Entirely comfortable…

[Malcolm Tucker]

The long term cost to this country due to lockdown fetishists dwarfs any misappropriation of cash for PPE. The same lockdown fetishists were screaming for PPE. The government bought, for good or for ill, from those who claimed they could supply. In a crisis due diligence may go out of the window - I’m comfortable with that if it gets the overall result you need.

I won’t accept revisionism from Dekka. You were calling for more extreme measures without giving a damn about the consequences.

Good god almighty. Beyond parody.

[baggy1]

In a crisis there will be a revised level of due diligence but it will only ‘go out the window’ when those defining the due diligence decide that they can provide their mates with a way to make money for literally nothing in return of value.

[Derek Hardballs]

The long term cost to this country due to lockdown fetishists dwarfs any misappropriation of cash for PPE. The same lockdown fetishists were screaming for PPE. The government bought, for good or for ill, from those who claimed they could supply. In a crisis due diligence may go out of the window - I’m comfortable with that if it gets the overall result you need.

I won’t accept revisionism from Dekka. You were calling for more extreme measures without giving a damn about the consequences.

I was always with public opinion you weren’t. 

Trying to muddy the waters by blaming those with genuine and completely justified concerns about the easing of restrictions is a very poor argument.

[CaptainFantastico]

“Lockdown fetishists”. You sound like a 10 year old who has lost capacity for reasoned debate.

[hudds]

The long term cost to this country due to lockdown fetishists dwarfs any misappropriation of cash for PPE. The same lockdown fetishists were screaming for PPE. The government bought, for good or for ill, from those who claimed they could supply. In a crisis due diligence may go out of the window - I’m comfortable with that if it gets the overall result you need.

I won’t accept revisionism from Dekka. You were calling for more extreme measures without giving a damn about the consequences.

The government's cronies could swoop in on an opportunity to immediately get their noses in the trough and pocket scores of millons of quid with no due diligence or supervision applied at all.  Meanwhile....

In the crisis, an Act was passed to override law if it were necessary so to do and expedite emergency measures.  Despite this, as I have said, HMRC would not use the measures to remit the near £30 duty on each litre of spirits used for emergency pivot from gin or whatever to production of hand sanitizer.  I had to work flat out to explain that the existing law could be used anyway - eventually getting through to HMRC and HMT leading to a badly-worded "easement" that I had to explain to industry, how to "make" the formula for the sanitiser and then co-ordinate deliveries across the UK where most urgently needed.

I worked flat out for no remuneration, with no rest for weeks and while I was also suffering from what must have been covid and "doing my day job".   Yet, compared to the crooks in the PPE scam, not only was "due diligence" applied by HMRC/HMT to "protect the revenue" to excess in not remitting the duty charge, the government failed the country by failing to understand that the law was already permissive to remit the duty until I grabbed them by the scuff of their necks.

The government and its cronies - enablers and crooks to make money out of calamity and crisis.

[Tom Joad]

I don't disagree, mate. The contracts situation in particular was obscene.

My point is that the Government supported working classes more than most countries did in the lockdown. The furlough scheme kept many in jobs, and the prevention of eviction helped as well. All of this needs to be paid for, and if we agree that Trussonomics wasn't going to work, then it is inevitable that taxes have to rise for everyone.

There are some areas I would like to see addressed. Some of the tax schemes similar to the one that Mone used still exist. I have clients that use them. The self employed "dividends" tax dodge has to go. Those people of course had no help during Covid - rightly so. Also tax relief on up to £40K p.a. pension contributions needs to be lowered to basic rate as well.

Having said all of that, a large proportion of the nation benefitted from Covid support during lockdown. Savings increased when the nation couldnt go anywhere, didn't have travel costs etc. I think it is only right that everyone contributes to the costs the country is facing.

Great post Chunky. Re the dividends dodge. A no. of my mates do this  and of course, came unstuck during lockdown, although in no time at all they were back earning something. I could also pay myself in this way but it doesn't seem right. Agree on the pensions 40% comment too. I'm not in the least bit surprised we need to raise some taxes now. If this had been done earlier, instead of the austerity purge, IMO we would be much better fixed.

[Fido]

Just for clarification anyone in a position of influence such as Hancock or Mone that has profiteered from an international disaster should be sent down. What are the legal channels available to pursue such skullduggery?

[Ossian]

I'm of the view that some of the lockdowns went on for longer than should have been necessary; but sometimes you need to scratch below the surface. Was that because we were over cautious? Or because we were too slow to react and outbreaks and escalations weren't confronted sufficiently quickly? My recollection is that it was much more of the latter. We didn't take the opportunity to learn from the experiences of Italy and Spain; we were in denial about the role of schools as hotbeds of super-spreading, despite repeated upticks, the timing of which made that conclusion obvious, however inconvenient; we made no advantage at all of our situation as an island.

Pretty much all of that can be attributed to the fact that we had the most incompetent of people imaginable in critical roles - the cavalier, showboating Johnson; the dithering twerp Williamson at education; and, as if more were needed, Hancock at Health and Gove as the first point of referral for access to the so-called 'VIP lane' for tenders.

Whatever the circumstances, £29 million is serious money; serious fraud if that can be established. It needs to be pursued.

[Protheroe]

Remind me which party you were knocking doors for again that oversaw all of this?

I left the party that oversaw all of this during Covid for various Lockdown-related reasons - notably their dereliction of duty to children, so I'm not sure what your point is.

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I was always with public opinion you weren’t. 

Really? Then why don't you pipe down about Brexit and the Tory landslide then?

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Great post Chunky. Re the dividends dodge. A no. of my mates do this  and of course, came unstuck during lockdown, although in no time at all they were back earning something. I could also pay myself in this way but it doesn't seem right. Agree on the pensions 40% comment too. I'm not in the least bit surprised we need to raise some taxes now. If this had been done earlier, instead of the austerity purge, IMO we would be much better fixed.

So some of you are actually putting your money where your mouth is and paying more tax than is legally due - even as taxes rise to heights never seen during peacetime? 

Because it doesn't "seem right"?

That you trust your hard earned cash in the hands of any government (rather than in your own pocket) after the last couple of decades displays truly Chinese levels of compliance.

[CaptainFantastico]

My point is if you had half a brain you'd have seen how incompetent they were well before then and done nothing of the sort