dominic cummings
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UK Crony Capitalism: This money doesn’t belong to them
Good Law Project had a court hearing last week in connection with our challenge to the award of a lucrative public contract to associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings at Hanbury without competition. Continue reading
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UK Crony Capitalism: We Won!
Michael Gove broke the law by giving a contract to a communications agency run by long time associates of him and Dominic Cummings, the High Court has decided. 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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(More) Money for Dominic Cummings’ mates
A lobbying firm run by allies of Dominic Cummings was handed a contract worth £900,000 to conduct public opinion polling on the coronavirus pandemic. The contract was awarded to Hanbury Strategy without any advertisement or competitive tender process. And it was awarded to Hanbury despite the fact that – as our sworn evidence discloses -… 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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Who’s pulling Boris Johnson’s strings on GMOs?
Were you surprised when one of the very first things Boris Johnson did on becoming Prime Minister was to declare his desire to “liberate” the UK “from anti-genetic modification rules”? If it left you wondering, “Where did that come from?”, then you should pay careful attention to the wave of revulsion that has just greeted… Continue reading
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Gove & Cummings: They think they’re above the law
Several weeks back we issued judicial review proceedings against Michael Gove for his decision to award an £840,000 contract to associates of his and Dominic Cummings, without any advertisement or competitive tender process. Continue reading
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UK: They think they are above the law
On 11 July, we issued judicial review proceedings against Michael Gove for awarding an £840,000 contract to long-time associates of his and Mr Cummings’. You can read the documents relating to that claim here. Continue reading
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Dominic Cummings: Money for his mates
Why do so many public contracts end up with friends of Dominic Cummings? Like us, you might have wondered. But, although reporters pick these stories up, nothing ever happens. Well, this time it’s different. Continue reading
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UK government wants your credit details and more, with some help from Cummings’s pals
The artificial intelligence (AI) firm employed by Dominic Cummings on the Vote Leave project is now working directly with the government on a highly sensitive data-matching project. Continue reading
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Conservative ‘Common Sense’ Lets Men Like Dominic Cummings Do What They Want
In the weeks preceding the furore over Dominic Cummings breach of lockdown rules, a row took place over the vagueness of the government’s new ‘stay alert’ guidance – a revision of the simpler ‘stay at home’ message. Continue reading
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Cummings is a Glorified Shitposter by Phil Jones
Everything about Dominic Cummings’ press conference on Monday was absurd – his tardiness, the ill-fitting trousers and his account of events, filled with obscure and frankly dubious details. Continue reading
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Emily Maitlis is no media hero. She simply forgot what she and the BBC are there to do
The wrong conclusions are being drawn about Emily Maitlis’s comments on Dominic Cummings on the BBC flagship Newsnight show this week. Her remarks are not evidence of her courage, or that journalists are being gagged, or that the BBC is suddenly capitulating to the government. Continue reading
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Did Conservative HQ demand Emily Maitlis be publicly reprimanded?
Most of the mainstream media are reporting that Emily Maitlis was replaced as host of Wednesday night’s episode of Newsnight by another member of the programme’s team after BBC bosses reprimanded her over a monologue in which she attacked the government’s handling of Dominic Cummings’ lockdown trip to Durham. Continue reading
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Why Barnard Castle?
Now it may be entirely a coincidence that the place to which he chose to drive for his eyesight test happened to be the site of the major factory of GlaxoSmithKline. It may be an entire coincidence that two days later, on the very day Cummings actually started work back in Downing Street he has… Continue reading
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Dominic Cummings – a cover story obscuring something far darker
There is genuine hatred for Dominic Cummings – without doubt the most toxic character a sitting government has had to defend. But without Cummings, the man who illegally used data systems designed for post battlefield propaganda campaigns to win ‘hearts and minds’ in war-torn countries – the Tories would not be in anything like the… Continue reading
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How the media, including the BBC is manipulated by government propaganda
By Simon Wren-Lewis: While Dominic Cummings is no genius, he does have a good understanding of how the UK media works, and therefore how to manipulate it. There are many ways to do this, but one of the most obvious is to use privileged access in return for uncritical coverage. This is how it works. Continue reading
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Johnson and Cummings – Police hand criminal evidence to prosecution agency over Brexit campaign
Evidence that could lead to criminal charges against the pro-Brexit campaign led by Boris Johnson and his key adviser, Dominic Cummings, has now been passed by police to the criminal prosecution authorities, openDemocracy has learned. Continue reading