Covid Inquiry UK, Baroness Mone and Covid contracts

 This inquiry is costly, overblown and poorly focused. But those hearings revealed with ruthless efficiency the lamentable political leadership that plagues our country. They exposed a floundering political system along with the rampant egos, strutting vanities and dangerous delusions of dismal people in power when our country was struck by a health catastrophe.

Their stunning arrogance and horrifying deceit was shown with stark clarity when Helen MacNamara, a senior civil servant, admitted she would struggle to pick a single day when the draconian rules imposed on Britain with such drastic consequences during those long days of lockdown and social distancing were followed in Downing Street. So much for all the Partygate denials...

Despair
Eric Harald Macbeth Robertson (1887-1941)
Photo Credit Glasgow Life Museums [CC BY-NC-ND) 

Yet behind the exposure of government dysfunction and ineptitude, the details of power struggles and pathetic vendettas, lurk profound questions extending beyond the inquiry issues of pandemic planning and response.

Is it any wonder, after all, that the health service is so sick, housing in such short supply, prisons dangerously overflowing and social care crumbling when we see how our government and its leading lights behaved, even when the country was confronted by such an epic crisis that threatened so many lives?..

Politicians, advisors and top civil servants colluded in breaking their own pandemic rules, then covered up misdeeds...

These issues of arrogance, incompetence, ineptitude, selfishness, shallowness and tribalism go beyond Boris Johnson and his toxic team of foul-mouthed aides. They were an appalling bunch who should never have been in control of country - but ultimately, they were a symptom of the infection tormenting the body politic with such painful consequences.

(Ian Birrell, The i, 2023)

A damming article that highlights the gross defects the present governing party possesses.

The Conservative peer Michelle Mone, has acknowledged for the first time that she was involved with a company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth £200m during the Covid pandemic.

Lady Mone's husband, Douglas Barrowman, has also acknowledged for the first time that he was involved in the company, PPE Medpro...

The admission raises questions about years of denials from the couple. Until now, Mone and Barrowman have consistently and emphatically denied to the Guardian, via lawyers, that they were involved in the company.

Timon of Athens
Thomas Couture (1815-1879)
Photo Credit: The Wallace Collection [CC BY-NC-ND]

In November 2020, Mone's lawyer asserted that "Baroness Mone is not connected in any way with PPE Medpro." Barrowman's lawyers repeatedly denied he was an investor in the company or a consortium supporting it and said he "never had any role or function in PPE Medpro.

In December 2020, a lawyer instructed by Mone and Barrowman said "any suggestion of an association" between the Tory peer and PPE Medpro would be "inaccurate,"misleading" and "defamatory"...

Three years on, a representative for the couple ... who is also a spokesman for PPE Medpro, said, "The UK government was fully aware of Baroness Mone's involvement; like many other peers and MPs on the high priority lane, she acted as an intermediary/liaison between PPE Medpro and the Cabinet Office/Department of Health and Social Care."...

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) granted PPE Medpro two contracts in May and June 2020, near the start of the pandemic, to supply millions of face masks and sterile surgical gowns, for a total of £203m. The contracts were processed through the DHSC's "VIP" high-priority lane, which fast-tracked offers of PPE from companies with connections to the Conservative party or government.

The DHSC is suing PPE Medpro for the full return of the £122m it paid for the surgical gowns but never used, claiming they were unsafe for use in the NHS. The company is defending the claim.

The National Crime Agency is conducting an investigation into PPE Medpro, which is continuing...

(David Conn, The Guardian, 2023)

If these two have committed any  crime they should be brought before the court and if found guilty should be jailed. Will they stand trial? No chance!