Everyday Corruption

There is a fast track for companies supplying PPE. If you’re on the fast track you have more chance of contracts, and will make more money. The press report that Lady Mone (Michelle Mone that was) has recommended Medpro, and got them on the fast track. This is vehemently denied by Lady Mone, and her lawyers. Following a freedom of information request, it turns out that she did in fact make this recommendation. Her lawyers insist that this was a “brief, single, solitary step” - you get the idea. Except that it wasn’t. There are e-mails in which she harasses Gove and Hancock on behalf of the said firm. Interestingly, it was only incorporated five days after her request. Presumably, if they hadn’t got the special deal, they wouldn’t even have bothered starting. No, they weren’t used to making this equipment. Yes, their gowns were substandard, and subject to subsequent argument with relevant government bodies. But they did get two hundred million quid of our money.

In normal times, this would be a front page scandal. Today, it’s routine, buried on the back pages. If you stopped people in the street and asked “Lady Mone?”, most f them couldn’t tell you she’s done. We’ve just got used to this cheating and chicanery as the way business is done.