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

More from Government

ScottishPanda
ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish
[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.
POLITICS , GOVERNMENT
Deepti Gurdasani
Deepti Gurdasani
@dgurdasani1
I've been seeing a lot of discussion around the dosage gaps recommended by government for the Astra/Oxford & Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. My thoughts on the potential benefits & risks of such an approach, and the need for much greater transparency around these decisions. Thread.


The UK govt announced recently that both the Oxford & BioNTech vaccines would be now administered with a gap of between 4-12 weeks (so prioritise administration of first dose, given limited resources).

What is the basis of this?

The basis that's been discussed seems to be that
1) the first dose is likely to confer some degree of protection against disease, so better to roll this out as fast as possible, and
2) that for Oxford/Astra efficacy may be higher when the gap between doses is greater.

I discuss some of the technical details around the Oxford trial below for those interested in these. If you'd just like a summary of this, please skip to the summary tweet titled 'SUMMARY'.

What does published evidence show? The Astra/Oxford data are a bit messy because of protocol changes during the trial. This is because the trial was originally planned as a single dose trial, but a booster dose was added when developers realised that this would likely help.
GOVERNMENT
Advertisement
Larry Schweikart
Larry Schweikart
@LarrySchweikart
1) Where we are: This is much, much bigger than a fraudulent election (it was) or rampant gubment tyrannical China Virus abuse (it is).

2) What we are facing has been building for a good 30 years.

3) I date it back to the GOP failure to defeat Clinton in the gubment shutdown.

4) If you went to public school, that would be the 1995 budget battle.

5) The brand new GOP Congress, with plenty of public support, failed to rein in a Clinton bloated budget.

6) It wasn't the numbers. Compared to today's deficits & debts, this was pocket change. Rather, this was the first time since the Cold War, which was a legit excuse for constant deficit spending, that Congress failed to do its MAIN constitutional duty--oversee spending.

7) No, this isn't a thread about deficits or debt. At present, I don't think those pose the biggest challenge to us, or even probably one of the top five.

8) Rather, this is about a deadly disease that hit DC & the patient refused to take any medicine for it.

9) The disease was the failure to address the major problems of the day, whether it was deficits, Islamic terrorism, the banking crisis, or trade.

10) Vote fraud & this frankenstein of an election is only the latest SYMPTOM of this much larger disease.
POLITICS , GOVERNMENT
Lewis Goodall
Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
Keir Starmer giving his most important speech yet-laying out his vision for the future.

“The Conservatives say they want to build back. But I don’t want to go back. You can’t return to business as usual. And certainly not back to an economy rooted in insecurity and inequality.”


"The foundations of our society have been weakened over a decade...even before the pandemic life expectancy had stalled for the first time in a century. Child poverty had shot up to over 4 million. A child growing up in a deprived areas of the North East can expect to live for.."

"...five fewer years than a deprived child brought up in a deprived area of London. What sort of legacy is that for a party which has been in govt for a decade? That life itself got cheaper. And shorter."

"During the last year my thoughts have returned time and time again to the wartime generation. Those who suffered the horrors of WW2, who rebuilt Britain from the rubble of the Blitz, created the NHS and built millions of homes fit for heroes. And I contrast that...

"...to those exposed to Covid in underfunded care homes, unable to say goodbye to families and to loved ones. How can the PM look those families in the eye and say 'we did everything we could'? When the truth is the Tories failed to fix social care for a decade?"
GOVERNMENT
Daniel Ahmad
Daniel Ahmad
@ZhugeEX
I don't normally do threads like this but I did want to provide some deeper thoughts on the below and why having a video game based on a real world war crime from the same people that received CIA funding isn't the best idea.

This will go pretty in depth FYI.


The core reason why I'm doing this thread is because:

1. It's clear the developers are marketing the game a certain way.

2. This is based on something that actually happened, a war crime no less. I don't have issues with shooter games in general ofc.

Firstly, It's important to acknowledge that the Iraq war was an illegal war, based on lies, a desire for regime change and control of resources in the region.

These were lies that people believed and still believe to this day.

It's also important to mention that the action taken by these aggressors is the reason there was a battle in Fallujah in the first place. People became resistance fighters because they were left with nothing but death and destruction all around them after the illegal invasion.

This is where one of the first red flags comes up.

The game is very much from an American point of view, as shown in the description.

When it mentions Iraqi civilians, it doesn't talk about them as victims, but mentions them as being pro US, fighting alongside them.
GOVERNMENT

You May Also Like

Conservative Trader
Conservative Trader
@AnandableAnand
How to get rich trading (without getting lucky)

Complete beginner’s guide to wealth of Rs 10 Cr in 10 years

Step 1: start trading live

1/n

Nothing can substitute experience of live trading

No amount of back-test, studies or indicators can substitute training your mind with screen time

As a beginner, In live trading, you will make losses almost everyday

2/n

So here are the conditions which you can’t violate in first year
If you can’t follow these rules, this document is not for you

Start with trading capital of Rs 1 lakhs

Max loss per trade 0.25%, i.e. 250 Rs

Max loss for the day, 1%, i.e. Rs 1000

Max 6 trades in a day

3/n

I know, these conditions will cripple you in terms of what all you can trade and how

But just like any start up, trading is also about making it through initial gruelling constraints of life

You will also learn, how to turn these adverse rules to your advantage

4/n

Btw, you can sell directional banknifty options, obviously you can buy options, can do cash stock trading and much more under these conditions

Think about it, you will be do all kinds of instruments, just that PNL will not be roller coaster ride or exciting like a casino

5/n
TRADING , ALL
Hypertroph | Fitness Coach
Hypertroph | Fitness C...
@CoachHypertroph
Transform your body in next 6 months.

People will charge INR 27,000+ for this course.

I am giving away the entire course for FREE:


Module 1:
Build your Fat Loss Diet Plan

· Step by Step Tutorial
· Length: 26

Module 2:
Learn how to easily track your calories/macros.

· Step by Step Tutorial
· Length: 17

Module 3:
Calculate how many weeks it will take to reach six pack.

. Math behind building six pack
· Length: 12

Module 4:
Learn how to Burn Belly Fat in 3 steps

· Science behind belly fat
· 100% Works
· Length: 15
WORKOUTS
Advertisement
MAKE THE WORLD GREAT AGAIN \U0001f30d
MAKE THE WORLD GREAT A...
@joyoftheawoke
The take down of the Cabal A-Z Charlie Freak & @djmarkdevlin

...In May 2017- Prince alwaleed tala sold his soul to the 13 bloodline families

Thread.. please retweet this truth 🙏


Trump visits the Middle East and receives royal Saudi welcome, highest Saudi honour by receiving the golden collar of abdulaziz al Saud
Not been seen with past presidents ...


When trump arrived in the summer of 2017 14/09/2017 he laid out all the documents, all the folders and they had all the photographs, disks, cds, dvds with all footage of them doing horrific things, the NSA has it all!

2 weeks later the richest men begun getting arrested...

They hand picked Obama, alwaleed tala decided to make Obama the linchpin of the us presidency. Barack has connections all over the cabal
TRUMP
John Myles White
John Myles White
@johnmyleswhite
This post is pretty bizarre, but it manages to hit on so many false beliefs that I've seen hurt junior data scientists that it deserves some explicit

(1) The notion that R is well-suited to "building web applications" seems totally out of left field. I don't feel like most R loyalists think this is a good idea, but it's worth calling out that no normal company will be glad you wrote your entire web app in R.

(2) It is true that Python had some issues historically with the 2-to-3 transition, but it's not such a big deal these days. On the flip side, I have found interesting R code that doesn't run in modern R interpreters because of changes in core operations (e.g. assignment syntax).

(3) "Most of the time we only need a latest, working interpreter with the latest packages to run the code" -- this is where things get real and reveal some things that hurt data scientists. If this sentence is true, it's likely because you don't share code with coworkers.

(3) Really is a broader issue in data science: people only think of what they need to do their work if no one else existed and code was never maintained. Junior data scientists almost always operate on projects they start from scratch and don't have to maintain for long.
DATA SCIENCE
\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092e\u093e\u0932\u0940 \u0939\u093f\u0924\u0947\u0936 \u0905\u0935\u0938\u094d\u0925\u0940
श्रीमाली हितेश अवस्थी...
@HiteshAwasthi89
Bhu Varaha Swamy Temple

Bhu Varaha Swamy temple is a Hindu temple, located at Srimushnam, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture...


the temple is dedicated to Varaha (Bhu Varaha Swamy), the boar-avatar of the god Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi as Ambujavalli Thayar.

The temple had contributions from Medieval Cholas of the 10th century with later expansions by Thanjavur Nayak king Achuthappa Nayak.


A granite wall surrounds the temple, enclosing all the shrines and the temple tanks. There is a seven-tieredrajagopuram, the temple’s gateway tower.

Six daily rituals and three yearly festivals are held at the temple, of which the Chariot festival....


celebrated during the Tamil month of Vaikasi (April–May), being the most prominent. The festival also symbolises Hindu-Muslim unity in the region – the flag of the chariot is provided by Muslims; they take offerings from the temple and present to Allah in the mosques.


Source & Pic credit : Anusri
ALL