The judgment on Tory Chumocracy is in …

Update 16th October, 2021 – So, it appears that the private lab which wrongly gave out 43,000 PCR negative results was Immensa, a company with no experience of PCR tested awarded a £119 million contract after only being in existence for 4 months. Corruption costs lives.

£119 Million COVID-19 Testing ContractAwarded to Four-Month-Old DNA Analysis Firm

Source: @dgurdasani1 & @BylineTimes

The High Court has ruled “The Secretary of State acted unlawfully by failing to comply with the Transparency Policy” and that “there is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the Secretary of State breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices within 30 days of the award of contracts.” We have won the judicial review we brought alongside Debbie Abrahams MP, Caroline Lucas MP, and Layla Moran MP.

In handing down the judgment, Judge Chamberlain brought into sharp focus why this case was so important. “The Secretary of State spent vast quantities of public money on pandemic-related procurements during 2020. The public were entitled to see who this money was going to, what it was being spent on and how the relevant contracts were awarded.

Read the full update from The Good Law Project

Tory stupidity: The laughable gift that keeps on giving …

Sir Charles Walker, the vice chair of the the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee, has escalated his attack on Matt Hancock, the health secretary, over the plan to threaten anyone lying about visiting a “red list” country with up to 10 years in jail. Walker was reasonably robust on the World at One (see 2.11pm), but on Sky New just now he let rip even further. Walker said:

Are we really going to lock people up for 10 years for being dishonest about the fact that they’ve been to Portugal?

By all means give them a fine, give them a hefty fine, a few thousand pounds. Are you really seriously suggesting, secretary of state, that we’ve got enough prison capacity to start locking up 19-year-old silly kids for 10 years?

What a stupid thing to say, I mean a really stupid thing to say, that demeans his office and his position around the cabinet table.

Source: Guardian Coronavirus UK Live Blog