Friday 18 June 2021

Keeping track of galloping corruption

 


 

 

“The NHS is about as safe with them as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python” EX-PM John Major


What is the connection between these two photos? The first one was taken yesterday at Ascot where 12,000 unmasked guests, looking like a scene from “My Fair Lady”, met for the five day races. Meanwhile funerals are restricted to thirty attendees.

The second photo is of former jockey, and Jockey Club board member, Baroness Dido Harding, who is responsible for several major horse-racing events including the well-attended Cheltenham Festival in March and Ascot today.

She has just applied for the job of Chief Executive of NHS England. She was appointed by Health Secretary Matt Hancock to head Test and Trace Health, ostensibly established to track and help prevent the spread of Covid-19. In August 2020 Harding was appointed interim chief executive of the National Institute for Health Protection, later renamed the UK Health Security Agency.

The Baroness is a Tory Peer and married to Tory MP, John Penrose who has, wait for it, government responsibilities for anti-corruption.

Back on the race track, what are the odds on her husband instituting an enquiry into the £27 billion test and trace / PPE monies not properaly accounted for? And anyone want to lay odds on how much longer we will put up with this galloping corruption? Isn't it time for a steward's Enquiry?