Running on Empty.

A screenshot from Television today of the Debate on fraud and loss. Where are the Government ( 4 Tory members there out of over 300 ). Billions of pounds have been lost during the pandemic. £8.7billion on PPE and £4.3billion through fraudulent Covid loans. Total of that alone £13billion equal to the tax increase now proposed by NIC. The catalogue of losses elsewhere would not fill this page.

The reality of a full House of Commons the day before over 600 people to watch the PM say sorry over 50 times about partying makes the real issues of Government farce. The resignation of the Government’s own Minister Lord Agnew the week previously went largely unnoticed as he highlighted the schoolboy errors and insolent arrogance in the Government around its finances.

Jessica Morden MP for Newport East gave an intelligent and factual speech from the Labour bench and will no doubt be promoted soon . An extract of her speech is below.

‘’ Yet all the while, the Government are writing off billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money lost to waste and fraud. As Conservative peer Lord Agnew—often mentioned today—said when resigning last week: “Total fraud loss across government is estimated at £29 billion a year. Of course, not all can be stopped, but a combination of arrogance, indolence and ignorance freezes the government machine.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 24 January 2022; Vol. 818, c. 21.]
That is from their own side. The Government have been cavalier not only with lockdown rules and drunken parties but with due diligence when it comes to public spending. Just this week, it was revealed that £2.7 billion of taxpayers’ money was spent on PPE products that will go unused by the NHS; 71 UK Government contracts, with a total value of £1.5 billion, were awarded to suppliers without due diligence, with hundreds of millions going to firms with no experience of public contracts, including the Florida jewellery company and the pest control company; and £3.5 billion of covid contracts were given to Tory-linked firms. As the National Audit Office said, the Government’s approach “diminished public transparency” and fell short of the “standards that the public sector will always need to apply if it is to maintain public trust.”

If Parliament is empty on the subject of money , the paramount critical blood supply of the life in this land then ultimately we are in haemorrhage mode. Agnew or Askew we are in trouble. Whatever happens next to Britain and who now leads is irrelevant when we lost sight of our priorities evidenced by the number of members in attendance. Johnson is likely to survive and that is irrelevant because he will not lead the Conservatives to election victory neither will Starmer lead his Labour Party.

If we are governing on empty we will be running on empty. The gates of waste are opened we desperately need grown up Leaders and for me the likes of Jessica Morden must come to the fore and bring responsibility and integrity. Johnson will be going soon , this can’t go on , Starmer can’t replace him but the like of Jessica Morden can. All is not lost, cometh the hour cometh this Lady.