Off Topic Coronavirus and NOTHING to do with football thread

"To stop a major surge in London spreading across the country, ministers are considering advising no travel for Londoners past the M25, effectively isolating the capital city."

That would be interesting. If you lived in Watford you would not be allowed to travel to Hemel or Berko. I suspect that policing that one could be a bit difficult.

 

From April 2020:

 

From a few days ago:

 

From March...

 

Covid deaths for the full month of July:
England - 2230
Wales - 46
Scotland - 6
N. Ireland - 5

The Johnson/Cummings strategy is a disaster

 

I think everyone already realises that Gove thinks himself above the law - but, luckily, someone with more of an idea about the law than him thinks otherwise. It looks like he'll be off to court soon, thanks to Jolyon Maugham QC - who sent this reply to a question from a Facebook friend about his breach of procurement rules.

Several weeks back we issued judicial review proceedings against Michael Gove for his decision to award an £840,000 contract to associates of his and Dominic Cummings, without any advertisement or competitive tender process.

Last week we got back a letter from Gove’s lawyers, refusing to provide any information about the contract how it was awarded (despite being bound by a duty of candour). Instead they refuse to engage at all with the proceedings - and challenge our right to bring them.

We already knew from his trips to and around Durham that Cummings didn’t think the rules applied to him; does Gove now feel the same?

Well, they may consider themselves above the law, but we do not.

And on Friday 31 July, we filed the fully particularised claim form, with detailed analysis and evidence that firmly underscore the unlawfulness of this award. You can read the documents here.

We believe that the judicial review should succeed for several reasons. First, the Government can’t rely on emergency procurement procedures for services such as focus groups and communications services. Second, it can’t breach procurement safeguards to let a six month contract on the grounds of urgency. And third, there is apparent bias in the grant of this large contract to long-time associates of Gove and Cummings. Importantly, we reserve our position in relation to whether there might be actual bias.

The evidence we have provided show how lucrative the contract was. In the witness statements, we reference conversations with industry specialists, who tell us £840,000 is an “extraordinary”, “crazy” or “insane” price.

Worryingly, these industry experts have also told us that they dare not raise their heads above the parapet to complain publicly, because they fear they will be “punished” by the Government for doing so.

And therein lies the rub. The Government says that we cannot challenge the contract because we don’t have ‘standing’ - the only people who can challenge, it says, are those they have frightened into silence.

But we must and will stand up to them. Procurement rules exist to ensure value for public money; they aim to mitigate bias and prevent croney-ism. Government must not, under cloak of public emergency, hand out large sums of cash to long-time associates.

Thank you,

Jolyon Maugham
Director

 

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I did read all the details about this £840,000 contract, and those in the industry suggested that a figure of £15,000 would be normal for this type of work. Even if you doubled or trebled it there would still be huge questions to answer. There are also many questions that should be answered by Hancock over contracts. A few examples have been listed here.

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It is little wonder that government doesn't wish to answer questions.

 

Nothing to see here...

 

So Corbyn was right - the NHS is for sale. The report he waved in parliament prior to the December election was a copy of documents relating to UK/US trade talks - apparently hacked from Liam Fox's email by Russian hackers. I wonder how Corbyn got a copy?

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/p...ments-were-hacked-from-liam-foxs-email/03/08/

 

The Russian state is doing whatever it takes to destroy individual countries, alliances, or trading blocks that it sees as a threat to it becoming a much larger player on the world stage. What seems to be obvious is not always so simple, People are constantly being fed information that is being presented in a way that suits the presenter in the way that serves their purpose. The latest on contract awards to friends is for messaging to the general public. You either take it at face value as members of the Tory party might, or you ask why is this being put out now. There are many differing messages on social media, which is where lots of this information is put. Spend two minutes and you will find who the suspect is in the latest Tory sex scandal, and you will have a name. On the day that John Hume dies, a really good politician who was prepared to do what was right, even if it meant going against his own party, then it shows up just how low our current crop have sunk.

 

Just to get back to the leaked e-mails. A criminal inquiry into the leaking of the documents is underway, says the government. Nothing whatsoever about the contents.

Just where will the government be if as seems likely Trump is removed in November?

 

In the Dock with him, I should hope.

 

I've only seen the one name on Twitter linked to the rape case - and strangely each claim includes reference to the fact that the guy deleted both his Twitter and his Facebook accounts. I'm certain he never had a Twitter account - and his Facebook account is still current, so I'm not so sure they're correct.

If you haven't guessed, my interest in the case has been prompted by the differences in media reporting of a similar case here a while back - in which the accused's name was plastered UK wide as soon as details emerged, and we were treated to biased daily updates of how the case was proceeding in the press and on TV - biased in that every media outlet twisted details of what was actually being said in court.

Thankfully it was all proven to be nonsense, which made the media look foolish. I like to think that their current reluctance to name the MP is down to the fact that they got it horribly wrong the last time and learned a valuable lesson - but I doubt that is the case.

 

Yes I did have the case you referred to in mind, and certainly on the evidence we can see about this Tory would not put the name out on this forum. There are suggestions that pressure was brought onto the police and CPS over the Cummings trip, but independent law forces are finding that governments both in the UK and USA are trying to bend them to suit the agenda of the day. I hope that they resist.

 

Spot on.

 

"Adam from Bury, Greater Manchester, has rung into LBC.

. His wife is a contact tracer. As part of her job to find contacts of those with Covid-19, she’s made two phone calls since May. Neither of the calls were successful. Nevertheless she’s been offered overtime."

Apart from the fact that the tracking service is not picking up contacts, one wonders why she is now doing overtime. Simple really! Private company is charging the government for the hours that its trackers are logged on. Nice little profit to be made even if there are very few results from it. It is no wonder that some local authorities are now using their own public health officials to do a home visit and make sure that they do make people aware that they should stay at home.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-53617762

 

"Put off McDonalds for life"

Positive outcome then...

 

I hope they get the book thrown at them. There are a small number of stupid and selfish people around and I am sad to say many are youngsters.

 

My sister, a private taxi driver lives just north of the M25/M1 interchange so she may not be able to do her airport jobs!