Tag Archives: corruption

Is this why Michelle Mone is still free as a bird, despite her (alleged) PPE corruption?

Off the hook? Baroness Mone. One wonders whether she has darkened the doors of the House of Lords again, now Rishi Sunak appears to have cancelled any court action over the PPE procurement scandal involving her.

It seems that – under pressure from UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, whose government green-lit a torrent of corrupt PPE procurement deals during the Covid-19 crisis – judges in our courts have withdrawn permission to challenge PPE procurement deals on any level at all.

Despite the fact that enormous amounts of public money were handed over to friends and cronies of the Conservative government in return for nothing at all useful, these judges have said there is no public interest in how that public money is spent.

Jolyon Maugham of the Good Law Project, which brought judicial review cases on many of these PPE deals, has taken to ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to explain what has happened:

The pages from Mr Maugham’s book carry two stand-out passages for This Writer. First is this:

“‘I have the greatest respect for our judiciary and the rule of law in this country,’ wrote Rishi Sunak, before proceeding to threaten a new measure ‘which he would activate in the event of judicial recidivism*’. You can threaten judges who find against you or you can claim respect for the rule of law, but you can’t do both.”

Then we have this: “Our senior judges are drawn from an incredibly narrow section of society. They are the overwhelming beneficiary of the status quo and, the statistics show, went to school and university with those in government whose acts they now judge. Taken as a class, their politics and social outlook are bound to align with those who hold political and cultural power.”

Put it all together and we may conclude that judicial reviews of PPE procurement processes were halted not just because judges were threatened with a loss of power, but because they didn’t want to find against their friends in government and business.

And that brings us to Michelle Mone, who recommended PPE Medpro to provide Personal Protective Equipment to the UK government during the Covid crisis?

It won a contract via the Tory government’s illegal “fast track” – and then failed to come up with the goods; the government said the equipment wasn’t up to scratch, although the firm reckoned it passed inspections.

Baroness Mone and her family allegedly made £65 million from Medpro’s profits. This Site heard about this scandal in November last year, and shortly afterwards, she took a leave of absence from the House of Lords.

Nothing was heard of her for months, and then she suddenly reappeared, being photographed at fashionable London locations:

Is this the reason? Was she tipped off that it was possible for her to return to the UK because Rishi Sunak had made sure she would be protected from any kind of punishment for her actions, and she would not have to return the millions she took from the public purse?

*Recidivism: “the tendency of convicted criminals to continue to offend”. So Sunak was comparing judges with criminals, despite the evidence that it was his government that had behaved illegally.

Low pay at Border Force creates ‘breeding ground’ for corruption, watchdog says | Civil Service World

Border Force: presumably the staffers in this image were not on the take – but how many of their colleagues are – due to low pay?

This is interesting: not only is low pay bad for physical and mental health, but it also breeds corruption:

Aprobe into Border Force’s ability to identify and respond to corruption among its own staff has found work is hampered by “confused” civil service leadership structures, while poor pay and a lack of engagement are acting as a “breeding ground” for criminal behaviour.

Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration David Neal’s investigation into so-called “insider threat” focused on the risk that an “unscrupulous minority” of Border Force staff will abuse their access to data, property, and contraband to commit criminal acts.

The investigation was conducted between January and March and its findings were presented to home secretary Suella Braverman at the end of May, however Neal’s report was only published yesterday – and in redacted form.

So it seems that, deprived of a way to profit from their actual job, Border Force employees consider it acceptable to abuse the privileges of their work in order to make cash on the side.

And the corruption doesn’t end there: not only has publication of the report on this criminal activity been delayed for more than three months, but when it was finally published, some information was left out.

What’s the matter, Suella Braverman? Are the facts simply embarrassing for you – or damning about you?

Source: Low pay at Border Force creates ‘breeding ground’ for corruption, watchdog says

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Rishi Sunak is causing yet another conflict-of-interest – CORRUPTION – row

Akshata Murty and her husband, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak: it seems that, days after being forced to apologise for failing to declare that she (and therefore he) will benefit from one policy of the government he leads, he is trying to ensure that they will – corruptly? – benefit from another.

The UK prime minister who came into office promising “integrity, professionalism and accountability” is embroiled in yet another corruption/conflict-of-interest row involving his wife’s father’s multinational corporation, Infosys.

Rishi Sunak is trying to negotiate a free trade deal with India, where Infosys is based, and the allegation is that this will be hugely profitable for Infosys – and therefore, by proxy, for Sunak himself.

People are asking the obvious question:

Note that it is unlikely that the people of the UK will benefit from this free trade deal, according to Jemma Forte; Sunak is negotiating a deal to benefit his family – again.

Remember: Parliament’s Commissioner for Standards has only just stated that Sunak broke the Ministerial Code – “inadvertently” – by failing to declare that a childcare firm in which his wife has shares will benefit from a change in Tory government policy. In the current instance, there can be no such excuse as we have the evidence in advance of the deal.

Infosys is also a multiple offender in terms of preferential treatment from Sunak’s government. After war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, that firm was told to stop operating in Russia or face sanctions like all the other businesses then doing business with that state, but eight months later it was found still to be doing business there, with impunity against the UK’s sanctions regime.

Sunak is expected to attend a G20 summit in India in two weeks – and to discuss the trade deal at a separate, bilateral, meeting with that nation’s prime minister Narendra Modi.

But Keir Starmer’s opposition party (still currently known as Labour, for reasons unknown) has called for Sunak to make an open declaration about his wife’s financial interests in a company that could profit immensely from his involvement in these negotiations.

One expert – Professor Alan Manning of the London School of Economics, according to The Guardian, wants the prime minister to recuse himself from any negotiations.

In response, it seems the Foreign Office has warned the Labour-chaired business and trade select committee not to visit India to examine the issues around a potential deal. The government department is refusing to help committee members set up meetings with Indian officials and businesspeople.

It seems clear, then, that Sunak has something to hide once again – otherwise, why try to cover up what will happen at the negotiations?

The deal, it seems, will allow Infosys to send teams of its Indian employees to the UK to work on outsourced IT contracts for firms in this country.

Why not employ home-grown expertise and keep the contracts – and all the profits arising from them – in the UK? Or has previous Tory government policy ensured that nobody here has the required expertise any more?

Of course, the controversy will only intensify the debate over MPs having business interests outside the House of Commons, or receiving donations and/or gifts-in-kind from businesses or corporate bosses.

The question here is: who does Rishi Sunak work for – the people of the UK or his wife’s family firm?

The answer seems obvious – with the best interests of the nation he is supposed to lead coming a distant second.

Reform is urgently required – but with so many Parliamentarian snouts firmly in the trough, there seems to be no will to put a stop to the corporate influence that is staining all of us with the filth of corruption. How do we force an end to it?

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Saudi Arabia state visit will happen BECAUSE OF corruption and abuses

Mohammed Bin Salman meets Boris Johnson: What did THEY discuss?

Take a look at the evidence and you’ll see that the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Salman, has been invited to the UK because the UK supports corruption and human rights abuses, and not in spite of the nation’s opposition to those scourges.

That doesn’t make these people wrong:

It’s just that, next to them we have to put the following:

It’s a reference to this story, apparently:

If we had any trust in the police, a decision not to take further action would indicate that there was no truth in the accusation.

But we don’t trust the police – particularly not the Met. Here’s a reminder of some of our reasons:

It is the reason the following exclamation seems entirely reasonable:

From the (current) King to a former prime minister – Tony Blair. His organisation continued to receive funding from – and work for – Mohamed bin Salman after he was accused of having ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi:

With top-level endorsement like this, it seems clear that representatives of Saudi Arabia are welcome in the UK, no matter what they do.

Talk by UK politicians about opposing human rights abuses is exactly that: just talk.

The United Kingdom is a haven for totalitarian rulers and rights abusers – and will remain that way as long as we continue to allow the lowest kind of vermin to infest our corridors of power.

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Rishi Sunak just stops stopping oil – from our favourite correspondent

Over to our on-the-spot (he’s somewhere green) correspondent for a quick rundown of all the facts you need to know about Rishi Sunak’s new North Sea oil and gas drilling contracts:

(I thought you might enjoy this before I get festive about Sunak with an article about how upset the Tories have got about a photoshopped image of him handing over a badly-poured pint of beer – contrasted with the fact that they created a mechanism for pumping out lies about themselves. Coming soon!)

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Is this the secret reason Rishi Sunak announced 100 oil and gas contracts in a global warming crisis?

Rishi Sunak: the face of naked Tory avarice.

It should come as no surprise to anybody that the oil and gas contracts Rishi Sunak announced in the middle of a global boiling crisis come with a suggestion of corruption.

Remember Infosys, the firm owned by Sunak’s father-in-law, in which his wife Akshata Murty has 38.9 million shares? The information on my screen says they’re estimated to be worth £89 million but that is likely to increase hugely now.

You see, Infosys has just “won” (it says here) a $1.5 billion contract with BP – one of the energy firms that will profit from those North Sea oil and gas contracts. People are suggesting that there’s something fishy about it all, and it isn’t just the water:

Now, with Infosys having secured its deal and having now done his deal, Sunak is off on his holibobs – apparently his first in four years:

You may not be aware of this, but Sunak recently launched what’s he’s calling a Business Council, allegedly to “turbocharge economic growth”.

Here’s a bit of information about it:

Infosys already has ties with Shell, as part of a partnership with “two of the top five integrated oil and gas companies, three of the top four oilfield services providers, and five of the top 10 upstream enterprises across the oil and gas landscape”:

The Byline Times article – from July 19 last year – warned us about Sunak’s ties with the fossil fuel industry:

Infosys’ intimate partnerships with regional as well as global oil and gas giants represent a potential conflict of interest for Rishi Sunak.

According to the UK Ministerial Code, ministers are required to fully disclose and explain the business interests of their spouses and families “which might give rise to a conflict” with the duties of Government.

Despite Sunak ostensibly committing to the Government’s net zero goals – now deemed unlawful by the High Court for not going far enough – he also said in the televised debate … that Britain must not move “too hard and too fast” on climate action.

His victory [in the Conservative leadership contest that was ongoing at the time] could represent a win for firms like Shell, which said it expected to revise upwards the value of oil and gas assets it had previously written down, triggering a jump in share prices.

When Sunak eventually released a list of his business interests – correct me if I’m wrong – the connections between his wife’s family firm and the oil companies that have just won very large and valuable contracts were not mentioned.

Scottish news organisation The National has also – just – published a list of fossil fuel polluters and climate change deniers that donate money to the Conservative Party. Have some of these won contracts in Sunak’s recent bonanza?

Taking it in the round, it seems unlikely that Sunak had the interests of the eco-system in mind when he was considering the possibility of new oil and gas contracts in the North Sea.

Indeed, it seems unlikely that he considered the well-being of anything other than his own financial affairs and those of his family.

It seems to This Writer that this entire situation – the contracts, the Business Council, the donations to the Tory Party – requires scrutiny, and by somebody entirely independent of Sunak and his Tories.

Can anybody recommend a mechanism by which this can be secured?

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The news in tweets: Sunday, July 23, 2023

‘No more Green New Deal’ is what we can see on the banner – and that is exactly what Keir Starmer is offering as he panders to the fossil fuel firms in his relentlessly grubby bid for power.

Tories AND Labour throw green policies into the fire – but who is most responsible?

Let’s make a few connections.

Energy minister Grant Shapps has unilaterally decided that the environment can burn, and to this end has announced that he’ll extract all the remaining fossil fuels from the North Sea in the name of “energy security”:

If we’ve learned anything from the state of the environment lately, it is that there is no security in energy generated from fossil fuels. As Richard Murphy states, the planet is burning and the Tory response is to stoke the fire.

Now let’s go over to the party formerly known as Labour, where leader Keir Stürmer is trying to dictate to London Mayor Sadiq Khan that he should “reflect on” (ditch) the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone that keeps more heavily-polluting traffic out of the centre of the capital because it was the issue that lost their party the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.

This is idiotic for several reasons. Firstly, Stürmer’s STP (Substitute Tory Party) should not have lost because of ULEZ, which is a Conservative policy. It was imposed by Boris Johnson – the former MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, whose resignation triggered the election – so all Stürmer’s candidate had to do to counter criticisms of his party and mayor was point this out.

Secondly, we know this didn’t happen because people with non-polluting cars, who would not have paid the charge, were complaining about it on the doorstep. Perhaps they didn’t like being told it was nothing to do with them, but it’s more likely that they simply weren’t told that at all.

Thirdly, the ULEZ is not something Khan can unilaterally change; it was imposed on London by the Department for Transport when it was being run by… oh yes! Grant Shapps.

So Shapps is magically facing in two different directions at once.

And Stürmer is apparently being dishonest about the reason his party lost the election.

It’s all very well saying, “We lost because of the ULEZ”, but if his people didn’t actually defend themselves on it, that’s their fault.

Doesn’t it seem more likely that it is an excuse that is being inflated to hide a different reason for the loss.

What could that reason be?

That’s not his only blunder…

Also:

Call me a scaremonger if you like, but it seems to This Writer that the most logical reason his party lost in Uxbridge and South Ruislip is Keir Starmer himself.

Keir Mather: fact and fiction about the new, Starmerite MP for Selby and Ainsty

And on that subject…

Apparently he was a researcher for former Tory MP Matthew Parris.

Forgive me, but I question whether that’s the right sort of grounding for a person who now represents the party that is supposed to support working people.

The Tory government has decided that saving the lives of disabled people who have to live in high-rise tower blocks is too expensive

How many hundreds of billions of pounds have they given to their friends and donors in return for absolutely nothing at all?

Sunak’s doublespeak: he wants you to think his theft of your rights is something you have demanded

Standing ovation for Mick Lynch after speech about the ‘stench of corruption’ in Tory government

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Yes: Partygate report is damning. But we knew Johnson was a liar. Why was he allowed to be PM?

The respect he has for us: This Site used this image of Boris Johnson delivering a two-fingered salute to indicate occasions when his behaviour fell below the standard we should have expected of him – and there were many such times. Nobody cared. Many were on a gravy train that he had set on the tracks. And the consequences of his corruption will continue to be felt for a long time to come. How can we ensure nobody like him ever gets to be prime minister again?

At last the report of the Commons’ Partygate Inquiry has been published and it says what we all knew: Boris Johnson lied repeatedly and brazenly about the fact that parties took place in Downing Street while families across the country were locked down and could not properly handle their loved ones’ deaths of Covid-19.

You can download the full report by the Commons’ Privileges Committee here. The BBC has been live-streaming about it here. Other reports are available.

The report recommended that Johnson be suspended from Parliament, not just for the 10 days that would have triggered a by-election in his constituency (he has resigned as an MP anyway) but for 90 days – a quarter of a year.

Two of the committee wanted Johnson expelled altogether, but this was vetoed by the four Conservative MPs on the panel, which suggests bias for party political purposes (at least, it does to me).

It seems unlikely he’ll get a former members’ pass, which provides limited access to the House of Commons for former MPs to visit colleagues and have meals – but MPs will have to vote on this.

But these are all secondary issues.

The main concern is that a man who is a habitual liar was allowed to occupy the highest office in the United Kingdom and to make a mockery of its powers and privileges.

This Writer thinks a further investigation should be carried out, into how such a despicable creature was allowed to rise through the ranks of any political party.

We all knew what he was. Sites like Vox Political spent years warning about him – but our concerns fell on deaf ears.

He was supported by chancers who saw opportunities for themselves in his rise, and he entered 10 Downing Street on the crest of a tidal wave of dishonesty unlike anything previously seen in this country.

As the Partygate Report states, the contempt he showed for Parliament (let alone the rest of the UK) was unprecedented because he was the prime minister.

He should never have got as far as he did – but he did. He should never have been allowed to do the things he did – but he was.

And it is entirely possible for others to follow in his footsteps and do the same.

Given the level of corruption shown by Johnson by his actions in taking part in Downing Street parties and then covering up the fact that they even took place, let alone any other questionable behaviour during his time in office, it seems clear that Parliament must clean up its act.

Yes, the inquiry has done its job, but the rot was allowed to set in for three years before anything could be done. That is far too long. A single day is too long.

The question is: how do we police Parliament, when its members and employees have demonstrated themselves to be inadequate in the job?

ADDITIONAL: It is good to see Johnson’s former employer, Max Hastings, telling BBC News (at c.11.35am, June 15) that while he welcomes the report, he feels as I do – that the people who put him in his position (not the voters; people in the Conservative Party and the media) need to be investigated/penalised/prevented from doing it again. Sadly, Sir Max (when was he knighted?) seems to think Rishi Sunak is an honourable person (in spite of evidence to the contrary), so this will be uphill work as those involved may be unable to see beyond their own biases.

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Teesside freeport corruption inquiry to happen – and the man in charge resigns. Why?

An inquiry is being launched into allegations of corruption related to a flagship Tory government project – the free port at Teesside.

Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove has ordered it, but turned down an offer by the National Audit Office to carry it out. Apparently it doesn’t fall within the NAO’s remit.

Instead, he said he would ask an independent panel to report on the governance arrangements, how decisions are made, and look “at the value achieved for the investment of public money on the site”.

Concerns relate to the transfer of millions of pounds worth of public assets (land in this case) to private developers.

The situation has been covered in recent issues of Private Eye, which alleges that more than £100 million worth of land was sold to a company controlled by local businessmen for £100.

Apparently a firm called Teesworks Ltd was created as a joint venture between their companies and the publicly-owned South Tees Development Corporation (STDC).

Teesworks Ltd would be able to commission income on the development, take half the proceeds of scrap sales from the abandoned steel industry in the area (in the high tens of millions of pounds so far, allegedly), and have an option to buy any land, once redeveloped – at public expense – for market value.

This deal involved no payment or investment from the private sector partners, and was made after they had made what the Eye calls a “well-timed” purchase of a separate option on a small area of land that “the official version goes”, could have stopped the compulsory purchase from a Thai steel company’s bankers of land on the South Tees.

A report on a meeting that approved a compromise deal with the Thai banks suggested to Eye reporters that the STDC board is a “rubber stamp” for privately-made decisions.

The local businessmen later increased their stake in Teesworks Ltd to 90 per cent – at a cost of £0, and the option deal was amended so the company could acquire land for just £1 per acre – leading to the purchase of land worth £100 million for just £100, stated the Eye.

Documentation stated that the extra shares were in return for Teesworks taking on the the future development of the site and liability for preparing the land for tenants, at a cost of £172 million, after public funding ran out – but nothing has so far been invested (again, according to the Eye).

Indeed, it seems that, just as public money was about to run out, Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen changed the deal so that STDC will continue funding the operation – with public borrowing.

The magazine stated: “The valuation of the shares was said to have been based on the value of the option, the scrap proceeds and the (negative) land value given the work supposedly to be – but in the event not – funded by Teesworks Ltd.

“This valuation was prepared by estate agents Knight Frank, whose local partners happen to include” the sister of one of the owners of Teesworks Ltd. Both STDC and Knight Frank declined to say if this sister had been personally involved in the work.

As for the change to the option that allowed “the vast transfer of wealth from the taxpayer into private hands”, STDC’s 2021/22 accounts state that “an option exists, allowing the purchase of areas of the Teesworks site for a value which is equal to a value determined by an independent valuer”.

The Eye concluded that “since the actual price for any purchase had for some time been £1/acre and way below the true value of the land… this is either false or indicates that… Knight Frank… decided all remediated land would be worth the nominal figure anyway”. Either way, the Eye concluded that the statement in the accounts “concealed the secret squirrelling under way”.

Given these allegations – and we need to bear in mind that they are only allegations at the moment – one might wonder why the “independent” inquiry is only examining what the governance arrangements are, the way decisions are made, and the value achieved in return for public investment.

The “independent” panel isn’t being asked to examine possible corruption in those decisions.

And that’s odd, because it seems investors are becoming nervous: BP and a Norwegian firm, Equinor, have suddenly insisted on a guarantee that no assets have been subject to an “unacceptable act”, and that STDC and its partners must confirm that they have not and will not “hide or dissimulate the nature, origin, location, disposition or ownership of assets, rights or values”.

It is also curious that the man in charge of the Teesside Freeport quit his job on the day the inquiry was announced.

Nolan Gray is to take up another appointment outside Tees Valley Combined Authority. He told The Northern Echo he had achieved his main goal of setting up and launching the freeport.

That’s odd. I’ve just seen a UK government press release from 2021 saying the freeport was up and running. Presumably his goal was achieved all that time ago. I wonder why he waited so long.

Put all this together, and it seems unlikely that Gove’s inquiry will provide any answers to the questions that are being asked.

Former Shadow Chancellor confirms water and energy privatisation are riddled with corruption

John McDonnell: he knows exactly what’s been going on in the water companies since privatisation.

It’s always welcome when a senior politician confirms one’s suspicions.

In an article yesterday (May 20, 2023), This Writer suggested that greed has overtaken service provision in the boardrooms of both the privatised water and energy firms.

Now we discover that former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has reached much the same conclusion.

In an article published by the Yorkshire Post, he stated:

The water industry is second only to the energy industry in ripping off the British public. Since privatisation, the water companies have stolen from the average consumer of water in this country.

He added some details to the story of water privatisation, too:

Privatisation was meant to reduce prices, increase investment and make the industry more accountable to the wider public through shareholding. That has not been the case.

Those of you who have been following this issue on Vox Political will know I’ve stated that privatisation was meant to reduce prices and increase investment.

As for making the industry accountable to the wider public through shareholding, I’m not sure how that is supposed to be better than nationalisation, which makes the industry accountable to us all, rather than the comparatively few people who own company shares.

In any case,

It is not more accountable through shareholding, because most of the companies that now own British water are owned by overseas shareholders.

That’s overseas shareholders who own most of the British water companies, and not pension funds – as some apologists for privatisation have tried to claim.

And what has happened?

Since 1989, real water bills have risen 50 per cent. Since 2010, bills have gone up by more than 12.5 per cent. At the same time, individual family incomes have gone down by five per cent.

This is interesting:

Significant investment has been made in the infrastructure, but the problem is that since the 1990s that has declined as a proportion of the overall turnover of the industry.

How strange. Significant investment, yet the system leaks like a sieve. One hesitates to image what it would be like without this ever-decreasing contribution.

Most of the money we’ve paid the water firms, on the other hand,

has gone into paying interest charges on water company debts or dividends to their owners and shareholders.

It has now been exposed that some of the borrowing is being used to pay dividends to shareholders and high salaries to chief executives and board directors.

Six UK water companies took high-interest loans from their owners through the Channel Islands and then converted them into euro bonds. They then lent them back to the companies and paid virtually no tax on them whatsoever.

This is a tax scam for which these water companies are used as a vehicle… This is a scandal.

Mr McDonnell recommends, rather than privatisation, a shift to the not-for-profit company model exemplified by Welsh Water.

It’s nice to know that This Writer’s local water company is considered the way of the future by at least one influential politician – but I still think re-nationalisation is best; it eliminates the risk of corruption altogether (or, at least, should).

But what’s to be done about the scandal(s) that Mr McDonnell has identified?

Under the current government – nothing, most likely.

So we need a better government.

If more young people were encouraged to vote, we might actually get it. And it is in their best interest.

After all, it’s the young who’ll suffer the most over the long term if rampant water corruption and profiteering isn’t halted – not to mention the sewage scandal.

Source: John McDonnell: Our money seeps away into profiteering by water firms | Yorkshire Post

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