PPE; Tired of Reading About it yet?

The UK PPE supply saga rumbles on. This morning, the BBC News web site reports:

"Government writes off £8.7 billion spent on PPE during pandemic". A rough breakdown of reasons for this shows £673million for items that were unusable, £750million for items that passed their expiry date before they could be used and £4.7billion as a result of the government paying more for the supplies than their current worth.

Add to these numbers the £4.9billion lost through fraudulent Covid loan schemes and we end up with somewhere around £13.6billion thrown away by the government. That number is remarkably close to the amount the government say is needed to tackle the issue of a cash starved NHS/Care system and needs to be raised via the much disputed increase in N.I. contributions (tax). How careless of them! But never mind; as Boris the liar keeps reminding us his government has led world beating this, that and the other.

Virtually all of his "world beating" claims are either based on a clever use of statistics, comparing apples with oranges etc or plain and simple lies.

Looking back over the government's world beating ordering of PPE supplies (something being boasted about along the lines of "We took the appropriate measures to obtain PPE kit against serious competition for available supplies"). Or, in the language of the common man or woman, "We had legions of cronies to take care of. Regardless of the cost to the exchequer".

Reviewing data I collected in 2020, when the spending frenzy was reaching a crescendo, I see that, during the months of April, May and June, there were 233 contracts let to cronies, with a cost to you and I of £5.8billion. Picking one of these contracts at random, I noted one for £122million for supply of PPE gowns awarded to a company named PPE Medpro. According to Companies House, PPE Medpro was incorporated on 12th May 2020. The Companies House filing for 12th May 202, the day the company was incorporated, shows total capital of £100. The contract was awarded on 26th June 2020.

So, a company formed on 12th May 2020 with 100 quid from someone's desk drawer (or found behind the sofa?) was awarded a huge contract to supply PPE kit.Firther reference to the Companies House web site shows this company has not yet filed accounts. None. Since incorporation. Surely one could reasonably expect to see accounts showing at least an inflow of some of that £122million award?

The web site "Thelondoneconomic.com" carried an article on this company back in November 2020:https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/handing-122m-ppe-contract-to-tory-peer-associate-is-the-definition-of-corruption-mp-says-204739/ In the article, reference is made to links between this company and Lady Bra, (Lady Michelle Mone), and her husband, David Barrowman. The Guardian took up this case as recently as January 2022:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/06/tory-peer-michelle-mone-involved-ppe-medpro-government-contracts

The founder of PPE Medpro, Anthony Page,  was previously running a company that managed Michelle Mone's "brand". Well, how about that?

More later...