We availed ourselves of the 50% off food this lunchtime at The Wheatsheaf in Braishfield. The pub, although five miles away, we regard our local so we have a selfish motive about helping it survive in shit times for rural pubs.
The pub is dog friendly, has a great garden and serves good food and a reasonable selection of ales, wines and lagers. We met our good friends of 40+ years and their Cocker Spaniel and saved ourselves 30 quid off our bill in the process.
Talking to the landlady her main fear is a Local Lockdown on pubs at the expense of sending kids back to school, if they do she doubts they will open again.
I read this earlier today, absolutely disgusting. Fortunes being made by friends and āadvisersā of Cummings, Gove, Truss, 5 billion at the last count. All public money. This regime, because thatās what it is, is nothing less than an organized criminal organization. They donāt even try to hide it, they are just trolling the public. You really would expect the so called opposition to be all over this like a rash but no, not a peep out of Starmer. Just this morning it is revealed that 50 million face masks , purchased from Ayanda Capital Ltd for an estimated 170 million pounds cannot be used because they are āunfit for purposeā. This was part of a PPE contract worth 250 million awarded to Ayanda, without going to tender.
Ayanda Capital Ltd are a 100 pound company set up and run through a tax haven in Mauritius by someone called Andrew Mills, an āadviserā to Liz Truss, and his wife. This is just the tip of the iceberg, corruption on a grand scale.
In no way siding with the crooks BUT.
There is a huge and untold story here.
The scramble for PPE was a nightmare, there were no legitimate routes to get any product. Every chance, conman, broker & hedge fund on the planet were running around trying to find product
Every Government has been screwed or ripped off by stuff not being there, fake or that someone else turned up before they did.
It is a Hollywood movie before you get to the crooks
And yes I have mates involved I did post about it some time ago trying to buy kit for ME Governments all the sane nightmare.
This āit was a panic buyā shit doesnāt wash. Are the cunts in charge only expected to do a decent job when things are humming along swimmingly? Fuck that. May as well put a fucking chimp in charge. Being under pressure is not an excuse for failing. It is not an excuse for profiteering either. Hold the cunts to account and donāt give them an easy out.
Like CB says, there wasnāt the luxury of time to allow due process, tendering, etc. We needed the equipment and we needed it yesterday. I wonder if the people who were criticising the government for not getting PPE in quickly enough at the time are the same ones complaining now that public money was wasted on the effort to.
If your house is flooding and you need some emergency plumbing done you donāt phone up a random Pet Supplies start up and offer them 2 grand to sort your stop cock out. Especially if they say theyāll do it for cash and any complaints should be directed to their customer services department in the Cayman Islands.
Maybe itās not just the British Government that has fucked their ppe procurement up so badly whilst lining the pockets of Government advisers. Maybe this has happened in most countries.
There is a burst water main two houses over. The water has flowed into their house and is spreading down the street. Youāve spoken to the water company and they have said it canāt be fixed within a short time frame, so best get ready for the worst.
You wait until water is 2 feet up your internal walls to phone up to get some sandbags. Unfortunately the only ones you can find are being advertised by a pikey who wants cash up front. He delivers 50 carrier bags and some Early Learning Centre sand bags.
How it worked & still is.
I am factory in China I make masks.
Google. Seems legit.
I need x masks N95 spec (stops 95%)
Specs & sample sent with UL Test documents
Invoice raised
L/C raised.
50% of L/Cs were fake. Some real masks got shipped.
Real L/C raised takes about a week. Oh we sold that stock, next availability October.
Factories stopped accepting L/C real buyers stopped issuing them.
Next came send me photos I will send TT.
Photos sent TT sent. No stock OR Fake Stock OR just scammers.
Next came the Escrow account instead of photos video including todayās newspaper and say this code word.
Hovernment Departments sent 150 to 300 MILLION Dollars to Escrow accounts with global law firms.
They took 2%.
No masks.
As my mate said maybe 1 in 100 orders got fulfilled. It was carnage.
I have demand for millions of Nitrite Gloves,N95 & N100 masks.
I dont even bother sending WhatsApp messages.
One of the successful PPE brokers bought 9 million N95 masks NHS Spec & approved. They are in a warehouse in UK. They paid $14.5 each plus shipping. While in transit the market price dropped to $9.50.
It is carnage.
Here is an example, my mate Anees. Been at it 4 months not sold a thing
Issues over ā panicā needs are missing the point that Government āadvisorā also āadvisedā the middleman/manufacturerā¦ which is a clear conflict of interest irrespective of needā¦ It can be accepted that some materials may not be up to scratch failing due to stressed manufacturing lead timesā¦ but 190milion worth? when a friend of said government makes a killing? Fuck me if it smells like a fish, swims like a fish, it is a fucking fish, and their is NO excuse for this government on this issueā¦ its clutching at straws to defend the indefensibleā¦
Yep.
Now hold that outrage and
There are 220+ Nations on this planet.
Inventory of PPE ( eg stock at Distributors of 3M) vanished into hedge funds in mid January.
220+ Nations looking for PPE.
Now multiply the Ā£190million of your outrage by 220+.
This has been a global scam of insane proportions.
And not a single investigative reporter followed up any of this back in February or March or even today.
This story is WAY bigger 220+ Nations Cronies.
sorry, but we are talking but OUR Government croniesā¦and OUR tax monies going to themā¦ the ones āweā elected because they promised to get āBrexit doneāā¦ and fuck it if they are curruptā¦
I started my comments by acknowledging that.
Now, emotionally this is cronyism of the highest order, breach of process and protocol.
Some are saying fraud on Twtter.
I agree.
But.
Legally? Not gonna happen. Processes will have been followed, paper trails for the orders audit trails for the money will be virtually watertight.
Because Police & higher forces are already involved.
Equally, the UK processes have delivered goods from brokered sources, tested & approved in BSI & UL Labs, custom packs in NHS specified foil packs and being delivered weekly.
The contracts smell of fish, they smell rotten but there will be paper trails and profits retained. All legal, all the same as deals that worked (for the lucky few)
And meanwhile Police & higher forces chase the scammers outside UK who lied and provided fraudulent documents
