Category: Lies

The Best Defence is a Good Offence

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Corruption, Intimidation, Lies, Principles of Democracy

As if they anticipated the court’s decision, the Mail on Sunday published an attack on the Good Law Project’s founder, Jolyon Maugham QC, last weekend.

The article includes irrelevant references to Mr Maugham’s killing of a fox in his garden and implies that donations which finance the Good Law Project may not be used as intended. The Mail on Sunday also suggests that Mr Maugham has tried to play down his previous career, despite the bio on GLP’s website.

“[The attack] is a transparent and deceitful attempt by Government to target one of its most effective critics,” the Good Law Project comments in a statement.

Yesterday the High Court ruled that our Government acted unlawfully when awarding a contract to the PR firm “Public First”, which is run by friends of Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove. It is the second time in just a few months that the High Court judged that a Cabinet Minister acted unlawfully. Both cases were brought by the Good Law Project.

Reckless Procurement Revealed in Explosive Court Case

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Corruption, Lies, NHS

On Tuesday, the same day that the National Audit Office finds that the Government lacked detailed contingency plans for a pandemic, the High Court started hearing a case against Matt Hancock.

It is the Good Law Project and EveryDoctor that have challenged the Health Secretary over the Government’s unlawful procurement of PPE contracts. The previous weekend EveryDoctor projected the question “What’s the plan, Matt?” in giant illuminated script on buildings across London, the Department of Health among others.

There are many explosive revelations expected during this week’s hearing. Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, lists a few facts which were revealed during the first two days:

  • Government paid tens of millions of pounds to PestFix and Ayanda Capital for face masks which did not meet NHS standards.
  • Government prioritised companies because of who they knew and not what they could deliver.
  • The banks were so concerned about Government’s lack of due diligence on companies who had been handed huge contracts that they halted payments.

“The British public will want to know why companies that had little or no history of manufacturing or procurement won massive contracts, and why many of these companies were seemingly fast-tracked in so-called VIP lanes to the top of the bidding pile,” says Dr Julia Patterson, CEO of EveryDoctor.

UN-Acceptable Racism Report

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Corruption, Intimidation, Lies, Principles of Democracy

The Johnson Government has not only been taken to court by the EU for breaking international law, the UN now accuses No 10 of normalising white supremacy.

After the Black Lifes Matter protests last year Samuel Kasumu, special adviser for civil society and communities, initiated a report on racism in the UK. The report was published on 31 March 2021 and concluded that there was no institutional racism in Britain.

Earlier this week the human rights experts in the UN’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Decent condemned the report, stating that it is “tone-deaf” and “reprehensible”. It notes that the report has twisted data and misapplied statistics. Researchers have shown one example of this, from the labour market, in an article published on the LSE blog.

This echoes the criticism in Britain when the Government’s report was first published. A panel of experts said in an ITV interview that the report was “deeply offensive”.

Questions have also been raised over the impartiality of the commission and how it was finalised. Several scholars claim their research was misrepresented in the report. Commissioners did not get a chance to read the text in its entirety before publication and they were not aware of the conclusions presented by the chairman in his foreword. It is reported that the final result was dictated by No 10 to accommodate the Government’s own agenda, not to give a truthful picture of Britain today. Samuel Kasumu resigned the same day the report was published.

Photo: John Button / Shutterstock.com

From Russia with… love?

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Brexit, Corruption, Lies, Principles of Democracy

Russia still poses an active threat to the UK, according to the Government’s Integrated Review, published in March. Vladimir Putin stated in 2019 that a government’s duty is to create a stable life for its citizens. He went on to say that liberal democracies have failed in providing this stability for people.

This was the reason he declared “Cold War 2.0” to fight liberalism back in 2007 when most representatives of complacent western democracies did not see the need to take him seriously. Researchers of political science agree that Putin perceives a united Europe and a strong USA as a threat to Russia. This is why he was in favour of Brexit in the hope it would help destabilise the EU. He believes that by interfering in domestic politics on other continents Russia gains international power.

In the last decade it has been proved that Russian agents have operated and poisoned people on British soil. The so-called “Russia Report”, published after almost a year’s delay last July, showed that Russia had meddled in political campaigns at least since the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and up until the General Election of 2019.

The Vote Leave campaign broke electoral law. The source of dubious contributions from rich donors with Russian connections are still being investigated.

The Government claims that British citizens of Russian origin should not be discriminated against. They have the same right as all other Brits to make donations, which is of course true. What is conspicuous is that there are a few, very wealthy individuals with close ties to the Russian president who repeatedly feed money into the Conservative party, while UK officials are accused of turning a blind eye to the threat of foreign interference in British politics.

Government Breaks NHS Promise

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Brexit, Lies, NHS

Time and time again during the election campaign of 2019 the Conservative Party assured us that the NHS is not for sale. In March 2020, when the UK started trade negotiations with the US, Prime Minister Johnson declared that the NHS was not on the table.

Yet less than a year later American owned Operose Health has taken over a large number of GP surgeries in greater London causing concerns in for instance Maida Vale, Croydon and Brent and is now the UK’s largest provider of primary care.

It is also notable that the Government recently appointed Samantha Jones as an expert advisor for NHS transformation. Ms Jones was previously a chief executive of Operose Health.

Join or Slip Away

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Brexit, Lies, Principles of Democracy

The 1990’s offered hopeful days when the peace process started in Northern Ireland. It took years to finalise what has become known as the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The EU has created the longest period of peace between the member states since Roman times because it offers countries an opportunity to discuss and work together rather than fighting against each other. It was on this platform that the bitter feuds in Ireland could be settled. It has given us more than 20 years of peace within the United Kingdom.

The politicians and spin doctors who painted a utopian picture of an undefined Brexit dismissed concerns that the peace in Northern Ireland might be jeopardised. Yet now, only three months after Brexit, there is already new unrest.

It is unrealistic to expect that one politician should know everything about everything, that’s why they have experts to advise them. The tragedy with Brexit is that the leading figures of the campaign claimed to have had enough of experts. Day by day, week by week we see the sad results of that approach.

In 1992 Maurice Harron’s bronze statues in Londonderry joined hands in hope. Today’s politicians need to call in the experts to make sure those hands don’t slip away from each other.

Money not Sex

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Corruption, Lies, Principles of Democracy

At the weekend it was confirmed – what many had long suspected – that there had been an affair between the Prime Minister and Jennifer Arcuri.

As sordid and sad as the story may be, with a deceived wife, let-down children and abandoned lovers along the way, their bedroom stories should be their own business and none of ours.

What is very much our business, however, is the tax payers’ money which was spent on the, then, Mayor of London’s sex partner. The police decided not to investigate the matter and that was surely yet another message to top ministers that they can get away with questionable behaviour.

A recent parallel is the Health Minister awarding contracts during the Covid crisis without proper procurement procedures. The High Court later stated that this was unlawful, but so far there has been no repercussion.

The Greater London Assembly has now decided to resume their investigation of Mr Johnson’s conduct in public life.

For Everybody to See

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Corruption, Lies, NHS, Principles of Democracy

“The contracts are there on record for everybody to see,” said the Prime Minister. Except for the 100 he’d forgotten about.

19 February 2021
The High Court rules that the Health Secretary acted unlawfully by not publishing contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

22 February 2021
The Prime Minister assured us that all was there to see.

5 March 2021
The High Court confirmed that out of 708 contracts there were still 100 unpublished.

Yet another example of how the Government misleads Parliament and the public.

The BBC keeps a timeline of the Government’s procurement of PPE during the pandemic.

Whitehall of Mirrors

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Corruption, Lies, Principles of Democracy

Whitehall in 2021 is like a hall of mirrors, a maze of illusions and broken promises. Revelations, which a few years ago would have caused resignation, are simply shrugged off and brushed into oblivion.

Last November the Prime Minister announced he backed the Home Secretary Priti Patel after it had been confirmed she broke the ministerial code by bullying civil servants. This caused Standards Chief Sir Alex Allan, who had been asked to investigate the allegations, to resign.

Only a few weeks ago the High Court found Health Secretary Matt Hancock to have been acting unlawfully with contracts on PPE for medical staff. His response was that there wasn’t time for regular procurement because of the urgency of the situation when the pandemic broke out in 2020. Hancock also claimed there had never actually been a shortage of PPE.

BBC Panorama shows in their documentary Cashing in on Covid how the Government created a VIP lane for friends to win contracts.

Michael Gove has been found in contempt of Parliament, just like his ally and adviser Dominic Cummings in 2019, by simply not showing up to a committee hearing where difficult questions might be expected.

For centuries, politicians have – at least given the impression to – been proud to honourably serve the country. If they were found to lie or break the law, there was a public scandal and they had to resign. There has been a distinctive shift in standards for cabinet ministers in this Government which seems to normalise contradictions, hiding, lying and breaking the ministerial code.

Questionable Answers

by Helen Rennie-Smith, posted in Lies, NHS

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday Sir Keir Starmer asked Boris Johnson: “If he so determined to cut NHS pay, will he at least show some courage and put it to a vote in this Parliament?”

Mr Johnson replied: “The last time that we put this to a vote, the right hon. and learned Gentleman voted against it.”

A statement which is simply not true.

Source: Hansard, 10 March 2021