Iran very much experiencing second wave now and I'm beginning to believe our numbers may be credible, low deaths are probably down to young population and not palming our parents off on to minimum wage foreigners to feed.
Iran very much experiencing second wave now and I'm beginning to believe our numbers may be credible, low deaths are probably down to young population and not palming our parents off on to minimum wage foreigners to feed.
If I had a business I would be tempted to just open it back up as long as these protests are being allowed to happen. The Metric Martyrs are due a comeback. The Covid Crusaders. The Lockdown Legionnaires. Tell the pathetic police they send round to fuck off and dare them to drag you away kicking and screeching.
There's clearly a very substantial intersection on the venn diagram between those pissing and moaning about easing of lockdown/saving our NHS and attending/supporting these protests which baffles me. But I see Tommy R is on the case so I'll now depart from the discussion.
On the plus side, the 'public health' dickheads letting it slide because racism is also a health issue ought to have blown their credibility forever.
No one wearing masks in the supermarket anymore, and we are not even "open" yet.
Djokovic is giving out about the US Open.
It's almost as if America's got problems at the minute that would benefit from restricted movements."We would not have access to Manhattan, we would have to sleep in hotels at the airport, to be tested twice or three times per week.
"Also, we could bring one person to the club which is really impossible. You need your coach, then a fitness trainer, then a physiotherapist."
No one's forcing the twat to play, are they?
The hotels might not do the gluten-free food he needs.
Golf is restarting next week (stateside, anyway) and I'm pretty sure every player there is playing and staying in the pissy on site hotels in shitsville, Kentucky or wherever this stretch of tournaments is. Novak sounds like a big fanny.
Novak has and always will be a twat.
Incredible talent but a twat.
Only 3 positive cases since the start of June in Dundee yet still another 2 weeks of ‘phase 1’. Fuck sake,
If there's one thing the scientific advice going into this has taught us, it's that they won't recommend coming out until the earth has been swallowed by the sun and the universe has contracted back to microscopic form.
It'll have to be a political decision to come out.
Half the pubs in the Ferry won’t open for a while. Jollys will be disgusting.
Yep. It's baffling. No urgency what so ever to take decisions / offer the advice they're paid to give. How do you take 4 months to recommend that it might be a good idea to cover your face on public transport?
They're so concerned about giving the wrong advice that they are seemingly trying to give as little advice as possible. I'm surprised the handwashing advice came so fast to be honest.
Christ. Imagine how bad things would be if we had copped Italy's bullet.
Science takes fucking ages. The WHO have only now said the evidence points to face coverings being worn in public places. Handwashing's a given. It murders germs.
This is not the first virus human kind has encountered. Masks are as proven as handwashing and where things aren't known, sometimes common fucking sense needs to be used whilst we wait for an answer.
Which is what politicians are for. If we 'follow the science' we'll be locked down until 2085.
We followed the science and Im writing you this from the pub.
It surprises me how some people even get dressed in the morning. FML.
I'm doing it again.
Sorry @Ian. Off for a wank as we speak.
I know I've been banging on about this for months, but I called it, we have crap scientific advisers.
They're just not very good at their jobs.
They aren't political.
Both are going to get a grilling. Public will blame Govt (and rightly so), Govt will blame scientists, we'll go back to ignoring what experts say as per Brexit and eventually we'll all come out of this in 10-15-20 years time after a few more thousand deaths, a global depression, mass unemployment and perhaps the only silver lining, a modern day reminder to every silly fucker who voted Conservatives.
I'm hoping a third major party is created somewhere but what they would stand for God only knows. This country has embarrassed itself at every turn during this and no more of this big player on the world stage business can ever be believed. Fact is we're a divided joke.
On listening to experts, this whole episode really hasn't helped.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.
One for the spaffing money up the wall:
https://www.ft.com/content/7fe7c2d5-...9-50417fa0236a
Fucking shit show of a government.A quarter of the contracts that have so far been published were won by companies that had not previously carried out work for
the government Š PA
Tabby Kinder and Gill Plimmer in London JUNE 4 2020
The UK government handed contracts worth at least Ł1.7bn to private companies in the past three months, mostly without a competitive tender process, as ministers
scrambled for help to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Government departments have published about 400 contracts since the start of the crisis, which were signed at speed to provide services ranging from the procurement of medical and protective equipment to administering testing and advising civil servants.
The data was collected by Tussell, a research company that tracks government contracts. It provides an insight into how taxpayer money has been spent during
the crisis under the emergency provisions, which allowed companies and lawmakers to bypass typical procurement rules.
The bulk of the deals were agreed without a competitive tender process under emergency procurement measures that were put in place in March. The temporary
rules enabled government departments, the NHS and local councils to respond rapidly to the crisis.
A Cabinet Office official said: Working with the private sector has been a vital part of the governments response to tackling the coronavirus crisis . . . Being able to
procure at speed has been critical in providing that response. The official said the government made it clear during the pandemic that public authorities must continue to achieve value for money for taxpayers, use good commercial judgment and publish the details of any awards made.
A quarter of the contracts that have so far been published were won by companies that had not previously carried out work for the government. At least seven contracts each worth more than Ł100m have been awarded by Whitehall officials, according to Tussell. So far the largest contract that has been published was for Ł234m by the Department for Education to Edenred, a vouchers business, to deliver supermarket vouchers while schools are closed to families who would normally get free school meals.
The Department of Health awarded four of the largest contracts for Covid-19 testing services, including Ł151m to Hologic, Ł133m to Randox Laboratories and Ł64m to Life Technologies. The companies were recruited to supply materials and training to medical laboratories and to test key workers. The department is responsible for more than a third of the value of all contracts awarded by government agencies as health officials have battled to bring the pandemic under control.
Some significant deals have not yet been made public despite the coronavirus procurement rules stating that departments must publish a contract award notice
within 30 days of its agreement. No contracts have yet been published relating to the creation of seven Nightingale field hospitals by NHS England or regarding the
UKs new contact tracing programme.
Serco won a Ł46m contract from the Department for Work and Pensions to provide emergency contact centre services for vulnerable people who are self isolating. Its mandate to recruit and train thousands of call centre staff for the contact tracing project has not yet been published. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office has published 11 contracts with suppliers worth a total Ł193m for the procurement of ventilators from industry groups. The ventilator challenge initiative has come under fire after it agreed funding of up to Ł450m and has since suffered several order cancellations. The FT revealed that Ł79m had been paid to Penlon, a medical devices manufacturer, despite a row over the accounts of its holding company.
More than 100 contracts worth nearly Ł350m in total have been agreed with suppliers of personal protective equipment. A third of this figure is tied up in just
one contract a Ł109m deal signed between the Department of Health and PestFix, a pest control company based in Littlehampton, Sussex. PestFix has assets
of just Ł47,000 and does not publish details on its revenues or profits, according to filings at Companies House. The company did not respond to a request for
comment.
Around 30 contracts worth a combined Ł34m have been awarded to consultants, notably the Big Four. PwC was the largest single beneficiary; so far it has been
contracted for nearly Ł10m of financial advice to the Cabinet Office and the British Business Bank. The rapid outsourcing of consultants during the pandemic has
come under criticism during the crisis. Deloitte was accused of failures in its work managing PPE procurement for hospitals and supporting testing sites.
I thought the Free School Meals payment was being made via increased Tax Credits / UC Personal Element?
If not, firstly; why? When free school meals is dependant on being a benefit recipient. Second; what are they doing? Because it sounds like in 2020 they are sending out physical vouchers? In 2020. We are living in 2020.
Competetive tender processes take time, so absolutely no problem that that wasn't done here.
The Pestfix one is either wrong on the journalists part or admittedly a joke. This is their filing history:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/c...filing-history
They were dormant up to the end of 2018.
And these are the directors:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/c...68403/officers
It's a tiny family run thing. If someone has actually given them a Ł100m+ contract then that someone shouldn't be in government any more.
I might be able to wrangle a Dominic Cummings with a few months of regrowth, but a Boris mop would take one hell of a comb over.
Actually, scrap that, one of their companies was dormant, but their contracts division is the one that supposedly got the deal. Still the same family.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08603791
I don't understand how that happens if it has.
Incompetence or backhanders. Probably both.
And I suppose more importantly, why the fuck would a pest control company be given any sort of deal of scale to source PPE?
https://twitter.com/fascinatorfun/st...87383527211008
Someone's been digging.
I thought it was coming knowledge that this current government were dishing out the contracts to friends and iffy businesses without any due process or competition being given the chance whilst also turning their nose up at other businesses offering help at the height of the PPE bollocks?
This government, or rather the select few plus the bullshit cabinet of wankers are by far the most corrupt and it's blatant. It's actually criminal what they are currently doing and if you looked into those who have benefited there's a familiar pattern.
Bylinetimes and DoubleDownNews are the go to places for this shit. If you still think they are just useless as opposed to dangerous corrupt thereafter then honestly you're blind.
The Companies House website is a wonderful thing. It's like if social media sites had to show everything about you, not just the shit you want people to see.
If that ever goes we truly need to start worrying about what's happening behind closed doors.
Although Companies House is only as good as the enforcement around it as those who work in anti-money laundering know. There's still a lot of fake/shell companies on there. A guy I used to work with has a load of fun with CH e.g. https://grahambarrow.com/companies-house-serendipity/
Yeah, course. There will be loads of companies on there that are filing absolute shite and doing all manner of illegal shit, but it now won't take much, for example, to find out who in the government is related to a director of Pest Fix.
+1 for the CH erection crew.
You can imagine how much I fumed. Fuck the Nando's business, this was the Tuped stuff that he could have done for new starters. (Also, fuck Times New Roman) It's corrupt from top to bottom and it'll be revealed.
@peterjukes is a decent one to follow on Twitter for it all. This government will be found out but then we'll get another one who work for themselves and not the rest of us.