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Who's doing well out of the pandemic?

Started by Fambo Number Mive, October 16, 2020, 06:15:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

steveh

For if you're intending to travel somewhere that requires a negative test before you board?

JaDanketies

#31
Quote from: Head Gardener on October 26, 2020, 10:15:42 AM
£120 for a covid test in Boots with results in 12 mins seems a bit rich, but may be a bargain as I've not done my research

Cost us £130 for results in two days just over a month ago, so it's definitely competitive. And yes this was to go to Cyprus. I had a cold shortly after returning from Cyprus and we just had the normal taxpayer-funded drive-through test for sickies because time wasn't a factor.

Fr.Bigley

120 quid for 12 minutes. They should aim for a minute test, only a tenner. Idiots

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: steveh on October 26, 2020, 10:40:21 AM
For if you're intending to travel somewhere that requires a negative test before you board?
Except the in-store testing machines don't meet the requirements for pre-flight screening (which must be processed in an approved lab). You have to send a swab to Boots and wait 48 hours for that. Still, I guess the machines should make it easy for hypocondriacs.

Tony Tony Tony

Quote from: steveh on October 26, 2020, 10:40:21 AM
For if you're intending to travel somewhere that requires a negative test before you board?

Stepson is off to Cyprus next week and has to take a test with one of those places that will supply a negative in the last 72 hours so you are safe to fly that the Cypriot authorities require before they will let you on the island.

£129 each for him and his girlfriend. Plus the £15 London congestion charge for them to drive to the only centre nearby that is open on a Sunday. (Yes the charge does apply on Sunday as it has 'temporarily' been extended to try and shore up TfL)   

By my maths that's shitloads.

Fambo Number Mive

QuoteDocuments leaked to the Good Law Project appear to show special pathways through which "VIPs" and Cabinet Office contacts were able to win contracts to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) at the height of the covid-19 pandemic.

The non-profit organisation, along with the campaign group EveryDoctor, is mounting a High Court challenge to the UK government's decision to award lucrative contracts to companies with little or no experience in the supply of such equipment, some with links to the Conservative Party.

In the emergency caused by the pandemic earlier this year, the government decided to award contracts totalling billions of pounds for medical supplies and hospital equipment to private companies without the usual need for competitive tender. Contracts for the supply of PPE were given to, among others, a pest control company, an employment agency, and a confectionery manufacturer...

https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4180

Zetetic

Quote from: Fr.Bigley on October 26, 2020, 12:35:22 PM
120 quid for 12 minutes. They should aim for a minute test, only a tenner. Idiots
I suspect we might something like that in a matter of months, albeit with a fairly dangerous false negative rate.

Fambo Number Mive

QuoteThe UK government has awarded a new £347m Covid-19 testing contract to Randox, the Tory-linked private healthcare company whose testing kits had to be recalled over the summer because of concerns about contamination.

The deal is a six-month extension of an existing contract and was agreed without other companies being invited to bid. It means the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has now approved transfers of nearly half a billion pounds in taxpayer funds to the Northern Ireland-based company since the pandemic began.

Disclosed in a filing on a European contracts website, the award has prompted concerns about "cronyism" and calls for an independent inquiry into the £12bn spent so far on attempting to control the pandemic through the test-and-trace system.

Critics raised further concerns about a separate revelation that the Conservative MP Owen Paterson, who is paid £100,000 a year to act as a consultant for Randox, was party to a call between the company and James Bethell, the health minister responsible for coronavirus testing supplies...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/04/tory-linked-firm-involved-in-testing-failure-awarded-new-347m-covid-contract


Head Gardener


Fambo Number Mive

Sunday Times reports that Kate Bingham, chair of Boris Johnson's vaccine taskforce, has charged taxpayers £670,000 for her own team of "boutique PR consultants":

https://twitter.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1325180546675322880

bgmnts

Ha these cunts are definitely becoming incresingly brazen in their greed. To psycopathic levels.

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on November 08, 2020, 01:44:07 PM
Sunday Times reports that Kate Bingham, chair of Boris Johnson's vaccine taskforce, has charged taxpayers £670,000 for her own team of "boutique PR consultants":

https://twitter.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1325180546675322880

Unrolled

Quote
EXCLUSIVE: Kate Bingham, chair of Boris Johnson's vaccine taskforce, has charged taxpayers £670,000 for her own team of boutique PR consultants

According to leaked docs, eight full-time consultants from London firm Admiral Associates are on the equivalent of £165K salaries
Bingham, who is married to Tory minister, Jesse Norman, and went to school with Rachel Johnson, is said to have "insisted" on hiring the team.

This is despite fears that they duplicate work of press officers at BEIS, where task force sits

Source: "I don't know what they do."
Alok Sharma, the business secretary, did not sign off the expenditure, which has cost around £500K already, with contracts running until the end of the year

Instead, it was signed off by a civil servant

The team helps with day to day comms - and a Spotify vaccine podcast
Figures in No 10 are furious with Bingham after we reported that she showed "official sensitive" info to a venture capital event in the US

But she is also scheduled to appear at a $2,460 conference for bankers and executives next year - to discuss her work as vaccines tsar
Her select committee appearance has also raised eye-brows: Bingham called our story "nonsense" and "irresponsible"

Asked if she'd disclosed info that wasn't in the public domain, she said: "No."

Many in govt think she misled MPs and made herself a hostage to fortune
As early as Thursday, I went to Bingham with a list of statements made in her talk - asking her to provide evidence of when she'd made them in public

If she was unable to do so, I said, she should retract her statement and apologise

She did neither

Bingham's conduct matters because of wider concerns about consultants in Whitehall, personal appointments and transparency

Tomorrow, for instance, we reveal that the membership of the Vaccines Task Force is entirely secret.

It is also irritating many in government, who think her role has become too ill-defined: she reports directly to the PM, is based in BEIS, and works with Alok Sharma and Matt Hancock but is managed by apparently no one.

And yet she is able to assemble her own team of PR gurus


PlanktonSideburns


sirhenry

Quote from: PlanktonSideburns on November 08, 2020, 09:39:55 PM
Even though they had to kill all that mink?
Because.

Do you really think that no-one will pinch those pelts pre-pyre and sell them for a pretty, pungent profit?
Just you wait - the price of non-synthetic paintbrushes will plummet and this winter's must-have will be organic dick warmers. And now that Trump's no longer president, he'll be on the lookout for business opportunities where he can make a killing. I'm sure there's some way to spin it as covid cure/anti-covid somehow and his legions of fans in Alaska and elsewhere will be gobbling them up.

With 19 million mink at 2 dickwarmers per pelt, that's 38 million from Denmark alone. So at $14.99 each  he could have his reelection campaign debt wiped out [nb]I'm good at numbers[/nb]. Where he'll find the other billion, I have no idea.

Fambo Number Mive

Government appear to be breaking the law again:


QuoteThe government has failed to publish any information about £4bn of Covid-related contracts awarded to private companies, in what appears to be a continuing breach of UK law.

The gap was uncovered by campaign group the Good Law Project, which along with a cross-party group of MPs, is suing the health secretary, Matt Hancock, in the high court. They are accusing his ministry of an "egregious and widespread failure to comply with legal duties and established policies".

The group is warning of a "transparency gap" and is pushing for an independent judge-led inquiry into the billions spent on personal protective equipment, medicines and virus testing and tracing since the pandemic began.

In a legal filing in the case, dated 30 October, government lawyers revealed that £17bn had been spent by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Covid-related goods and services since the start of the financial year in April. However, to date civil servants in Hancock's ministry have only released details of £12.4bn in Covid-related contracts for that period – leaving £4.6bn unaccounted for.

The gap narrowed last week after the department rushed out details of £1.6bn in contracts. Many of the new deals are for the purchase of rapid test kits of the kind being used in Liverpool's city-wide testing effort.

Government departments are required by law to publish details of contracts no later than 30 days after awarding them. The measures are designed to reduce the risk of fraud and improve value for money by allowing proper scrutiny of how taxpayer cash is spent...

If it's all above board, why not publish the details?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/09/uk-government-fails-to-publish-details-of-4bn-covid-contracts-with-private-firms

poo



Fambo Number Mive

Businessman who acted as a go-between to secure protective garments for NHS staff was paid $28m (£21m) from UK public money (or "taxpayer cash" as the BBC call it) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54974373

Fr.Bigley

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on November 17, 2020, 01:35:18 PM
Businessman who acted as a go-between to secure protective garments for NHS staff was paid $28m (£21m) from UK public money (or "taxpayer cash" as the BBC call it) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54974373

Look at this little cunt, "Jewellery designer"- The natural choice for setting up government deals. What the fuck is wrong with this latest cohort of fucking Eton mess. Jesus. Punchable face as well.

Pseudopath

Quote from: Fr.Bigley on November 17, 2020, 01:38:04 PM
Look at this little cunt, "Jewellery designer"- The natural choice for setting up government deals. What the fuck is wrong with this latest cohort of fucking Eton mess. Jesus. Punchable face as well.



Fucking brass balls on these cunts. If you think Michael Saiger (above) has a punchable face, just wait until you see the middleman:



Fucker thinks he's in a Davidoff commercial.

Fambo Number Mive

#51
QuoteCompanies recommended by MPs, peers and ministers' offices were given priority as the government raced to obtain Personal Protective Equipment, the National Audit Office found.

Over half of the £18bn spent on pandemic-related contracts was awarded without competitive tender, it said.

The spending watchdog said the government was not transparent about suppliers and services.

It also found there was inadequate explanation of key spending decisions.

The findings are part of an NAO investigation into government procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54978460

You can read the report here: https://www.nao.org.uk/report/government-procurement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Fambo Number Mive

QuoteAn acquaintance and former neighbour of Matt Hancock is supplying the government with tens of millions of vials for NHS Covid-19 tests despite having had no previous experience of producing medical supplies.

Alex Bourne, who used to run a pub close to Hancock's former constituency home in Suffolk, said he initially offered his services to the UK health secretary several months ago by sending him a personal WhatsApp message.

Bourne's company, Hinpack, was at that time producing plastic cups and takeaway boxes for the catering industry. It is now supplying about 2m medical grade vials a week to the government via a distributor contracted by the NHS.

Bourne categorically denies he profited from his personal contact with Hancock. However, the case raises questions for the health secretary and is likely to reignite the row over alleged government cronyism during the pandemic...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/26/matt-hancock-former-neighbour-won-covid-test-kit-contract-after-whatsapp-message

Icehaven

QuoteAn acquaintance and former neighbour of Matt Hancock is supplying the government with tens of millions of vials for NHS Covid-19 tests despite having had no previous experience of producing medical supplies.

Alex Bourne, who used to run a pub close to Hancock's former constituency home in Suffolk, said he initially offered his services to the UK health secretary several months ago by sending him a personal WhatsApp message.

Bourne's company, Hinpack, was at that time producing plastic cups and takeaway boxes for the catering industry. It is now supplying about 2m medical grade vials a week to the government via a distributor contracted by the NHS.

Bourne categorically denies he profited from his personal contact with Hancock. However, the case raises questions for the health secretary and is likely to reignite the row over alleged government cronyism during the pandemic...

I don't know which is worse, handing a contract to a close friend or family member, or to someone you (apparently) hardly know. "Who's this message from? Oh him from the pub, yeah he can have the contract, they had some great ales in there."


Zetetic


JaDanketies

Yknow what this year has been fucking awesome for me, financially. I work closely with the events industry after becoming a freelancer in Nov 2019 and I thought it'd all gone tits up when COVID happened, but I've just gone from strength to strength. The events industry is fucking dying on its arse unfortunately but my clients love me.

Although they love me cos I do a good job. Can you believe an events company has seen their year-on-year profits increase by 75% over 2020 and they apparently put this all down to my great work? I think I'm gonna be ran off my arse when the lockdown finishes and the industry gets back on its feet again.

Apparently it is gauche a f for me to say things like this but in November 2019 a total of £5,106 was transferred into my bank account, although I gotta pay tax on it. In Nov 2019 this was £1991.97 including tax, and in Nov 2018 I earned £1,637.76 on PAYE. It's annoying that I'm not socially allowed to talk about this cos it is the first time in my life when I've not had to worry about the cost of things and I want to celebrate loudly like a lottery winner.

If anyone thinks they can write 500 words an hour, hmu

Fr.Bigley

Quote from: JaDanketies on December 15, 2020, 10:09:56 PM


If anyone thinks they can write 500 words an hour, hmu

I wrote a 20000 word dissertation in 2 days...completed it mate.

Icehaven

Quote from: JaDanketies on December 15, 2020, 10:09:56 PM

If anyone thinks they can write 500 words an hour, hmu

Does it matter what the words are?

JaDanketies

I'd pay £20 for 500 words that I didn't have to do much sub-editing of. They'd be about why you ought to choose a particular business for a particular service in a particular area.