I've been a bit distracted of late and this from the Independent is slightly old news, but it's certainly worth highlighting and especially as 'outsourcing' is proving so spectacularly bad at running Covid test and trace:-
G4S wins £300m government contract to run ‘mega-prison’G4S has won a £300m government contract to run a new “mega-prison” which will house 1,680 inmates. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) selected the security company to manage HMP Five Wells, a category C jail in Wellingborough, despite a series of scandals and after the firm was stripped of its contact to run crisis-hit Birmingham prison last year. The government had named G4S as its preferred choice to run the new £253m prison in July but faced a legal challenge from a rival bidder.
Prisons minister Lucy Frazer confirmed on Tuesday the company had been awarded the 10-year contract. Five Wells is set to open in early 2022, on the site of a former jail which closed in 2012, creating 700 jobs.Birmingham prison was taken back into state control in April last year after G4S was stripped of the contact seven years early. The jail, one of the largest in the country, had plunged into crisis under private management, according to damning findings by the chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke. His report likened scenes to a war zone and said inmates walked around "like zombies" while on drugs and flouted rules with impunity.
G4S also pulled out of running Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport last year and stopping running Medway secure training centre in Kent in 2016 after BBC's Panorama programme broadcast undercover footage of inmates and detainees being allegedly assaulted and verbally abused at two sites.
The company runs four other prisons - Altcourse, Parc, Rye Hill and Oakwood - which have won praise from inspectors. But just days after it emerged G4S was the front-runner for the Wellingborough contract, the firm was fined £38m by the Serious Fraud Office for “dishonestly” overcharging the government for the electronic tagging of offenders.
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said:
“At a time when we should be investing in public health, ministers are once again pouring millions into the coffers of G4S. Even after a major tagging scandal and the disastrous management of Birmingham prison, the profiteers of punishment continue to be rewarded for failure. Unfortunately, the people of Northamptonshire will be the ones picking up the tab, as a huge new prison in their county will bring more crime and heap more pressure on police, hospitals and other public services.”
David Lammy, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, said: “G4S’s past performance illustrates the failings of privatisation in the justice system. Its well-publicised failure to manage HMP Birmingham led to reports of violence, unsanitary conditions, drink, drugs, and the bullying of staff. Serious questions must be asked about why the government has handed the contract for the new prison in Wellingborough to G4S.”
The MoJ said the UK’s privately run prisons were "among the best-performing across the estate and have been consistently praised by independent inspectors". It added 95 per cent of inspection scores awarded to jails run by G4S graded their performance as good or reasonably good.
An MoJ spokesman said: "G4S-managed prisons have also brought innovative new approaches to offender rehabilitation, including a cutting-edge families intervention programme and peer-led initiatives, praised by prison inspectors for building 'excellent personal and social skills' so prisoners contribute in jail and are prepared for resettlement."
Graham Levinsohn, UK chief executive of G4S, said: “In partnership with the Ministry of Justice, our mutual aim is to ensure that Five Wells becomes the blueprint for innovation, rehabilitation and modernisation in the prison service."
David Lammy, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, said: “G4S’s past performance illustrates the failings of privatisation in the justice system. Its well-publicised failure to manage HMP Birmingham led to reports of violence, unsanitary conditions, drink, drugs, and the bullying of staff. Serious questions must be asked about why the government has handed the contract for the new prison in Wellingborough to G4S.”
The MoJ said the UK’s privately run prisons were "among the best-performing across the estate and have been consistently praised by independent inspectors". It added 95 per cent of inspection scores awarded to jails run by G4S graded their performance as good or reasonably good.
An MoJ spokesman said: "G4S-managed prisons have also brought innovative new approaches to offender rehabilitation, including a cutting-edge families intervention programme and peer-led initiatives, praised by prison inspectors for building 'excellent personal and social skills' so prisoners contribute in jail and are prepared for resettlement."
Graham Levinsohn, UK chief executive of G4S, said: “In partnership with the Ministry of Justice, our mutual aim is to ensure that Five Wells becomes the blueprint for innovation, rehabilitation and modernisation in the prison service."
I am against the idea that profit is to be had from punishment or imprisonment. I think they are the proper duties of the state and non profit focussed public sector prison service.
ReplyDeleteHere they are folks:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.g4s.com/who-we-are/our-people/our-executive-committee
https://www.g4s.com/who-we-are/our-people/our-group-board
“G4S is at an important inflection point as we accelerate our transition to a highly focused global integrated security business. The benefits of our strategy, focused execution and timely response to Covid-19 are reflected in the Group’s results with resilient revenue, earnings and cash flows reported for the first six months."
On the SFO Deferred Prosecution Agreement:
"A charge of £50 million has been recognised in relation to the Deferred Prosecution Agreement entered into with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) which was announced on 10 July 2020.
Resolving this long-standing matter brings certainty to G4S and allows us to focus on delivering innovative and valuable services to our customers in order to grow our business."
Translate:
"A bribe of £50million has been slipped into the prosecutor's pocket.
Resolving this means that, now we've paid off the UK government, we can look forward to some new juicy contracts."
If anyone has read my comments on this site over the years, they'll know I'm vehemently opposed to private sector involvement in public services. Its always more expensive, always failure.
ReplyDeleteCarillion, Working Links, G4s and Serco, amongst many others have taken £billions from the public purse through government contracts and fraud to provide services that never really work for the public, nor is public interest even the primary concern.
There's vast amounts of money being given to the private sector now for track and trace. Serco is a recipient of much of that public money, but it once again is failing to deliver, and it's failings in this are now killing people. It's failure to deliver a track and trace system is creating more pressure on our NHS, and that pressure has enevitable consequences on the operational capacity of the NHS.
Just after lockdown restrictions were lifted my partner developed some worrying symthoms. It took three weeks to get a GP appointment, and blood tests indicated the possible presence of cancer. She was put on a two week pathway, two weeks to see a consultant and have further testing to confirm or dismiss the presence of cancer. Because of the impact Coronavirus is having on our hospitals, its taken five weeks to see the consultant, who's advised that the tests needed to identify whether it is cancer or not is likely to take up to three months. Treatments and diagnostics having been suspended has now created a bottle neck.
We looked to the private sector for a diagnosis. It would cost just over £2,000, which is achievable, but ironically because of the way the private healthcare system has commissioned and restructured its services due to coronavirus, it also has a bottleneck, and to get a diagnosis would take the same time as it would take through NHS services.
The possibility remains that she may not have cancer, but the possibility also remains that if it is, it could be growing or spreading and by the time a diagnosis is made, it could be too late.
We can't but help think that if the track and trace process was being run effectively, the strain on the NHS would be far less, and the waiting time for a diagnosis would also be far less. We also can't help thinking that as a consequence of government policies to combat coronavirus and the huge death toll, that politically they'd prefer fatalities to be anything else but as being identified as Covid19.
The real trauma is not knowing, and my partner is gracious enough to understand that there are thousands of others that are in the same situation. Knowing that however dosen't negate the fear and anxiety of not knowing.
The Government and the private sector are complicit in creating this situation, and saying they should hang their heads in shame, really isn't enough.
The private sector has no place in public services, they fail every time, and whilst failing to empty peoples bins or running trains that are constantly late is providing unacceptable public services, failings with public service contracts in healthcare is actually killing people.
'Getafix
Best wishes & good luck to your partner & yourself.
DeleteFranK.
Very sorry to hear that'Getafix - I also send my best wishes and hope things can be resolved quickly and positively for you both.
DeleteJim
Thank you both for your kind regards.
DeleteHowever, I've only used my personal situation to highlight a terrible situation that is effecting thousands upun thousands of people. If you also factor in those with other life threatening illness other then cancer then there's tens of thousands that can't access lifesaving treatment.
It's entirely possible, even likely that the non treatment of life threatening illnesses will see a greater mortality count then those that die of Covid19.
Track and trace is a vital tool in stopping the spread of the virus, and decreasing the spread reduces the pressure on the NHS. However, it's not working, the Government know its not working, yet they're so ideologically wed to outsourcing and the private sector they are prepared to allow already dubious private companies, such as Serco to continue failing. Therefore they are not easing the pressure on the NHS and are complicit in a rising number of unnecessary and avoidable deaths through failing to implement a competent and working system.
The government are fully aware of what's happening, that's why they've put adverts on the TV saying that if you think you have an illness that might require urgent attention you can still go and see your GP. That's true, but its misdirection and disingenuous because the GP will make the necessary referrals, but that's as far as it goes for now, you'll be referred but not treated.
But privateers are interested in profit not people, and that's the fundamental flaw in outsourcing public services to private contractors.
Anyone with a personal interest in this can find some pretty enlightening and scary articles in the Lancet which gives details of the scale of this problem. I've been quite shocked by how big a problem this has become.
'Getafix
dido harding's mate mike coupe (who also fucked up massively at Sainsbury's) has just landed a plum job with the testing programme. So a crap grocer, a chum of a chum, is preferred over someone who knows what they're doing - no advert, no selection process, just slide the slimy fucker in through the back window.
DeleteIn fact the current issue of Private Eye is a must-read to unravel some of the criminality this shithouse government is visiting upon the country.
Calamitous tales of Test&Trace, invisible Computers for Kids costing £96m, covid consultancy fees of up to £1,450 per hour (even more obscene than the £1500 monthly pocketed by probation's 'excellent leaders') - its all in there.
Today's scores-on-the-weekend-doors:
cases = 12,872 / 285,000 pcr tests
deaths = 65
hospitalisations = 641 on 7 Oct
FranK.
https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2020/10/10/why-jacob-rees-mogg-doesnt-want-any-scrutiny-of-serco-test-and/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5nb29nbGUuY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEOD-WQmwizAThdz5iolsFABiCTAfwwqkwGe2LyfkmjzbEP9_hjdO5VgxuH-CGMAjZIq-p1UBWs7rlcwFthwLRwNX9mLfAwyyebTCFqNOh9dRF3fSpl-vV-tUaleUCE2xZOBFY522Nf97nGxvplgdojANRr6KJFVXovQA9pcfHcp
DeleteSerco says it is responsible for 33% of the overall contact tracing workforce, and 50% of call handlers. The other 50% is provided by private sector call centre company Sitel, which also has a government contract.
DeleteSerco says it "has no further role" in NHS Test and Trace, though Open Democracy has reported it operates 30% of testing sites.
In July, it emerged Serco was subcontracting the bulk of its work to 29 other companies.
Dulwich and West Norwood MP Helen Hayes said of the system's name on Thursday: "It isn't 'NHS Test and Trace', it is 'Serco-subcontracted-to-29-different-anonymous-subcontractors-test-and-trace'.
On Thursday, it emerged that in the week up to 30 September – the most recent for which data is available – just 68.6% of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid in England were reached and told to self-isolate.
Of those cases handled either online or by private sector call centres, only 62.4% of close contacts were reached. This compares to 97.1% for local council public health teams.
________________________________________________
see also:
Serco lands another £45m for ‘failing’ COVID Test and Trace scheme
Revealed: Controversial firm has won previously unreported coronavirus testing contract – while critics label its £108m call centre deal ‘astonishing’ and ‘unethical’.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/serco-lands-another-45m-for-failing-covid-test-and-trace-scheme/
The Department for Health has told openDemocracy that “Serco’s involvement in test site provision is covered by a separate contract” – meaning that it is separate from the contact tracing scheme – and added: “The reported Serco contract with the value of £45m is for provision of test sites."
I haven't got £70+ quid to chuck at this, but has anyone seen it/read it? Maybe Skinns could write a blog piece?
ReplyDelete"Coalition Government Penal Policy 2010–2015 - Austerity, Outsourcing and Punishment"
Author: David Skinns
1. Introduction - This book shows how the overall impact of the penal policy agenda of the Coalition Government 2010-2015 has not led to the intended 'rehabilitation revolution', but austerity, outsourcing and punishment, designated here as 'punitive managerialism'.
The policy of austerity has led to significant budget cuts in legal aid and court services which threaten justice. It has also led to staffing reductions and overcrowding in the prison system which threaten order and have undermined more positive work with prisoners. The outsourcing of prison and community-based offender services is based on untried method with uncertain results. The shift in orientation towards punishment is regrettable because it is essentially negative. The book notes that this move to punitive managerialism is located in the broader trend towards neo-liberalism. It concludes by attempting to articulate the parameters of an affordable and emotionally satisfying yet humane and rational penal policy.
David Skinns has a long-standing interest in penal policy, first stimulated by his work with young offenders, immediately after graduating. After completing postgraduate degrees at Sheffield University, UK, and Cambridge University, UK, he went on to further develop this interest by teaching criminology in higher education. He completed a PhD at Hull University, UK. After retiring from teaching, he began work with the Independent Monitoring Board for Prisons.
2. Crime, Criminal Justice and the Penal System
Abstract - This chapter sets the scene for an understanding of penal policy in the 2010–15 period by considering two matters: the structure and organization of the criminal justice system and the nature and the extent of, and trends in, crime in England and Wales. The issues are dealt with in this order, reflecting the fact that the amount of crime in a society is a complex product dependent, to a very large degree, on the nature of the criminal justice system, as well as the nature of the broader society.
3. Assessing Penal Policy
Abstract - This chapter attempts to provide the reader with a firm base from which to assess penal policy. First, some preliminary issues are raised concerning key concepts. Next the penal policy task the Coalition Government set itself is explicated, thereby enabling the development of an internal critique, assessing how they did by their own standards. Finally, with due acknowledgement of the work of Morris and Hawkins (1972) and Reiner (2007), an honest citizen’s and politician’s guide to penal policy change is offered, thereby enabling an external critique, that is, an assessment of how the Coalition performed by independent standards.
3. The Coalition Government and Sentencing, 2010–15
Abstract - This chapter provides a critical examination of the Coalition Government’s sentencing policy in England and Wales for adults and young adults, looking at the emerging agenda, the actions actually undertaken as well as the justifications offered, the reactions they provoked and the impact they had, where known. Comparative material is used where appropriate. The chapter ends with an internal and external assessment of the government sentencing policy.
5. Custodial Services
Abstract - The purpose of Chap. 5 is to examine the Coalition Government’s policies on custodial services for adults and young adults in England and Wales by considering the emergent policy agenda, the actions actually undertaken as well as justifications offered, the reactions they provoked and the impact they had, where known. Where it can help to throw some light on matters, comparative data are used. An overall assessment of the record of the government with regard to custodial services is also provided.
6. Community-Based Offender Services
DeleteAbstract - This chapter provides a critical assessment of the Coalition Government’s policies on the management and supervision of offenders placed on community sentences by a court and also resettlement services working with prisoners before their release and when they are released into the community on licence, deemed here community-based offender services. The chapter examines the emerging policy agenda, the actions actually undertaken as well as justifications offered, the reactions they provoked and the impact they had, where known. As in Chaps. 4 and 5, comparative data are used where they can throw some light on the possible impact of the measures discussed. An internal and external critique is also provided.
7. Neo-liberalism and Austerity, Outsourcing and Punishment
Abstract - This chapter summarizes the trends in penal policy promoted by the Coalition Government, relates these trends to broader patterns that have been observed by others and provides a tentative explanation of the identified trends and observed patterns.
It should be available via any UK Public Library - that is how I used to get to see books I did not want to buy.
Delete"It should be available via any UK Public Library"
DeleteWhat are they? Where do I find one?
[sarcasm alert]
You lick my arse, I'll lick yours:
ReplyDelete"Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has dismissed Labour's call for an investigation into the award of a £25m regeneration grant to his constituency.
He told BBC One's Andrew Marr show the decision to give the money to Newark, Nottinghamshire, had been taken by fellow minister Jake Berry.
Mr Jenrick said he had himself decided to grant funds to a town in Mr Berry's constituency under the same scheme.
He called this "perfectly normal" and accused Labour of "distraction".
But Labour described the allocation of the money "murky" and urged Mr Jenrick to submit himself to a "full" investigation.
The £25m was awarded to Newark under the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's £3.6bn Towns Fund, set up last year to help places that had "not always benefitted from economic growth in the same way as more prosperous areas"."
This is how brazen the thieving lying scumsuckers are:
*****Mr Jenrick said he had himself decided to grant funds to a town in Mr Berry's constituency under the same scheme.*****
Its all "perfectly normal".
What is the point of funding probation, of speaking about or investing in rehabilitation when those who are 'in power' simply ignore the law when it suits them? When they give the green light to everyone to do as you please, help yourself & act with impunity???
Its all perfectly normal.
Buckland on the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement fiasco:
Delete"he said he would only be willing to step down if the rule of law is "broken in a way that I find unacceptable"."
Its all "perfectly normal".
https://boris-johnson-lies.com/
DeleteIts all "perfectly normal"
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/a-corruption-of-conservatism-how-a-cartel-of-tory-mps-broke-british-politics/
DeleteIts all perfectly normal
Tory corruption: they gave their mate £150 million of OUR money – for USELESS face masks
DeleteLiz Truss gave the contract to her long-time friend and advisor Andrew Mills after HE approached her asking for the contract. Three months after they were bought, the government said the masks, which use ear-loop fastenings rather than head loops, may not fit tightly enough and cannot be used.
Its all perfectly normal.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2020/06/25/the-problem-with-robert-jenrick-runs-deeper-than-just-tory-corruption/
Deleteits all prefectly normal
Re Post by Anon 17.13
DeleteFrom the Financial Times
"In response to queries last month, a government spokesperson told the FT: “There is a robust process in place to ensure orders are of high quality and meet strict safety standards, with the necessary due diligence undertaken on all government contracts.” "
(There is free access to some CoronaVirus FT Articles plus a limited free access to other articles)
From article dated SEPTEMBER 2 2020 with headline - "FT Health: Holding governments to account for Covid-19 response"
https://www.ft.com/content/2c4bbec0-b1c9-4a91-8d8e-abc61b843c6a
They all sing from the same WeaselWord sheet:
DeleteThe Department for Health, meanwhile, has said: "Proper due diligence is carried out for all government contracts, we take these checks extremely seriously and all contracts also have break clauses in them, meaning if the company does not meet required service levels we can cancel the contracts and reclaim taxpayers money."
Just like the lying, cheating, embedded (or was it just bedded?) CRC Contract Managers who provided fuck-all oversight of the crooked CRC contracts.
Its all perfectly normal.
Serco’s separate £108m COVID contact tracing contract – the value of which could rise to £432m if it continues through to next year – allows Serco to “refine” its own service level agreements, oversee its own monitoring, and also rules out automatic penalties for underperformance.
DeleteIts all perfectly normal
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/shine-a-light/g4s-serco-fraud-oops-we-couldnt-tell-difference-between-right-and-wrong/
Delete"Both G4S and Serco argued that technically charging for electronic monitoring for people who were in prison, no longer under supervision or who had died was not breach of contract.
Almanza and Lyons admitted that their companies had charged for services for years after they had ceased to provide them. Both denied that this amounted to dishonesty.
PAC's Chair, Margaret Hodge MP, challenged Alastair Lyons about Serco's practice of "pretending to the taxpayer that the costs were reasonable when in fact they were excessive".
Lyons claimed the practice was "known to the Ministry of Justice", but had since been abandoned."
Its all perfectly normal
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/shine-a-light/who-is-that-man-in-lord-chancellors-seat/
ReplyDeleteWho is this smug, self-satisfied operator? What makes him tick?
Chris Grayling was born into privilege, (he was smacked as a child and it did him no harm). Educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, he took History at Cambridge, then joined the BBC as a news trainee. He moved into management, ran TV production companies, then he jumped into another world.
He joined Burson-Marsteller, the international masters of reputation management, whose clients have included the Nigerian government during the Biafran war, the Argentinian junta after the disappearance of 35,000 civilians, the dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and the Saudi Royal Family.
Nice guys.
Grayling spent a few years at Burson-Marsteller. (On his website it's not named, it's just a "leading communications agency"). Then he parachuted into the safe Tory seat of Epsom and Ewell. He rose fast through the Shadow Cabinet, developing a property portfolio with help from his Parliamentary expenses.
The Daily Telegraph revealed in 2009 that Grayling had claimed thousands of pounds to renovate a flat in central London – bought with a mortgage funded at taxpayers’ expense, even though his constituency home is less than 17 miles from the House of Commons.
The Telegraph reported an unusual arrangement that Grayling set up with the Parliamentary Fees Office whereby he claimed £625 a month for mortgages on his main home and the Pimlico flat.
Over the summer of 2005 he undertook a complete refurbishment of the flat. Between May and July he claimed £4,250 for redecorating, £1,561 for a new bathroom, £1,341 for new kitchen units, £1,527 for plumbing and £1,950 for rewiring and other work.
During the 2005-06 financial year, Grayling claimed close to the maximum allowance for MPs, the Telegraph reported. In 2006-2007 he submitted receipts for the work that had been carried out the previous year. In June 2006, for instance, he submitted an invoice for £3,534, with a handwritten note claiming "this has only just been issued, date notwithstanding".
A scribbled note that accompanied another late-arriving claim, for £2,250, submitted in July 2006, stated:
"Decorator has been very ill & didn’t invoice me until now."
Anyway, back to this morning's Select Committee meeting.
Sir Alan Beith, the chair and Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick, mentioned a few mismanaged Ministry of Justice contracts — the court interpreting shambles, the offender-tagging contract currently under investigation, prisons and probation contracts.
"You haven't got the capacity within the department to manage contracts on this scale have you?" said Beith.
Grayling replied that the problem with the court interpreting contract was that it had been placed with too small a supplier, and bigger suppliers could sort it out.
Huh?
That such a man holds the title 'Lord Chancellor', has taken an oath to uphold the rule of law, yet holds Parliament in such contempt that he failed even to attend last week's debate on his proposals is. . . Surprising is the first polite word that springs to mind.
Its all perfectly normal
“Chris Grayling was born into privilege”
DeleteYou’ll be surprised how so many of our probation directors and their little inner-circles were too.
Speak up then
DeleteThere's an SPO job going in my office so I'm going through the usual angst ridden internal monologue about whether to apply again. Do I want to go through the emotional trauma of trying and failing once more? Can I actually dance like a corporate monkey through the bullshit process only to see someone significantly less experienced and able than me get the job. I kind of want to do it so I can try to be a human middle manager and find a path through the bollocks
ReplyDeleteOne that enables people to retain their humanity and preserve their mental health whilst being effective. You know the kind if thing. But, I'm not going to bother. The straw that broke the camel's back? I just worked out that I would take home a princely seventy quid a month more than I get now. As my old grannie used to say. Fuck that shit! £17.50 a week for all that extra shit and responsibilty? Are you having a laugh? When next negotiating a deal on pay and t&c's maybe our trade unions and employers might wake up to the reality that able and experienced staff face. We need a clear and achievable continuous professional development framework. One that rewards dedication and ability. One that motivates people to want to progress and one that takes away the reliance on a single interview performance which tells recruiters nothing about how equipped a candidate actually is to do the job.
I'd like to make an observation that has been developing over years of working in the criminal justice arena, most especially from writing PSRs on many, many people in a variety of geographical locations around the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe shift, i.e. loss, of the economic base in many areas has been seen before. The closure of the coalfields, the loss of the textile industries, the motor car - in fact the loss of large-scale industry, particularly manufacturing, in general.
I seem to recall that many coalfield areas had a sudden surge in owner/driver taxis as redundancies were converted into people carriers. Or fishing vessels. Or handyman services. Or landscape garderning. All came with their own internecine issues as the local economy tried to re-invent itself.
The collapse of the textile industry in the midlands opened up 'opportunities' for vast telesales warehouses and property developers, quickly followed by retail & hospitality & nightlife, bars, brewing, niche this & exclusive that.
Other areas of the UK have historically been groomed by well-funded industries, e.g. the nuclear industry, which identified & exploited isolated, deprived communities whilst actively encouraging a local dependency culture fuelled by unusually high pay; artificially growing a niche but fragile economy that simply disappears like steam the day the industry packs up & leaves, devastating the enslaved communities and leaving them to pick up the pieces. The money, the expertise, the benefits - all gone.
Its a bit Groundhog Day here in the UK. The country's nest-eggs are yet again in one huge basket, and all it has taken is a tiny, wee virus to expose the fragile facade of the UK economy and unleash chaos.
The economy's lack of breadth & depth and lack of stability & longevity is analagous to the tinder-style probation officer recruitment which, as far as I can make out, is a much abbreviated self-taught series of tick-box assessments by carefully selected candidates who fit the NPS corporate profile & pass the HMPPS screening hot-candidate swipe-right procedures.
A Great British manufacturing company:
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/12/jcb-challenged-over-machinery-used-to-demolish-palestinian-homes
"JCB, the British tractor and heavy machinery firm, which has donated millions of pounds to the Conservative party and at least £25,000 to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, may be in breach of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s guidelines on exporting goods for use in the demolition of Palestinian villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a UK government body has assessed.
The chair of JCB is Anthony Bamford, a Conservative peer. The company gave Johnson £25,000 for his leadership campaign. Overall the firm has given the Conservatives more than £10m since 2010, according to the Electoral Commission."
So lets see if anything sticks!
This is unsurprising but nevertheless distressing to read:
ReplyDelete"Perhaps the most egregious of all the recent spectacles was Trump’s decision to travel to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on 1 October. He flew there on Marine One, the presidential helicopter, hours before he was given his positive result for coronavirus but significantly hours after the White House learned that Hicks, one of Trump’s closest aides with whom he had been travelling, had been infected.
Yet no one at the fundraising event was warned of the exposure, and no masks were worn. Among those put at potential risk were up to 200 Republican supporters, 19 major donors paying up to $250,000 each for the privilege of spending an hour cooped up indoors with the president, and a further 19 staff employed by the Trump Organization who served the guests.
During the course of the event, several mandatory regulations set by New Jersey’s governor were openly flouted, including the number of people allowed to congregate in an enclosed space, the presentation of food buffet-style in contravention of social distancing rules, and the sheer fact that Trump had not informed participants that he had been exposed to the virus and should be quarantining. This summer, a health worker who was looking after older people in a residential home in Camden, New Jersey, was charged with five criminal counts of endangerment because she did not tell the people in her care that she had developed symptoms of Covid.
Diaz (ex-Trump employee) has two friends who are still working at Trump’s golf course, a housekeeper and a landscaper. She spoke to them after the president’s fundraising visit last week, which netted Trump’s re-election campaign $5m.
“My friends are really scared,” she said. “They are really poor people, and when poor people get sick they lose their jobs and the hospitals don’t have beds. Donald Trump, he doesn’t think about them. He just thinks about himself.” "
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/12/donald-trump-covid-reckless-president
I'm confused by this report:
ReplyDelete"Australian scientists have found that the virus that causes Covid-19 can survive for up to 28 days on surfaces such as the glass on mobile phones, stainless steel, vinyl and paper banknotes.
The national science agency, the CSIRO, said the research undertaken at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong also found that Sars-CoV-2 survived longer at lower temperatures.
It said in a statement the virus survived longer on paper banknotes than on plastic banknotes and lasted longer on smooth surfaces rather than porous surfaces such as cotton."
I'd have thought plastic banknotes = a smooth surface & paper banknotes = a porous surface?
FranK.
06 October 2020 - Volume 681
ReplyDeleteThe Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lucy Frazer)
"The contract for the operation of HMP Five Wells follows the first mini competition launched in July 2019 under the prison operator services framework. Four of the six framework operators (G4S Care and Custody Services UK Ltd, Serco Ltd, Sodexo Ltd and a new entrant, Management and Training Corporation Works Ltd) bid as part of the competition.
As the successful bidder, G4S demonstrated its capability to deliver a high quality, value-for-money service which will ensure that the prison is safe, decent, secure, rehabilitative and fit for modern times.
HMPPS did not bid in the competition but provided a public sector benchmark against which bids were rigorously assessed. If bids had not met our expectations in terms of quality and cost, HMPPS would manage the new prison itself."
Serco news - "A Doncaster prison guard has been jailed for smuggling banned items into prison.
ReplyDeleteWalls was sentenced to five years and seven months for trying to convey illicit items into HMP Doncaster, where he worked.
In late November, Walls was seen on prison CCTV to leave the building, before returning with his prison issue bag. When it was searched, several wrapped packages and tobacco were found inside.
When the wrapped packages were opened, inside were mobile phones, tobacco, lighters, chargers, bags of white powder, spice and cannabis.
John Hewitson, Serco Prison Director at HMP Doncaster, said: “Serco notes the outcome of the Sheffield Crown Court regarding the inappropriate behaviour of one of our former employees."
G4s has failed time and again, so much so 'failure' is almost an excepted as part of the contractual agreement.
ReplyDeleteHowever, on top of awarding a contract to a company that continually fails, G4s could also be about to be taken over in the immediate future.
I'd suggest that continuous failure combined with the unknown that comes with any take over is just a recipe for disaster. What could go wrong?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8824719/amp/Bidding-war-erupts-control-G4S-rival-mulls-rival-offer.html
'Getafix
They had already sold off their 'cash-handling' business earlier this year:
Delete"G4S receives most of the proceeds from sale of cash handling businesses
The security firm agreed a sale price of £727mln for the business with US peer The Brink’s Company
G4S - G4S receives most proceeds from sale of cash handling businesses
G4S PLC (LON:GFS) said it has received 75% of the proceeds from the sale of its cash handling businesses to US peer The Brink’s Company.
The security firms agreed a sale price of £727mln for the business, with expected net cash proceeds of £670mln."
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G4S, the world's largest security company, has reached an agreement on the sale of its Israeli business. War on Want said:
"G4S has long profited from Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, its decision to sell its Israeli business shows that our boycott and divestment campaigns work.
"G4S was servicing Israeli prisons where 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners are detained, and where torture and ill-treatment is rampant. The detention and treatment of these prisoners breaks international law and amounts to war crimes. This is the reality we highlighted in our campaign, and it remains today. It is no wonder that G4S felt the pressure to sell.
"However, G4S remains complicit in human rights abuses through its ownership and investment in the Israeli police academy."
What can happen when you're sick & tired of being treated like shit by your employer...
Delete"A SECURITY guard today admitted stealing almost £1million from his G4S van - as cops desperately try to recover the £910,000 still missing.
Amanda McCabe, prosecuting, told the court: "G4S did not record a report concerning the van until some ten hours after it had been abandoned and it was found money that should have been loaded into various lockers hadn’t been.
“It was found there was his body armour, phone and other items left in the van.
“Inquiries were made to locate the defendant, he was eventually followed to an address in Brixton, [where] police seized approximately £60,000 in cash and found some new clothing and footwear.
“The defendant was interviewed and gave account in which he complained about G4S as employers and complained about his mental health."
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/expansion-at-4-jails-announced
ReplyDeleteToday's scorecard in advance of Bozo's press conference
ReplyDeletecases: 13,972 / 285,000 pcr tests
deaths: 50
hospitalisations: 651 on 8 October
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The US continues to give Trump hope he will remain in WH
"A Black man who was led by a rope by two white officers on horseback has sued a south-east Texas city and its police department for $1m, saying he suffered humiliation and fear during his arrest.
A lawsuit filed last week in Galveston county district court on behalf of Donald Neely, 44, alleged the officers’ conduct was “extreme and outrageous”, both physically injuring Neely and causing him emotional distress, news outlets reported, citing the court documents.
Photos of the August 2019 encounter showed Neely being led by the officers on a rope linked to handcuffs – reminiscent of pictures showing slaves in chains."
FranK.