Page 9 of Boris the not-a-spider

Quote:
Si Wooldridge says...
"I would argue that those culpable are those signing off on those guidelines without raising concerns or refusing to sign off as they were not medically safe, from PHE officials down to doctors and nurses on the wards who actually released those patients knowing it wasn't the right thing to do."
I'm going to guess here that you don't know many people who worked in the NHS this last year in hospitals. And if I am wrong and you do, I would maybe talk to them about this viewpoint and see what they say.


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Today in Matt Hancock is a lier and incompetent...
https://twitter.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1401497946080829441

Quote:
“I don’t recognize those figures” says Health Secretary Matt Hancock as his own figures are quoted back to him

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Quote:
Robee J Shepherd says...
"I'm going to guess here that you don't know many people who worked in the NHS this last year in hospitals. And if I am wrong and you do, I would maybe talk to them about this viewpoint and see what they say."
I don't but I do know a number of people who work in care homes, including those who had to live on-site in a caravan for months on end during local rises on Covid and not see their children or any other family during this period.

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This item was edited on Monday, 7th June 2021, 11:07

Quote:
Si Wooldridge says...
"I don't but I do know a number of people who work in care homes"
Me too, what do I win? Oh that's right, a more rounded perspective based on first hand accounts from people I know personally! I'm not sure how useful that is other than giving me more empathy... actually everyone can do with more empathy.


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Quote:
Robee J Shepherd says...
"Me too, what do I win? Oh that's right, a more rounded perspective based on first hand accounts from people I know personally! I'm not sure how useful that is other than giving me more empathy... actually everyone can do with more empathy."
If you want the win then I'll happily concede as I wasn't aware we were actually competing...

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More ridiculous wastage with a total lack of transparancy and millions going to consultants for things which had no need for consultants:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/charities-covid-cash-department-culture-b1862052.html

Quote:
Ministers have no information on where more than £100m of £500m in lifeline grants to charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises is actually being used.

...

The report found that it was “unclear” what influence special advisers had over some grants. Some charities were given government funding despite civil servants initially scoring their bids in the lowest possible category.

In three instances, charitable organisations were given money despite officials questioning whether the bodies were even “eligible for government funding in the first place”.

The department also failed to provide MPs with a “clear rationale” for spending up to £2m of taxpayers’ money on consultants.
Meanwhile, that Yes Minister episode about sausages suddenly feels less like a comedy and more like premonition...


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BBC News - Government acted unlawfully over firm's contract
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57413115

Shocks nobody.
Or nearly nobody.

Ste

Specifically Michael Gove broke the law I think.
https://twitter.com/GoodLawProject/status/1402561726621667328

Rules, decency, morals and the law do not matter to this government, as proved time and time again. It's almost as if they were born into rich families, went to public school, and never had to really work hard for anything in life. They were brought up this way.


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Actually, what I find amazing is this story is front page on the BBC News website. Most of these stories have been hidden away in the politics section.


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Quote:
Robee J Shepherd says...
"Actually, what I find amazing is this story is front page on the BBC News website. Most of these stories have been hidden away in the politics section."
Guess it also depends on how you read them: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57413115

Delivering her ruling, Mrs Justice O'Farrell said: "The claimant is entitled to a declaration that the decision of 5 June 2020 to award the contract to Public First gave rise to apparent bias and was unlawful."

She said: "The defendant's failure to consider any other research agency, by reference to experience, expertise, availability or capacity, would lead a fair-minded and informed observer to conclude that there was a real possibility, or a real danger, that the decision-maker was biased."

She also said: "The fair-minded and informed observer would have appreciated that there was an urgent need or research through focus groups on effective communications in response to the Covid-19 crisis and that those research services were required immediately."

Mr Cummings had been "uniquely placed, given his experience and expertise, to form a rapid view on which organisation might best be able to deliver those urgent requirements", the judge said.

A spokesman for Public First said "The judge rejected most of the Good Law Project's claims, not finding actual bias in the awarding of this work, nor any problems with the pace or scale of the award."

And the Cabinet Office said: "The judgement makes clear that there was no suggestion of actual bias and that the decision to award the contract was not due to any personal or professional connections."

I think you can make a good argument that it was awarded due to personal/professional connections, however, and therefore avoided a protracted bidding process.  Pretty sure I said at the time of the PPE stuff that in times of national emergency you have to factor in whether you still need to observe the normal procurement practices or bypass them based on circumstances.  That doesn't preclude the requirement to be able to justify that decision though.

It also appears that the Good Law Project only won on 1 of the 3 grounds on which it made its appeal:



So the final judgement appears to take into account the urgency during a pandemic but acknowledges that there is an appearance of bias and therefore unlawful.

Which is fair enough.  A lot more transparency over what they were doing and how they made those decisions could have saved all of this.

So what next?

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Si Wooldridge
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This item was edited on Wednesday, 9th June 2021, 14:20