BC GOVERNMENT
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

Last night @allthecitizens found a 1/3rd billion gov contract won by a company linked to Conservative donor Lord Ashcroft.

£350m Covid19 award goes to company run by Impellam, where former Tory treasurer has ‘significant interest’. THREAD:

 Recruitment firm Medacs Healthcare won the 17 Dec contract to “support medical and clinical services in laboratories” & assist “national testing programme in response to Covid-19”. It’s the 3rd largest Covid-related single award seen by @allthecitizens https://t.co/WjCQXuhTfA
Medacs Healthcare is part of the Medacs Global Group, owned by parent company ‘Impellam Group’. Impellam’s main shareholder & Chairman is Conservative donor Michael Ashcroft. He’s donated £176,104 to the Tories since the pandemic began and £851,029 since 2001.
Lord Ashcroft is listed as having ‘significant influence’ over Impellam. In addition, 56% is owned by the Lombard Trust. In 2010, Ashcroft transferred the 26m shares he held in Impellam to the Lombard Trust; the beneficiaries are his children. https://t.co/Z8gcdRpwKz
Medacs Healthcare is majority owned by Medacs Global Group, which is majority owned by Impellam Group. Medacs Healthcare has also won other Covid contracts: £357,830 on 2 smaller awards to supply temporary health personnel and also was part of two large group contracts.
The £1/3rd billion contract is by far the largest single contract awarded to Medacs in 5 years. Since Aug 2015, Medacs has won at least 29 NHS and care contracts; 20 were high-value group awards (but only one of these group awards exceeds the £350m single issue contract).
Medacs claim to be “the largest provider of on-framework locum doctors to the NHS”. In 2019 they reported a turnover of £89.6m, with £3.6m profits declared.
Their owner, Impellam, lists among it’s directors Conservative peer Baroness Tina Stowell of Beeston. She once was Deputy Chief of Staff for William Hague when he was Leader of the Conservative Party, and was Head of Corporate Affairs at the BBC.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Lord Ashcroft has donated £176,104 to the Conservative party, including £100,000 to their candidate for 2021 London Mayoral election, Shaun Bailey.
Over the past 20 years he has donated £851,029 to the Tories and is amongst the top 10 donors to the Party in recent years. Treasurer of the Conservative Party (1998-2001), his political influence extends today to owning https://t.co/gEbVzv4wYx
https://t.co/CbV4LVEEJp
Ashcroft has long retained “non-dom” status as a citizen of Belize. In 2017, it was reported that Ashcroft, in the Paradise Papers coverage, had been ‘sheltering his wealth’ in offshore havens.
https://t.co/RUyScRaQuk
An entity called the ‘Lombard Trust’ also appears in the offshore Panama Paper leaks, although as no listed address is given it can’t be confirmed this is the same Lombard as operated by Lord Ashcroft.
https://t.co/snSsiItg9G
In 2020, Ashcroft wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson suggesting the NHS should collectively receive the George Cross for their work battling Covid. He described it as “the best way of rewarding such commitment and public service”.
https://t.co/s1Jd3wEGkF
In 2018, he announced an as-yet-unreleased “no holds barred” book into the NHS. Amazon listed that it sets out to ask the question “how good really is the NHS and can it cope with the formidable challenges it faces?”
The contract awarded to Medac appears to be the 3rd largest single UK contract issued yet since the pandemic began. The others were won by Innova Medical Group Plc (£496m) and Primer Design (£406m).
Medac’s owner, Impellam, operates ‘14 market-leading brands across 106 locations’. In 2019 it reported an annual revenue of £2,254.8 million.
https://t.co/BoIoJA0QGP
There is no claim Lord Ashcroft, Impellam, Medac or anyone linked to these companies and their subsidiaries have acted illegally in this contract procurement. We do not know if this contract benefited from the ‘VIP fast track lane’ that has been granted to some Covid19 contracts.
.@opendemocracy has also covered this story today. It can be read here: https://t.co/ZFu2jeUZZr
The Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson told them: “As part of our response to this unprecedented global pandemic, we rightly have drawn on the expertise of a number of organisations to support this important work.”
The DHSC went on: “This includes when establishing the largest diagnostic network in British history, and a test and trace system used by tens of millions of people to reduce rates of Coronavirus. Proper due diligence is carried out on all government contracts.”
Lord Ashcroft, Medacs and Impellam have yet to publicly comment.
Does this story concern you? Can you help @allthecitizens reveal more concerning Covid-19 contracts lacking possible due diligence and oversight? If so, please see the thread below to find out how you can help contribute and hold power to account:
https://t.co/uiSKn7wfRv

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12/12: The earlier DC protest over the electoral college vote during clearly inspired Jan 6th. On Dec 12th, he tweeted: “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA.”


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12/26-27: Trump announces his participation on Twitter. On Dec. 29, the FBI sends out a nationwide bulletin warning legislatures about attacks https://t.co/Lgl4yk5aO1


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[thread] on a suggestion of a speech at the last

and how to vote for this deal on 30th December 2020

Mr Speaker

May I congratulate Boris Johnson

Truly

He is our Lion King as Robert Halfon calls him

Our herd leader with his massive success of coronavirus where as Priti Patel says we have always been ahead of the curve.

A Prime Minister whose achievements will go down in the annals of British history in infamy.

The focus of my speech shall be three pillars.

How did you win?

What did you win?

Where do we go from here?

But first I want to change tack and go to what I know is a favourite topic of the Prime Minister's: American Presidents.

I Know the Prime Minister has a deep ancestral hatred - sorry respect - for American Presidents.

As an Islington inhabitant once upon a time I know that his respect for America birthed out of a deep love for that nation and out of a deep desire to avoid his tax obligations to the Internal Revenue Service.
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Well, the four chaplains have names, which I will come to. On 23 January 1943, an American passenger ship, the SS Dorchester, left New York, in Convoy SG19, escorted by three US Coast Guard cutters. Bound for Greenland.


There were about 900 passengers and crew, including approx 750 US Army soldiers.

On 3 February (this was a very slow convoy), the SS Dorchester was torpedoed by German U-boat U-223
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Here is the full document. I am going to go through it now.

Yep. This is also a point strongly made in @andrewdoyle_com's new book on Free Speech which I am halfway through and am pretty sure I will be recommending as a primer for the alarming number of people who seem confused about what free speech is & why it is good.


Well, good! Conservatives have not been great at this historically so I must give credit where it is due. I really wish this were a left-wing government taking this progressive stance.

(Areo has a piece forthcoming on why supporting FoS is inherently progressive, btw)


Yes, sadly this is true. I currently have half a dozen cases where people are being penalised for trying to express unorthodox views in the academy.


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शमशान में जब महर्षि दधीचि के मांसपिंड का दाह संस्कार हो रहा था तो उनकी पत्नी अपने पति का वियोग सहन नहीं कर पायी और पास में ही स्थित विशाल पीपल वृक्ष के कोटर में अपने तीन वर्ष के बालक को रख के स्वयं चिता पे बैठ कर सती हो गयी ।इस प्रकार ऋषी दधीचि और उनकी पत्नी की मुक्ति हो गयी।


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एक दिन देवर्षि नारद वहां से गुजर रहे थे ।नारद ने पीपल के कोटर में बालक को देख कर उसका परिचय मांगा -
नारद बोले - बालक तुम कौन हो?
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बालक - यही तो मैं भी जानना चाहता हूँ ।

तब नारद ने आँखें बन्द कर ध्यान लगाया ।


तत्पश्चात आश्चर्यचकित हो कर बालक को बताया कि 'हे बालक! तुम महान दानी महर्षि दधीचि के पुत्र हो । तुम्हारे पिता की अस्थियों का वज्रास्त्र बनाकर ही देवताओं ने असुरों पर विजय पायी थी।तुम्हारे पिता की मृत्यु मात्र 31 वर्ष की वय में ही हो गयी थी'।

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इतना बताकर देवर्षि नारद ने पीपल के पत्तों और गोदों को खाकर बड़े हुए उस बालक का नाम पिप्पलाद रखा और उसे दीक्षित किया।
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@franciscodeasis https://t.co/OuQaBRFPu7
Unfortunately the "This work includes the identification of viral sequences in bat samples, and has resulted in the isolation of three bat SARS-related coronaviruses that are now used as reagents to test therapeutics and vaccines." were BEFORE the


chimeric infectious clone grants were there.https://t.co/DAArwFkz6v is in 2017, Rs4231.
https://t.co/UgXygDjYbW is in 2016, RsSHC014 and RsWIV16.
https://t.co/krO69CsJ94 is in 2013, RsWIV1. notice that this is before the beginning of the project

starting in 2016. Also remember that they told about only 3 isolates/live viruses. RsSHC014 is a live infectious clone that is just as alive as those other "Isolates".

P.D. somehow is able to use funds that he have yet recieved yet, and send results and sequences from late 2019 back in time into 2015,2013 and 2016!

https://t.co/4wC7k1Lh54 Ref 3: Why ALL your pangolin samples were PCR negative? to avoid deep sequencing and accidentally reveal Paguma Larvata and Oryctolagus Cuniculus?
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David Rothkopf
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@djrothkopf
Trump on climate: I don't believe it. Trump on Khashoggi: I don't believe it. Trump on Russia: I don't believe it. Idiocy? A canny game? Doesn't really matter as much as the underlying intellectual autocracy. In this administration only one opinion matters.

It's an assault on facts and reason. It's an assault on good governance. It's an assault on the bureaucracies that are being discounted. It's an assault on science and history. But it is also an assault on one of the underpinnings of democracy.

We live in a system that is grounded on the idea of collaborative government. Leaders may have a final word but even then, there are typically checks and balances. Hopefully, in this case, such checks and balances may work. But they also are being tested.

The president's position that he is smarter than all the world's scientists, than the entire intelligence community, than experts who have studied any issue all their lives, is, of course, asinine. But his belief that government turns solely on his opinion, is monarchic.

Louis XIV reportedly said, "L'etat est moi." That he was the state. Trump asserting that he knows better than all, discounts all advice, that his brain is enough to chart the course for America alone, is essentially saying the same thing.
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