some it turned out to be useless tat, in order to ensure we had some stuff and we had it quickly; and

2) some people took advantage.

Category one will include thousands of hardworking public servants, well meaning politicians, and suppliers who thought they could do a job and failed in good faith. Let’s not tar them all with the brush of category two. If we do, more people will die next time.

Instead, let’s find those who took advantage wilfully and throw the book at them.

Reeves poised to cut cash ISA limit to £12K

Can’t say I’m fussed by this, seems fair enough.

I was expecting it to be £5,000 so £12,000 is more than ample.

Possibly this is a step towards that. I don’t disagree with your sentiment either.

It's a classic "shaft the youth of today" solution.
My parents have a small fortune in ISAs, accrued over man years, and will continue to keep all their annual gains - huzzah.

But now we've pulled up the drawbridge on the next generation getting into the same position.

It's also problematic because someone like me who has a reasonable pile in an ISA really won't want to take it out for short-term use (eg business investment) because I can never put it back.

We should have no limits on ISA deposit or withdrawl, just a cap on the total held - say £100 seems reasonable.

Aiui the suggestion is a limit only on cash holdings rather than ISAs generally so the young will have the same chance (and that rather begs the question whether ISAs are really aimed at young people anyway. Other than HENRY types, most won't have a spare £20,000 a year until middle age, what with mortgages and children.

Sometimes I feel like I live in a different world to some PB'ers. £20,000 'spare' is ... unimaginable. £20 'spare' is at least feasible.