Waste, Negligence & Cronyism: Inside UK’s Pandemic Spending - The New York Times

I see the US has picked up the UK Pandemic spending scandal whilst our Gov claims there’s nothing to see ⁦@JolyonMaugham⁩ ⁦@DamianHastie⁩ ⁦@allthecitizens⁩

Of the $22billion contracts awarded about $11 billion went to companies either run by friends and associates of politicians in the Conservative Party, or with no prior experience or a history of controversy. Meanwhile, smaller firms without political clout got nowhere.
Seven months on just over half the contracts awarded remain hidden from the public.

But 1 in 10 contracts that went through the Government’s VIP Crony lane were awarded compared to 1 in 100 through the ordinary lane.
What’s our anti corruption Tzar, Dido Harding’s husband, John Penrose, doing about it? (You couldn’t make it up).

The thing is, they think it is perfectly normal. I mean, they get the contracts because they are mates & donors who just happen to be better than the little folk.
Meanwhile companies like Multibrand who actually manufacture PPE just got ignored..
About $5 billion went to politically connected companies with former ministers, gov advisers on their board/ staff. Others were Tory Party donors.

Some contracts, such as the MedPro one in June, one wonders why it was needed at all.

More from Economy

I know I’ve been beating this redlining and wealth gap drum for 20+ years but here is a GREAT cliffs notes version.

But don’t take @ambermruffin’s word for it. You should get references...

A thread


How homes in Black neighborhoods are undervalued by $156

Every major bank in the US has been sued for mortgage discrimination and a study that included every mortgage in America found that Banks charge higher interest rates to nonblack customers



https://t.co/sx9tWWB98s

Baltimore redlined areas in 1935 vs Baltimore Drug arrests in 2016
Let's discuss how little you actually understand about economics and energy.

The first thing to understand is that energy is not globally fungible. Electricity decays as it leaves its point of origin; it’s expensive to transport. There is a huge excess (hydro) in many areas.


In other words, it can also be variable. It's estimated that in Sichuan there is twice as much electricity produced as is needed during the rainy season. Indeed, there is seasonality to how Bitcoin mining works. You can see here:

Bitcoin EXPORTS energy in this scenario. Fun fact, most industrial nations would steer this excess capacity towards refining aluminum by melting bauxite ore, which is very energy intensive.

You wouldn't argue that we are producing *too much* electricity from renewables, right?

"But what about the carbon footprint! ITS HUGE!"

Many previous estimates have quite faulty methods and don't take into account the actual energy sources. Is it fair to put a GHG equivalent on hydro or solar power? That would seem a bit disingenuous, no?

Well that's exactly what some have done.

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