To feel so angry that we'll be getting a no deal Brexit now on top of all this shit

[puffinsseagulls]

Australia deal = no deal effectively. Quite annoyed with the PM smirking though his speech as well. Seemingly uncaring about what he's inflicting on people. I do believe people in 2016 weren't voting for no deal. I know it's happening anyway, but it's a cheek to try to blame the EU for it imo.

There was something on the radio today about the fishing issue affecting 12,000 people and that there are 3 times more fitness trainers than fishermen. Obviously everyone is important in all this but it’s a p.o.v I hadn’t heard before. That was a rare foray into Radio 4, I’m usually a Capital listener. There was also Hunt justifying £7000 a day spent on Covid consultants.

£7000 a day per consultant.

Oh Clav did you not realise I’d copied the “broad range of products” line from your own defence of Pestfix at lunchtime today?

"1. Background"
"1.1 Our client has supplied a broad range of products to more than fifteen NHS Trusts over the last eleven years. (As noted at paragraph 21 of the DHSC Response, some NHS Trusts choose to source PPE themselves rather than work through SSCL.) On every occasion, the products supplied by our client have met the rigorous safety standards required of them: our client is thus an established and reliable source of supplies to the NHS. In the introductory paragraphs to the PAP Letter, you have suggested that our client has never supplied products to be used by the NHS. This is simply untrue–it is an assertion by your clients based on wrong assumptions."

They don’t actually specify that the “broad range of products” includes PPE, do they? There’s a lot of whataboutery in that Pestfix response you posted - some Trusts source their own PPE, someone’s wife is a vet with China based family, contacts in the Far East etc.

Add in Pestfix’s director admitting to The Times that the company had never sold PPE before (as reported in the CityAM article - there’s a link to The Times but it’s paywalled), plus the size of the company, it’s main business, the new MD scouring LinkedIn for supplies, dodgy Directors and I smell a whole winter barn full of bull shit.

SabrinaThwaite
Add in Pestfix’s director admitting to The Times that the company had never sold PPE before (as reported in the CityAM article - there’s a link to The Times but it’s paywalled)

The article is behind a paywall for me as well - and in the absence of quotation marks it's very difficult to comment further on the director's 'admission'.

Clav You missed the point. I will put the good law project in touch with people who actually have experience of trading effectively with China, to give evidence about the pitfalls of using cowboys like these .....

Pestfix had sixteen employees. Not exactly in a position for third largest PPE contract. No wonder theory haven’t delivered but as there are no sanctions for non-completion, it doesn’t matter. They get the money anyway. A bit like Dyson and Serco.

Emilyontmoor

I didn't spot this on the Good Law Project's website - but on a different site;

"Law360, London (August 18, 2020, 6:05 PM BST) -- A London judge refused Tuesday to force the U.K. government's health department to hand over extra information about contracts it entered into with a pest control company to provide COVID-19 personal protective equipment, ruling the details were irrelevant to the underlying dispute."

"Judge Nerys Jefford denied a disclosure application from The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit campaign group, as it seeks a judicial review over a tender process that resulted in PestFix scoring a multimillion-pound contract to procure PPE for front-line health staff."

"It seems to me this is a fishing expedition in relation to other contracts not relevant to the current proceedings," the judge said."

There is actually a real problem with British businessmen naively or corruptly trading on “contacts” within China without understanding the cultural context. This was a particularly tragic case where the government may have actually used one of these wheeler dealers as a supposed intelligence contact. He paid for his naivety with his life. There is a Chinese saying that where water flows a channel will form meaning that there is a certain social justice for those who get things right, and if they don’t they deserve what they get......

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Heywood

CherryPavlova
No wonder theory haven’t delivered

Do you have a link?

It is an extreme case but one that is the sharp end of a wedge of many western fingers burnt

I'm not looking forward to January.

This is not your usual DM whip em up into a frenzy reporting.

www.thegrocer.co.uk/brexit/tesco-chairman-warns-of-short-term-food-shortages-after-brexit/649458.article

Without a deal 30% of supermarket goods will face tariffs of up to 20%. Prices are going to rise dramatically.
“In the event of a no-deal Brexit, shoppers will, literally, pay a heavy price. Imported food and drink from the EU will face eye-watering tariffs averaging 18%, kick-starting price rises. At the same time, border delays and disruption will bring further costs which will not be subsumed by industry. A no-deal outcome is bad for food and drink businesses, bad for food security, and bad for every household in Great Britain.”

And the benefits are.....?

We were always going to end up with no deal. I don't know why anyone ever thought otherwise.

And the benefits are.....?

None.
I've really been trying to think of a single benefit, I can't.
I used to think that at least it will expose the liars, cheats and racist for what they are, but I don't believe it will. Their followers are too devoted, it doesn't matter how high a price they have to pay, they will always blame someone else.

Not a full link to gory details but

www.businessinsider.com/uk-government-sued-pest-control-company-ppe-contract-2020-6?r=US&IR=T shows them as saying ‘they
nearly delivered’ aka they haven’t delivered. In fact, nowhere near.

www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2020/07/11/the-5-5bn-ppe-scandal-that-goes-to-the-core-of-government-incompetence-and-thats-just-for-starters/ The Ayanda contract failings.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/15/coronavirus-contracts-government-transparency-pandemic Provides concerns that Pestfix has more undisclosed contracts than the reported £32million.

@eleventylevennamechanges

We were always going to end up with no deal. I don't know why anyone ever thought otherwise.

This ^^. I reckon that most Leave voters never thought for a second about “deals”. All the talk about deal or no deal came as a surprise to them generally and most of them will have thought the whole idea of a deal was a sop to “remoaners”. For most Leavers this was always and only about immigration which is why they’re still furious about people crossing the channel in small boats and washing ashore in Kent. That and £350m for the NHS of course. Bollocks to it. And PP are right, Covid will get the blame.

Actually that post has made me think of a Brexit benefit. It's all about feelings though so nothing tangible.
I can't wait for the day the racist who voted for Brexit realise that fewer white immigrants means more brown immigrants.

CherryPavlova

We were discussing PestFix, not Ayanda.

Not a full link to gory details but

Details are quite important in a legal case.

SabrinaThwaite
dodgy Directors/holding company

Until proven otherwise, I will have to assume the directors of PestFix are not dodgy - Darren Grimes won his legal battle in the end, and Cambridge Analytica was found not to be involved in the EU referendum after all;
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54457407

Do you consider these chartered accountants dodgy then?

"The tax advantages of holding shares in a holding company."
"We often recommend setting up a holding company to successful owner managed business owners"...

www.krwaccountants.co.uk/krw-news/krw-tax-tips/item/the-tax-advantages-of-holding-shares-in-a-holding-company.html

Clavinova .....and there was me thinking we were discussing corruption within government and procurement as part of that sidelining of public monies to cronies. Ayanda is more public and demonstrates exactly why there are concerns about corruption and failure to deliver.
Have you seen the millions of pounds of Dyson ventilators? No, thought not. They don’t exist.

I’m ver well aware of the evidential basis for prosecution. This isn’t a prosecution; it’s social media. Much of the information is withheld from public gaze as government policy.

This is not your usual DM whip em up into a frenzy reporting

That's debatable - John Allan interview here;

"possibility of dislocation" , "hopefully normalise very quickly"

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-16/tesco-chairman-warns-brits-may-face-food-shortages-after-brexit

Last year (September 2019) Sainsbury's told their suppliers they would have to bear the brunt of EU import tariffs;

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sainsburys-tells-suppliers-to-cover-cost-of-no-deal-tariffs-8878cvrwh

CherryPavlova

You quite clearly singled out PestFix - but you don't know any of the details - just something you read on social media?

"Pestfix had sixteen employees. Not exactly in a position for third largest PPE contract. No wonder theory [sic] haven’t delivered but as there are no sanctions for non-completion, it doesn’t matter. They get the money anyway."

Why did just one Director set up two holding companies soon after winning unpublished contracts with no company track record suggesting that they could fulfil those contracts? In fact, the government even gave Pestfix a deposit worth 75% of the value of the contract, despite the government’s own rules stating that prepayments should be made only “in extremely limited and exceptional circumstances”, and even then must be “capped at 25% of the value of the contract”?

One of the Directors told national newspapers that the company had no experience of supplying PPE. The company’s lawyer’s letter carefully makes no mention of what exactly Pestfix had been supplying to the NHS prior to this (these) contract(s) being awarded?

Why did the Directors and MD immediately delete their online presence as soon as these contracts came to light? Especially since the newly appointed MD had been begging for supplies via LinkedIn?

But apparently, this is all perfectly normal behaviour, nothing to see here, move along now ...

Why did just one Director set up two holding companies soon after winning unpublished contracts

His company had just won a government contract worth £32m and he sought tax advice from a firm of chartered accountants? Just a thought. I guess we shall find out in due course.

@Clavinova

I can only see two companies with Pest Fix in their name at companies house. I would be staggered if these are the companies involved. Companies on registries overseas can use any name, so there is a chance the reports have identified the wrong companies. There could be Pest Fix companies in the Caribbean for all we know and one advantage of that is no public access to information.

@Antonov

It really is that tiny PestFix company based in a small industrial unit in Littlehampton (Crisp Websites t/a PestFix).

You can see why questions are being asked.