The obscenity of unfettered capitalism in the hands of this Tory Government

 Regular readers are well aware that both Wilma and I have left of centre leanings, as indeed have the majority of Scots. The fact that we've not had a Tory led country here since 1955 says it all really.

The Scottish Tory party led by the latest substitute Douglas Ross being about the fifth in a little over 5 years, the Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba is their name in Scots Gaelic from whence the name "Tory" comes, and in truth the Irish Gaelic Toraidheach means Outlaw/Robber !

I digress a bit there, nonetheless the principal Tory Party are the Government of the U.K. (for the time being) and are led by Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. It is this Government that has been blatantly lining the pockets of their cronies during this Global Pandemic of Covid 19;

In one case, Saiger, a Miami jewellery designer that received £250m of contracts to provide PPE to the NHS, paid £21m to a consultant to help broker a deal for the kit. The payout has attracted widespread attention after the case became the subject of a legal dispute in the US.

 In a report released on Wednesday, the NAO highlighted contracts where the supplier had a close link to Whitehall. 

They included a £550,000 consulting deal with Public First, whose two directors previously worked for Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, and a technology agreement worth about £1m with Faculty, whose shareholders until recently included Theodore Agnew, another Cabinet Office minister. £350m Value of the contract given to PestFix to supply PPE. PestFix has net assets of £18,000 The Cabinet Office “failed to document any consideration of any potential conflict of interest” and “failed to document why it chose this particular supplier” when it awarded the contracts, the NAO said. 

 In a third example, it said health department officials failed to consider a potential conflict of interest in a £252m contract to supply PPE with Ayanda Capital, a private investment firm. The deal was controversial because Ayanda’s board is advised by Andrew Mills, at the time an adviser to the Board of Trade. The watchdog also highlighted lucrative PPE contracts awarded outside of usual procurement methods, including a “high-priority lane” for companies referred by government officials, ministers’ offices, MPs and peers. Such companies were 10 times more likely to have obtained contracts than suppliers who pitched through ordinary channels, the NAO found. 

A person close to the report said there were “no rules” for using the high-priority referrals system, which meant there was “a risk of it being open to abuse or inconsistency”. 

 In one case, PestFix, a pest control supplies company in Littlehampton, Sussex, was “added to the high-priority lane in error without a referral”, the NAO said. This resulted in PestFix, which has net assets of £18,000, being awarded a contract to supply PPE worth £350m to the NHS. 

 In one case, a £3m contract with consultancy firm Deloitte to support the procurement of PPE was not signed until four months after the work had begun. “A clear trail of documents to support key procurement decisions was sometimes missing,” it added. “Financial and company due diligence checks were not always completed on suppliers before the award of contracts in the early weeks of PPE procurement.” It censured the government for failing to publish contracts in a “timely manner” after it found that just a quarter had been published within its 90-day target

More than half of the 1,664 contracts agreed with private companies between March and July have still not been published. 

 Meg Hillier, chair of the House of Commons public accounts committee, said: “Even in an emergency, public procurements need to get the basics right. Clearly, too many didn’t. The mistakes revealed by this report are likely to only be the tip of the iceberg.” She added the “high-priority lane” was “bad enough . . . but the failure to track how half the companies had ended up on it made it impossible to ensure proper safeguards were in place”. “The government needs to come clean and immediately publish all the contracts it’s awarded so far.” 

If the stench of blatant corruption hasn't driven you to put your head down the toilet bowl by now, then we also have a Minister of State accused of bullying and the same sneering, craven witch who has already been sacked from high office in the UK Government

The final slap in the face for the common herd is that Bojo has decreed via Rishi Sunak that there will be a public pay freeze for circa 3 years and a cessation to any increase in the Aid Budget but that there will be a £16.5 billion increase in "Defence Spending". 

I'm willing to bet that there will not be humongous rises in that sum for the average squaddie, sailor or airman ! There will be though, enormous expenditure to purchase the latest and most expensive equipment that America can manufacture and sell to their "close ally"

This is the true obscenity I referred to initially, the whole medical and care sector of society who've sacrificed life, limb and mental care to fight this pervasive and deadly virus have been rewarded with "Clapping" but no financial gratitude whilst Boris's MP's have yet again already awarded themselves a pay-rise and allowed the Ministry of Defence (who frankly couldn't buy sex in a brothel) unfettered spending.

The mask slips from Boris !

The "Bonhomie" displayed towards the Scots by Boris Johnson turned quicker than 3 month old milk !

Here he is having a dram of "Uisge Beatha" or Water of Life with his most recent Scottish Leader substitute (to use a footballing analogy since the other eejit in the picture is a UEFA official as well as the latest Scottish Leader).

Subsequently, the P.M. "Doris" Johnson had to take a sickie and self isolate having met with a Tory M.P. who'd been registered as having Covid via the track and trace system run by Baroness Dildo Harding. 

Ironically she too has now had to pull a sickie, ergo it would seem her system does work unlike her!

Enough of the clowns running the Westminster Circus and to return to the head joker the P.M. 

Bojo, in a Zoom meeting with North of England Tory MP's opened his mouth and let his belly rumble to announce that in his opinion, "Devolution had been a disaster for Scotland" and Tony Blair's biggest mistake !

Needless to say this "faux pas" on the clown's part has been greeted with glee amongst we supporters of Independence and incredulity from the ever diminishing band of True Blue Tories in Scotland.

His mask has well and truly slipped and in a bitter sweet irony at a time where mask wearing is almost "de rigeur" on the basis of the Pandemic !

Three cheers for Boris and keep it up !

SAOR ALBA

Is "Brexit" and the UK break-up the death throes of the British Empire

 History shows that all "Empires" run their course, and finally come to an end ! 

The Incas, Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans have all been at the Apex of their location on this globe and at the time relevant to their form of "civilisation" but that they all equally crumbled with only relics in terms of architecture and language to show subsequent generations of their existence !

Inca

Mayan

Egyptians

Greek

Roman

"The British Empire"

There is no doubt whatsoever that the "British Empire" was at its zenith from the 17th century and due in no small part to its maritime superiority!  

Although it must pain the various Westminster Governments, the days of "Empire" have died and are frankly buried in a "Paupers Grave".

There is a certain symmetry in that the "Empire" was started with Elizabeth the First (of England) in 1588; with her granting a charter to the East India Company and the end coming with Elizabeth the Second (First of Scotland).

There is no doubt that the beginning of the end was occasioned by the debt that the U.K. has accrued fighting two World Wars and whilst the "Empire" had provided troops by the millions, the USA provided the money under the "Lease Lend Act" to the principal forces against Nazi Germany. It was a loan though and had to be repaid.

In other words "you get nothing for nothing!" everything has a price.

So here we are in the 21st century and the UK Government still thinks it has a major role in the global arena ! 

You're having a laugh !!

The Chinese, Americans, Russians, E.U; Indians, Japanese and even the Saudis have a bigger say in global terms than the British. 

This arrogant and frankly foolish notion of importance is especially so with the present Conservative and Unionist party led by Prince "Boffo" a.k.a. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

Across the U.K. is increasing demand for "National Independence" and Brexit is by any other name "English Independence" and that is fine by me ! 

I want Independence for Scotland so it is right and proper that England should want and get its own form of it.  Where I disagree is that having voted for remaining in the EU; Scotland is being dragged out of the Union because our larger neighbours want out of it.

The corpse of the British Empire has rigour mortis and should be buried quickly before the decomposition rots us all !

Two lard arsed misogynists look to be doomed as their special relationship could hit the buffers!

 My politics aside, both Donald John Trump and Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson are the political epitome of male chauvinism and seem to be heading to the wastebin of political history ! 

Their attitude towards women is abhorrent in any society much less one the purports to be open minded and in the 21st century. This is especially relevant when you look at countries that are stable and prosperous with female leaders.

Germany

Denmark

Norway

New Zealand

Scotland

There are a further 18 countries around the world who have elected leaders that are female and then the rest are countries run by macho clowns!

Trump looks to be heading out of the White House after one term and Bojo has already stated that he can't manage his finances on the meagre £150k salary of Prime Minister, ergo I'd suggest that Trump will go back to being the head of a loss making and tax deductible property organisation and speculatively, I'd suggest that Bojo will leave office as the UK falls into the category of "Banana Republic" post Brexit and citing his reaction to his alleged brush with Covid.

Thanks be to God we appear to be back from the precipice and hopefully the "Dynamic Duo" will have been chastened !!

Trump or Biden - The only winner in the UK is Independence for Alba !

The political storm that is engulfing the USA is reverberating across the globe, but especially in the still United (?) Kingdom.

The largest democracy in the free world has been literally tearing itself apart, due in no small part to a Presidential campaign like no other!

The choice is pretty stark in the sense that, Trump epitomises newer values (?) that resonate with unfettered capitalism. Biden on the other hand is alleged (by Trump) to be verging on a communist and in truth neither of them are really what is needed from America in the light of the economic crisis that is a plague (literally) on the human race!

Covid-19 has impacted globally and transformed not just the Presidential Election but the economics of capitalism !

What has this to do with the U.K. ?

In terms of Covid; it is a global pandemic so politically it is an irrelevance which of them gets in, though Trump has shown a buffoon like mentality, to the extent that America leads the world in terms of per capita deaths.

On the other hand while the UK Government purports to hang on to the coat-tails of the much larger party in the "Special Relationship" there is the matter of ;

"Brexit"

Trump suggests (but with no guarantees) that the UK and the US would enter into some sort of trade agreement but would want to introduce standards that are at odds with the existing food standards as an example. The question of the NHS is a particularly vexed one insofar that there has been categorical denials (but only from the UK perspective) about the involvement of the sacred cow being offered up to the God of U.S. dollars for a deal.

Biden has definitively stated that the Anglo Irish Accord is the Democrats own sacred cow and with the traditional Irish American lobby being their muscle, Biden will not be dealing with anyone who has the temerity to interfere with it!

Both of which bodes ill for the "special relationship" when the almost inevitable "No Deal Brexit" comes to pass. 

Britain will have left the E.U. like "Johnny No Mates" in terms of those to whom we've been linked for over 40 years in Europe and those to whom we've ostensibly had a special relationship since they deliberately threw the tea into the harbour declaring "No Taxation without Representation" circa 1776.

Alba though will seek to gain Independence and it is almost inevitable as a consequence, rejoin the EU. The one area in which we too might upset the Yanks is by tossing Trident out of our country, but we can live without that monstrosity in Scotland !!