What Are We Reading? 4 January 2021

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: i hope my explanation sufficed giveusaclue.....no issues with the peeps who lived in a pre-EEC world...""

No problem, no worries. AB

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: i hope my explanation sufficed giveusaclue.....no issues with the peeps who lived in a pre-EEC world...""

No problem, no worries. AB"

cool.

[Tam]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Tam wrote: "Slawkenbergius wrote: "Tam wrote: "Lack of transparency.

Well, a certain degree of opacity is inevitable in the higher echelons of executive power, and the decisio..."

You could call me a bit old-fashioned, but in a commercial company then I have no particular issue with an oversight body that is not accountable to the public, as long as they act 'within the law' (though I do think that the 'law' could be improved in order to stop them off-shoring their profits, in order to avoid paying taxes in the countries that they are operating, and making their profits, in).

They will live or die, as a company, on their own sword. But I do have a problem when they are spending 'public' taxpayers money on these schemes. I do think that they should be fully transparent, and accountable, in how they spend the general tax-payer's money, and what they choose to spend it on.

Giveusaclue, I don't think you should feel that you shouldn't comment about this subject, if you care about it. I just feel that I should have a handy book to post up in order to justify the comment... But I was asked the question... and I replied...

[giveusaclue]

Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Tam wrote: "Slawkenbergius wrote: "Tam wrote: "Lack of transparency.

Well, a certain degree of opacity is inevitable in the higher echelons of executive power, an..."

Thanks Tam, and you were perfectly entitled to reply - we have a lot in common on this subject I think.

[scarletnoir]

Since we have digressed into a discussion of lack of transparency in the use of executive power, rarely has there been more use of such behaviour than by the current UK government. Instead of attempting to use the most efficient means available of tacking the COVID virus, the government saw this as an opportunity to transfer billions of taxpayer money into the coffers of private firms with little or no expertise in health management. To cap it all, the politicians insisted on referring, wholly falsely, to something called 'NHS' Test and Trace, when in reality money which should have been given to public bodies, including the NHS, to deal with the problem was siphoned off to a number of private companies. Coincidentally (no doubt) many of these companies have contributed funds to the Conservative party in the past, and/or employ former Conservative ministers!

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entr...

And that's only 'test and trace' - it doesn't even cover funds spent on PPE, again given in many cases to companies and people with no experience in the field. The National Audit Office was not impressed with the lack of planning:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

In one of the best examples of 'lack of transparency', health secretary Matt Hancock's mate and landlord was awarded a £30 million contract to supply vials, as has been widely reported:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1331332...

In general, it has been shown that firms with connections in government were something like ten times as likely to be awarded contracts:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/nati...

Finally - the doctor's union, the BMA - hardly the most radical of bodies - has published a report on the whole business under the excellent title "Outsourced and Undermined":
https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opini...

Rant over, for this morning.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "Since we have digressed into a discussion of lack of transparency in the use of executive power, rarely has there been more use of such behaviour than by the current UK government. Instead of attem..."

hear hear......i totally agree, the gov uses the NHS as a prop. to blame if something goes wrong, to praise if something goes right. The Clown (aka Johnson) kept using the word NHS to try and rattle Sir Keir Starmer in PMQs a few times, subtext being "dare you criticse the public organisation us tories have been slowly privatising for years?"