corruption
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Gangster Capitalism: UK Govt’s Costs
Tomorrow, the High Court will hear our application for a cost capping order in our judicial review of Government’s decision to award huge PPE contracts to questionable counterparties. Continue reading
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Gangster Capitalism: Yesterday in court
Documents disclosed to the court revealed that civil servants queried Public First’s costs and asked whether the contract was going to tender (it wasn’t). In one candid exchange a civil servant describes the deal as “tory party research agency tests tory party narrative on public purse”. Continue reading
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UK: Public money for political advantage
Correspondence from Government shows it plans to claim a staggering £500k-600k in costs for a one day hearing of a judicial review challenge to a contract awarded by Dominic Cummings to his friends at Public First. The higher figure is more than the total value of the Public First contract of £564k. Continue reading
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The PPE that can’t be used by the NHS
You may remember the tale of the jeweller from Florida and the Spanish intermediary who profited to the tune of tens of millions of pounds from vast PPE contracts, paid for with taxpayers’ money. Well, there have been developments. Continue reading
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UK: Buying injustice
Tomorrow [3 February] sees our legal challenge for Government’s failure to disclose details of COVID-19-related contracts. The case is being brought by Good Law Project along with a cross-party group of MPs – Caroline Lucas (Green), Debbie Abrahams (Labour) and Layla Moran (LibDem). Continue reading
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UK: Prorogation redux
In 1539, Henry VIII gained the right to legislate by decree, enabling him to bypass Parliament altogether. And now Boris Johnson, the man who has already tried and failed to suspend Parliament, is taking further cues on democracy from a Tudor King. Continue reading
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UK Govt: They want us gone
Correspondence with Government has revealed they expect to spend a staggering £1 million defending our judicial review of their decisions to award contracts criticised by the NAO. This is a sum unprecedented in our lawyers’ experience of judicial review proceedings. We can’t but wonder whether they are trying to scare us off – using the… Continue reading
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Watch: Rafael Correa on Venezuela, Assange, and ‘preventing the total destruction of our homeland’
Max Blumenthal interviews former Ecuador President Rafael Correa, who was in Venezuela to observe its legislative elections and show support to a government under sustained economic and political attack by the US (inc. transcript). Continue reading
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UK: We’re going to court!
To bring judicial review proceedings you have to establish you have an arguable case. Courts have, in recent times, interpreted this as imposing a relatively high bar for judicial review proceedings; think of it as being shortlisted for a job. And if they think you cross that bar they give you ‘permission’. Continue reading
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The New Norm: Government Lawbreaking
By TruePublica: Government lawbreaking in Boris Johnson’s adminstration has now reached an unprecedented scale for a British government – and we should all be concerned. Continue reading
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Crony Capitalism: This case will reshape society
Kate Bingham heads up Britain’s vaccine task force. She’s a venture capitalist with no public health experience, married to a Conservative minister. Dido Harding leads the Test and Trace system. She has no public health experience and is the wife of a Conservative MP. Mike Coupe, is head of COVID-19 testing, and has – you… Continue reading
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UK Crony Capitalism: The NAO report
Today, the National Audit Office has released a damning report into Government procurement practices. It confirms what we have been saying for months. Government failed to manage conflicts of interest, dished out public money to deeply unsuitable companies, and has improperly shied away from proper scrutiny. Continue reading
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Calls for a public enquiry into awards of Covid-related contracts
The original brief of this website, set up ten years ago, was to raise awareness of the ‘revolving door’, rewards for failure, widespread behind-the-scene lobbying and party funding which corrupts the decision-making process here and abroad. There is currently a resurgence of such concerns, expressed here by Professor Prem Sikka and later by Sophie Hill,… Continue reading
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Covid-19: politicisation, “corruption,” and suppression of science
Politicians and governments are suppressing science. They do so in the public interest, they say, to accelerate availability of diagnostics and treatments. They do so to support innovation, to bring products to market at unprecedented speed. Both of these reasons are partly plausible; the greatest deceptions are founded in a grain of truth. But the… Continue reading
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Cabinet contacts awarded COVID contracts
Leaked documents seen by Good Law Project set out special pathways by which “VIP” and “Cabinet Office” contacts could be awarded lucrative PPE contracts at the height of the pandemic – and at inflated prices. Continue reading
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UK: They are 6 months late
16 October 2020 — Good Law Project You may remember Crisp Websites Limited, trading as PestFix, the company with last reported net assets of £18,047. On the 10th June, we sent a judicial review pre-action protocol letter to the Government asking why they had agreed to pay 75% upfront for isolation suits worth £32m, to PestFix. PestFix Continue reading
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Operation Moonshot? Leaked documents
Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday plans for an enormous expansion of the national coronavirus testing programme, named “Operation Moonshot”, and estimated to cost “over £100bn” to deliver. Continue reading
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Goodlaw Project: Jacob Rees-Mogg
Yesterday in Parliament, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP was questioned over the PPE fiasco that has seen the Government spend hundreds of millions of pounds on protective equipment that can’t be used by the NHS. The contract in question was handed to Ayanda Capital, an opaque private fund, with links to a Government advisor. His response? Continue reading
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Another lucrative contract for friends of Gove and Cummings
How is it that Public First, long-time associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, have been awarded yet another contract, without any advertising or competitive tendering process? Continue reading
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The PPE that can’t be used by the NHS that cost £250 Million
The Government awarded a PPE contract worth £252 million to Ayanda Capital Limited, a ‘family office’ owned through a tax haven in Mauritius, with connections to Liz Truss. It is the largest PPE contract we have seen to date. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 