O/T. The Government's handling of Covid

Conflicts.

The ferry guy who never had a ferry but still got £26M........

The company that created the non-working app for £11.8M which has Goings sister in a senior role.....

The company that got the 40 odd million PPE contract. had no experienceof medical supplies and they were all rejected as being substandard.

The company that donated 400K to the Tory party and has now won a 90 odd million PPE contract.

There are other examples too. What they have in common is donations to the Tory party and/or connections to members of the cabinet and/or Goings.

If it's not, in legal terms, criminal activity, IMO, it should be.

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Originally Posted by MadAmster

Conflicts.

The ferry guy who never had a ferry but still got £26M........

The company that created the non-working app for £11.8M which has Goings sister in a senior role.....

The company that got the 40 odd million PPE contract. had no experienceof medical supplies and they were all rejected as being substandard.

The company that donated 400K to the Tory party and has now won a 90 odd million PPE contract.

There are other examples too. What they have in common is donations to the Tory party and/or connections to members of the cabinet and/or Goings.

If it's not, in legal terms, criminal activity, IMO, it should be.

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Totally agree, MA. Well put.

I’m also not sure who is ultimately to blame for the current student fiasco...Government or local University authorities... but on the subject, as we are, of ‘The Government’s handling of Covid’, ‘fiasco’ is surely the only word.
Some on here may chose to, incorrectly, use it as a stick to beat the BBC with, but the point surely is...who the hell approved the idea of thousands of students taking up residence in Covid struck communities such as Manchester, Leeds, Leicester, Swansea and Cardiff?
Do we actually have an Education Secretary or has he gone back to selling fireplaces?

‘The Government’s handling of Covid’...what do we all think? That was the question posed by Ram59.
That it’s been typified by dodgy dealings and incompetence is my answer.

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Originally Posted by ramAnag

Totally agree, MA. Well put.

I’m also not sure who is ultimately to blame for the current student fiasco...Government or local University authorities... but on the subject, as we are, of ‘The Government’s handling of Covid’, ‘fiasco’ is surely the only word.
Some on here may chose to, incorrectly, use it as a stick to beat the BBC with, but the point surely is...who the hell approved the idea of thousands of students taking up residence in Covid struck communities such as Manchester, Leeds, Leicester, Swansea and Cardiff?
Do we actually have an Education Secretary or has he gone back to selling fireplaces?

‘The Government’s handling of Covid’...what do we all think? That was the question posed by Ram59.
That it’s been typified by dodgy dealings and incompetence is my answer.

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I entirely agree with you MA where bungs are involved, although I don't think ferryman bunged anyone anything. Certainly Vallance hadn't.

And, by the way, it's irrelevant they ferry company didn't own a ferry. A huge number of ships plying the 7 seas are not owned by those using them. There is a massive spot and time charterers market out there. That was just sensationalist journalism

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Originally Posted by Geoff Parkstone

I entirely agree with you MA where bungs are involved, although I don't think ferryman bunged anyone anything. Certainly Vallance hadn't.

And, by the way, it's irrelevant they ferry company didn't own a ferry. A huge number of ships plying the 7 seas are not owned by those using them. There is a massive spot and time charterers market out there. That was just sensationalist journalism

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Indeed that is the case, but in this instance the company was not involved in spot hire and had zero experience of running ferries or any other type of shipping service!

Is that so.... and you know the people?

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Originally Posted by Geoff Parkstone

Is that so.... and you know the people?

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1. Paul Messenger, a Conservative county councillor for Ramsgate, questioned whether the government had carried out sufficient checks on the firm, telling the BBC: “It has no ships and no trading history so how can due diligence be done?

“Why choose a company that never moved a single truck in their entire history and give them £14m? I don’t understand the logic of that.”

Seaborne was established two years ago and has been in negotiations about running freight ferries between Ramsgate and Ostend, but no services are currently running. Narrow berths in the port mean there are few suitable commercial vessels available.

2. A Department for Transport spokesman added: “This contract was awarded in the full knowledge that Seaborne Freight is a new shipping provider, and that the extra capacity and vessels would be provided as part of its first services.

3. The contract was cancelled by the Department for Transport on 9 February 2019 after Arklow Shipping, reported to be Seaborne's backer, pulled out. Arklow Shipping said that it had been in talks with Seaborne twice in 2018 but denied that there had been an agreement with Seaborne or the Department for Transport. The company had considered investing in Seaborne and providing two ferries, but nothing was signed. When the company discovered that Seaborne had no port agreement in Ramsgate it decided not to go any further.

4. The company's chief executive, Ben Sharp, previously ran Mercator, a ship chartering business, that was forced into liquidation following court petitions from HM Revenue and Customs. The amount of unpaid tax was not stated, but the former company had a total of £1.78m in unpaid debts.

Not hard to find information if you look! Admittedly the CEO has some experience but wouldn't say he sounds how shall I put it? A "sound prospect"!

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Originally Posted by swaledale

1. Paul Messenger, a Conservative county councillor for Ramsgate, questioned whether the government had carried out sufficient checks on the firm, telling the BBC: “It has no ships and no trading history so how can due diligence be done?

“Why choose a company that never moved a single truck in their entire history and give them £14m? I don’t understand the logic of that.”

Seaborne was established two years ago and has been in negotiations about running freight ferries between Ramsgate and Ostend, but no services are currently running. Narrow berths in the port mean there are few suitable commercial vessels available.

2. A Department for Transport spokesman added: “This contract was awarded in the full knowledge that Seaborne Freight is a new shipping provider, and that the extra capacity and vessels would be provided as part of its first services.

3. The contract was cancelled by the Department for Transport on 9 February 2019 after Arklow Shipping, reported to be Seaborne's backer, pulled out. Arklow Shipping said that it had been in talks with Seaborne twice in 2018 but denied that there had been an agreement with Seaborne or the Department for Transport. The company had considered investing in Seaborne and providing two ferries, but nothing was signed. When the company discovered that Seaborne had no port agreement in Ramsgate it decided not to go any further.

4. The company's chief executive, Ben Sharp, previously ran Mercator, a ship chartering business, that was forced into liquidation following court petitions from HM Revenue and Customs. The amount of unpaid tax was not stated, but the former company had a total of £1.78m in unpaid debts.

Not hard to find information if you look! Admittedly the CEO has some experience but wouldn't say he sounds how shall I put it? A "sound prospect"!

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Hmmm...wasn’t the aforementioned company - Seabourne - also liquidated earlier this month?

Curious how your well researched information doesn't even notice that the company went into liquidation last week.......

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Originally Posted by Geoff Parkstone

Curious how your well researched information doesn't even notice that the company went into liquidation last week.......

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I provided the information required to back up my other post. Curious how you don't admit that you were wrong?

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Originally Posted by swaledale

I provided the information required to back up my other post. Curious how you don't admit that you were wrong?

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...and isn’t the point, GP...that this shipless, ferry company with no trading history and no port agreement that went into liquidation last week doesn’t reflect terribly favourably on this rudderless Government?

Can’t you stop playing ‘devil’s advocate’ and accept that things are all too often not as they should be at the moment?