Boris …

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“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm”

Winston Churchill

UK Prime – for you to insert here – Minister Boris Johnson was absent from the first five COBRA meetings addressing Coronavirus.

… Boris crap Johnson, Boris absent Johnson, Boris Johnson, Boris nothing more than unruly hairedness Johnson, Boris pfaff Johnson …

Continue ReadingBoris …

Christmas / Mid-winter Appeal

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Image of goats

I’ve not done a Christmas / Mid-winter appeal before so here we go.

The Christmas celebration is terribly wasteful – we often give people gifts that they don’t want or need. If you can afford it, I’m asking you to support ActionAid or a similar charity this year. Gifts can be bought from ActionAid UK here. Looks like you can buy from outside UK or otherwise please find a similar charity.

The advantages of buying a gift from ActionAid is that you’re not being wasteful – you’re buying something that someone actually needs and it’s also very good value.

There’s also the change to hit the jackpot. Send the card to a current resident of Pennsylvania Avenue and you’ll hit 3 out of 3. I’m sure that he’ll be so pleased that you’ve bought him a gift supporting black women in one of those &#!7#0l3 countries he loves so much.

I wish you all a happy Mid-winter festival. Take care and please remember that it’s not too wise to travel all over the country atm.

Continue ReadingChristmas / Mid-winter Appeal

The trouble with Boris Johnson

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Well c’mon you all know the trouble with Boris Johnson. He’s am upper-class twat.

Image of Boris Johnson wearing Bullingdon Club uniform

I’ll have to continue this but I think that you understand. It’s not only that he’s a twat, it’s also that he’s a condescending upper-class twat and that he was an insulting upper-class twat while a member of the bully, bully, bully Bullingdon club. Well, anyway he’s an arse.

Image of Oxford's Bullingdon Club

The Wikipedia page for the Bullingdon Club excuses their activites. The Bullingdon Club was about excessively wealthy through inheritance Oxford university students belonging to a select gang that would humiliate people through their vandalism and wealth. Restaurants and pubs were vandalised by them followed by them humiliating the owners/proprietors for a second time by paying for the damage in vast amounts of cash (vast quantities of physical money the likes which normal people have probably never ever seen).

Image reads "The rich and powerful piss on us and the media tells us it's raining"

Anyway, Boris is a rich twat totally divorced from reality who has a history of vandalism and humiliating normal people.

Sexism, vandalism and bullying: inside the Boris Johnson-era Bullingdon Club

Continue ReadingThe trouble with Boris Johnson

I strongly advise against taking the UK approved Coronavinus/Covid-19 ‘vaccine’

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The alleged vaccine has not been tested in any meaningful way,

I strongly advise against taking the UK approved Coronavinus/Covid-19 ‘vaccine’. Despite Boris warning against the nonsense of anti-vaxxers, I am warning against the pro-vaxxers BS.

later edit: It’s not about anti-vaxxers & pro-vaxxers. Boris & co have attempted to constrain the debate in the context of anti-vaxxers vs. this vaccine which is unfair & distracting. The debate should be about this potential vaccine, not anti-vaxxers.

* The vaccine has not been tested in any meaningful way. It’s absolutely f’ing ridiculous that this has been accepted as anything approaching any scientific validity. I very strongly suspect that UK govt has used evil* methods to get this passed.

* This vaccine is based on a totally new unknown science involving injecting people with RNA.

* Evil UK legislation: We direct you to do this and not divulge it to anyone on threat of being imprisoned for ever.

This vaccine is not even going to work

ed: and may well damage you terribly. UK government has granted impunity from prosecution to the vaccine manufacturers.

7/12/20 corrected minor typos

9/12/20 It occurs to me that it is totally insane to introduce alien RNA into someone’s system, and that it’s totally alien to the rules of nature. It occurs to me that it is totally perverse and why on Earth would anyone even contemplate it never mind actually do it. It looks like absolute desperation when what’s needed is rationality and reason.

later: It’s been tested on 40 or so people over 55. [12/12/20 I don’t recall where I got that figure but I thought that it was first or second-hand from pfizer, reporting their vaccine trial. It seems to me that reports are changing which is disturbing. https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-announce-publication-results-landmark:“The median age was 52 years, and 42% were older than 55 years.”] It’s approved as for use as an emergency measure. It’s not approved for use with other medications. Granddads and grandmothers in care homes are sacrificial.

Image reads "TRUTH the new hate speech"

later: Which raises the issue who are they a sacrifice to? I suggest that the answer is this crap useless government that has been so incompetent and negligent with Boris neglecting to attend the first 5 COBRA meetings addressing the Coronavirus crisis. Boris’s UK shambolic incompetence is only matched by his Trans-Atlantic brother blond incompetent luser.

later yet: And what about that one? He’s insane. You lost the election, you total a**hole. You lost the election because more people voted against you than for you. It is inanity (and insanity;) that he can’t understand that.

Continue ReadingI strongly advise against taking the UK approved Coronavinus/Covid-19 ‘vaccine’

Stop the secrecy: save our Freedom of Information

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https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/save-our-foi/

The UK government is running a secretive unit inside Michael Gove’s Cabinet Office that’s been accused of ‘blacklisting’ journalists and blocking the release of ‘sensitive’ information. Experts say they’re breaking the law – and it’s an assault on our right to know what our government is doing.

We’re not going to let it stand. We’re launching a legal battle – but we also need a huge public outcry, showing that thousands back our call for transparency. Will you add your name?

Continue ReadingStop the secrecy: save our Freedom of Information

Greenpeace Releases Far-Reaching ‘Just Recovery Agenda’ to Tackle Interlocking Crises of Inequality, Racial Injustice, Covid-19, and Climate Chaos

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We must “shift from an economy that is extractive and exploitative to one that regenerates and repairs,” the new report says.byAndrea Germanos, staff writer

Republished from Common Dreams

“Over the past four years, we have cared for one another,” said Greenpeace USA campaigns director James Mumm. “Now, we must come together to ensure that Joe Biden and the new Congress care for us, and to see that everyone—no matter their race or where they come from—has what they need to thrive.” (Photo: Michael Nagle/Greenpeace)

The “just, green, and peaceful future we deserve is possible and together we can build the power to manifest it.”

This moment “calls us to be visionary in our pursuit to people—not corporations or wealthy elites—at the heart of governance and public life.”
—James Mumm, Greenpeace USA

So declares Greenpeace USA’s new “Just Recovery Agenda.” Released Tuesday and packed with more than 100 sweeping policy recommendations for President-elect Joe Biden and members of the next U.S. Congress to embrace, the visionary document plots out a path for erecting new systems that no longer put corporate greed above the public and planet’s well-being.

“Going back to normal is not an option,” the report bluntly states, because what “we knew as ‘normal’ was a crisis.” The coronavirus crisis has thrown that truism into relief, says Greenpeace, but the worsening climate and ecological crises and deep inequality have long made the case for a bold transformation of the dominant economic system.

With post-pandemic policies now being charting out—and a new presidential administration just months away—Greenpeace says it’s crystal clear now is the time for pivotal change.

“The policy choices we make in this disruptive moment will shape the path forward for millions of people—the Covid-19 crisis and clarion call for racial justice in 2020 must mark a turning point for federal policy-making,” the report urges.

Greenpeace USA campaigns director James Mumm put the new report in the context of former Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump.

“We the people have chosen Joe Biden, who will arrive in the White House with a forceful mandate to lead our recovery from Covid-19, address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first,” Mumm said in a statement.

“Over the past four years, we have cared for one another,” he continued. “Now, we must come together to ensure that Joe Biden and the new Congress care for us, and to see that everyone—no matter their race or where they come from—has what they need to thrive.”

The report expands on what that means by pointing to “dignified work, healthcare, education, housing, clean air and water, healthy food, and more.” In this new work, says Greenpeace, the world must “shift from an economy that is extractive and exploitative to one that regenerates and repairs.”

Centering all the prescriptions—which range from boosting voting rights to expanding renewable energy—are values of equity, community justice, freedom, compassion, and creativity.

Actions demanded of federal lawmakers include establishing a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour; strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act; enacting and enforcing new antitrust standards to curb corporate power; “passing bold and just recovery legislation in line with the THRIVE Agenda to lay the groundwork for a Green New Deal and world beyond fossil fuels”; enacting the pro-democracy the For The People Act of 2019; banning permits for new or expansions of existing factory farms; “enacting The BREATHE Act to police brutality and racial injustice by investing in Black communities and re-imagining community safety”; and enacting a ban on deep sea mining.

“As we look to recover from the interlocking crises we face as a nation,” said Mumm, “it’s time to use the tools and power of the federal government to solve problems rather than exacerbate them.”

“This moment calls us to be bold and advance solutions at the scale science and justice demand,” he continued. “It calls us to be holistic and navigate out of multiple crises at once. And it calls us to be visionary in our pursuit to people—not corporations or wealthy elites—at the heart of governance and public life.”

Make no mistake—the “us” Mumm refers to really means all of us.

“Telling our story will not be the job of a single, appointed messenger, be it a politician, celebrity, CEO, or activist,” says the report. “That responsibility lies with everyone who believes in the vision of a better world.”

“Together we will build a movement broad, inclusive, and powerful enough to deliver the future our communities need and deserve,” it states. “Together we will rewrite the rules of society.”

Extra video by dizzy deep

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Continue ReadingGreenpeace Releases Far-Reaching ‘Just Recovery Agenda’ to Tackle Interlocking Crises of Inequality, Racial Injustice, Covid-19, and Climate Chaos

Boris Johnson government chumocracy and covid cronyism

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‘Chumocracy’: how Covid revealed the new shape of the Tory establishment

Appointments made and contracts awarded during the pandemic have uncovered a web of connections

The anti-establishment claims of a government led by Johnson and Dominic Cummings were always audacious, and in the appointments and contracts awarded during the pandemic, the shape of a Tory establishment has come into focus. Critics are calling it a “chumocracy”.

Companies benefiting from government contracts awarded during the pandemic have links, among others, to the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser. Cummings shock departure from Downing Street following the resignation of his close ally Lee Cain, who was head of communications, now signal a realignment of power in No 10, but the web of connections drawing complaints of “cronyism” extend beyond any single Tory faction.

Bingham’s appointment shares similarities with that of Dido Harding, to head the NHS test and trace operation in May. She was made chair of NHS Improvement in 2017 after an open recruitment process, her CV gleams with executive experience, and also opens a window to a small world of Conservative connectedness. Married to the Tory MP John Penrose, she was given a peerage in 2014 by David Cameron, a friend, and sits in the House of Lords as a Conservative.

Neither Bingham nor Harding are being paid for their roles, but critics complain that two central pillars of the pandemic response, vaccines and testing, are being led by two well-connected executives appointed without an evident formal process.

Government outsourcing of COVID-19 response is “national scandal” says select committee member

Labour’s Dawn Butler says pandemic being used as a “cover” to avoid accountability, comments come in wake of latest openDemocracy COVID contracting revelation.

The government has been accused of presiding over “a national scandal” by awarding multi-million COVID contracts to companies with minimal oversight and accountability. 

Labour MP Dawn Butler told openDemocracy that many of the firms that had received lucrative government contracts had failed to deliver. 

“There is public money being given to companies that are not delivering a good service. I think the pandemic is being used as a cover,” said the member of the House of Commons science and technology select committee. 

Butler’s comments, made in a live webinar, came after openDemocracy revealed a PR firm close to Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove that has received more than £1million worth of government contracts without any competition had been hired to clean up the A-level exams result fiasco.    

Government contracts are usually awarded after a tender process which allows multiple providers to compete to provide the best value.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the government has used an exemption in procurement legislation to avoid having to open up public contracts to tender. 

Government departments have handed huge sums of money out to private firms under the emergency rules since the beginning of the pandemic.

Role for former Conservative chairman and corporate lobbyist Andrew Feldman prompts fresh concerns about privileged access given to Tory ‘friends and donors’

The British government has been accused of “blatant cronyism” after an openDemocracy investigation found that former Tory chairman, Andrew Feldman, was quietly given a job advising a health minister despite potential conflicts of interest with clients of the lobbying firm that he runs.

Lord Feldman, who has been mooted as a contender for Boris Johnson’s next chief of staff, worked as an unpaid adviser to health minister Lord Bethell between March 24 and May 15 this year.

At the time the government was assembling an informal “task force” with private and public sector organisations to scale up coronavirus testing as a precursor to its test and trace programme.

The Tory peer is also managing director of PR consultancy Tulchan. Yet his advisory role, which was supported by a “small civil service private office”, according to officials, was never formally announced by the government.

The Department of Health and Social Care said that the Feldman’s appointment had been “fully documented” – but were unable to point to any examples of where his role had been made public before being contacted by openDemocracy.

Revealed: ‘Failing’ Serco won another £57m COVID contract without competition

As Serco’s share price soars, government accused of “shovelling huge sums of public money to a handful of outsourcing companies without competition, rigour or accountability”.

Outsourcing giant Serco was given a £57 million contract to run COVID testing centres across the UK without any competition, openDemocracy can reveal.

The Department of Health and Social Care handed Serco and other private firms previously secret multi-million pound contracts to provide “management services” at sites across the country.

The news comes as the FTSE-listed firm announced this morning that the government has renewed an earlier contact-tracing contract – worth a reported £410 million – despite a swelling chorus of criticism of the scheme’s failings.

Sage, the government’s scientific advisory team, has warned that “engagement” problems and “delays” means the track and trace system is only having a “marginal impact” on reducing the spread of the virus.

Serco’s unscheduled trading statement Friday sent its shares soaring. The company predicted that profits could hit £165m, thanks largely to a slew of lucrative government contracts.

Under the terms of the newly unearthed contract, the government paid both Serco and outsourcers G4S an initial fee of £57 million to run COVID testing sites at locations across the UK. Another outsourcing firm, Mitie, was given £32 million to provide similar services. All these contracts were awarded without a competitive tender process.

The contracts were only published last week – despite rules stipulating that contracts must be made public within thirty days.

Stroud councillor Steve Dechan ran a small, loss-making firm distributing medical devices. Documents show it signed a £156m deal to import PPE from China

A small, loss-making firm run by a Conservative councillor in Stroud was given a £156m contract to import PPE from China without any competition, openDemocracy has learned.

Steve Dechan’s company, P14 Medical, signed the huge contract to supply medical gowns in May, even though the firm suffered significant financial losses in 2019, and its previous track record in PPE procurement is unclear. Transparency campaigners say the deal “reeks of cronyism”.

Dechan, who stood down from Stroud town council in late August, had previously made headlines when it emerged that P14 Medical had landed a contract worth almost £120m to supply face shields to the Department of Health and Social Care.

The £156m gowns deal was signed in late May, but details were only published at the end of September. Government contracts are supposed to be made public within 30 days.

Questions have also been raised about large contracts awarded to other small firms with limited experience of supplying PPE, including many with links to the Conservative party.

Cabinet Office accused of breaching rules after handing £840,000 contract to PR firm run by co-author of the 2019 Tory manifesto for focus groups initially listed as ‘EU Exit Comms’.

The Cabinet Office has awarded an £840,000 contract for researching public opinion about government policies to a company owned by two long-term associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, without putting the work out for tender.

Public First, a small policy and research company in London’s Tufton Street, is run by James Frayne – whose work alongside Cummings dates back to a Eurosceptic campaign 20 years ago – and Rachel Wolf, a former advisor to Gove who co-wrote the Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto.

The government justified the absence of a competitive tendering process, which would have enabled other companies to bid, under emergency regulations that allow services to be urgently commissioned in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

However the Cabinet Office’s public record states that portions of the work, which involved conducting focus groups, related to Brexit rather than COVID-19, a joint investigation by openDemocracy and the Guardian has established.

There’s more at openDemocracy. Donate

Continue ReadingBoris Johnson government chumocracy and covid cronyism

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I’m fairly certain that Guantanamera translates to a girl from Guantanamo

X

later: Wasn’t Guantanomo a part of Cuba. They must have broken the lease agreement. I think that I would kick them out anyway

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