Thursday 25 June 2020

Junk Jenrick: He's a Horrible Foretaste of the Future

It may not be unprecedented but it's pretty sordid, and IMHO Jenrick should have been ditched in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, we're going to see a ton more of this.

Why? - because of the feeding-frenzy that is the post-covid-brave-green-new-world plan to Save the Economy.  Due process is about to go straight out of the window, and the most outrageous windfalls are going to be harvested by the biggest liars and most brazen bribers and "lobbyists" - on a scale nobody will be able to keep up with.  There aren't the regulators in the land to even attempt it, still less the politicians with the balls to offer them any support if they were to - once in a while, in the most egregious (or randomly discovered) cases.

If it were me, before launching the forthcoming list of privileged "shovel-ready projects" about to be given, errrr, whatever they want, I'd pass a one-paragraph Profiteering Act, as follows:  
If any person breaches or faciltates the breach of any law or regulation, or makes or endorses any fraudulant statements or claims, in the process of developing or approving any project receiving government support under the [Saving the Economy Emergency Act 2020] they shall be guilty of a Crime punishable by an unlimited fine, forfeiture of state benefits, and 10 years in prison, in addition to other applicable penalties extant for the Crime, if any.  No Statute of Limitations shall apply to such Crimes.
Or something.  I'm no constitutional lawyer but you get the drift.  Fire a resounding warning-shot right at the start.  Make it really easy to make an example of somebody high profile, and then do it.  Make the would-be war profiteers and their little helpers think carefully before embarking on their self-serving adventures.

There'd be votes in it!  But, somehow, sadly, I don't think that's Boris' style.

ND  

17 comments:

david morris said...

Going after Mark Shorrock would be a start

Nick Drew said...

Don't get me started on him ...

Charlie said...

It's not just the loaded lobbyists making out like bandits.

At my current bank, 60% of the Bounce Back loans appear to be in violation of the 25% of turnover threshold (assuming a single business current account) and 40% have been immediately withdrawn in full. I'm told that someone in branch reported that a customer who withdrew the money as cash said he was going back to Romania to buy a house with it and had no intention of repaying the loan or setting foot in the UK again.

Matt said...

@ Charlie

She doesn't need to worry about coming back to the UK. Border Farce are so crap that she can come back on different documents and they'll never know the difference.

Nessimmersion said...

The biggest culprits are those planning snouts in the trough of energy generation from unreliables.
You had an article about it last week.
The simplest way to boost the economy and remove opportunities for the Jenricks,Maxwells and Selwyn Gummers of this world is to cancel the Climate Change Act.

dearieme said...

I think I might sack Piggy Jenrick simply because he looks the part of a conniver.

Ain't prejudice shocking?

Nessimmersion said...

See link below for details if unaware of this version of "green" energy
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/06/25/shorrock-still-pushing-his-zombie-lagoon/

Carl Edman said...

Hear! Hear! Hear!

As a Constitutional lawyer, I'm a little concerned about life in prison (in the US we actually have that and sometimes beyond all penological justification. If you were nasty stickup man when 25, even Id be inclined to realse you at 65 onto minimum social security). But full civilability for any permitted quotes or authiores in public reports, go right ahead.

Don Cox said...

Wikipedia has a good page, "List of political scandals in the United Kingdom".

There are plenty of them.

Don Cox

old git carlisle said...

I totally agree.

Apply to local government misapplying money as well.

If we don't sort now it is a gift to the lefties to exploit.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Jenrick the guy who said on his website that he lived in his Notts constituency, but told everyone else he lived in Herefordshire when he was nailed for visiting his dad in Shropshire post-lockdown?

Richard Desmond is a well known 'colourful character'.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/feb/17/pressandpublishing.dailyexpress

The FBI's Northern and Shell source - Mr Bailey - said he travelled to New York for a week in October 1992, at Mr Desmond's direction, in order to find new business opportunities for the company. On the night before he was due to return to London, he claims to have received a call in his hotel room from a woman claiming to be a representative of one of the distribution companies he had met. She said the company would send a courtesy car to take him to the airport the next day. The following morning he was met by a man who claimed to be the driver. After two blocks, however, the car stopped. Two men allegedly got in the car, one with a gun. He claims they pistol-whipped him, slashed his face with a knife and applied a Taser-style stun gun to his testicles. He claims they said: "We're here because of your fucking boss. If your boss sets foot here; he's a dead man. A fucking dead man." According to the informant, the driver then said to him: "We're gonna let you go. Do you know how fucking lucky you are? Tell your boss; you're the message." The three men then dumped him on the street and left. Mr Desmond has described the account as "pure fantasy".

Jan said...

Ah but the big QE was done to get money back quickly into the economy so they don't really care about the fairness of it. Tough cookie to those of us who didn't get any. Good luck to the Romanian if he can get away with it.

As for Jerrick, he may find himself out on his ear in the not too distant future with any luck. Finding something to prosecute him with would be good too.

Anonymous said...

Talking of public money - from today's Guardian live blog

"Nearly 1.4 million people in the UK cannot access public funds during the coronavirus pandemic because of their immigration status, a charity estimates. Some 1,376,158 people have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) because their immigration status is not finalised, suggests research by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. This means they cannot access most benefits, such as Universal Credit, child benefit, housing benefit, and a range of allowances and tax credits. Citizens Advice, which shared the research, said the number of people seeking help about this and non-EU migrants’ access to benefits during the pandemic has more than doubled compared with last year."

1.4 million ! I'm lost for words, a rare event.

Don Cox said...

Are Citizens' Advice advising these people ? They are not British citizens.

Don Cox

Anonymous said...

I just took a look - Citizens Advice is almost wholly funded by the UK taxpayer, to the tune of over £100 million.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/CitizensAdvice/Governance/Citizens%20Advice-Annual%20Report-2019.pdf

YDG said...

RE: Don Cox & Anonymous @ 2:08

You are both quite ungenerous. Can't you find it in your hearts to help these poor people by providing them with what they so desperately need ...

ie swift, safe, inexpensive transport back to their homelands.

Come to think of it, reducing the number of UK residents by 1.4 million would ...

1. Fix the housing shortage
2. Noticeably reduce Covid 19 re-infection rates through lower population density
3. Reduce CO2 emissions from reduced travel and demand for heating, lighting etc
4. Reduce the involuntary unemployment rate to zero.
5. Sharply reduce the welfare bill
6. ...

Actually, I'm struggling to think of a downside.

Graeme said...

"Just over 18 per cent of rent was received on 24 June, according to data compiled by commercial property management platform Re-Leased, down from 25 per cent three months earlier."

This is quite a hit