@filmcritic anyone who didn’t have to get out of the house to face an unknown virus and see their collleagues get sick, die, and witness the damage the virus has done (directly/undirectly) should support a fair pay re inflation for those who did. The public was very much protected from seeing how awful it really was, and now they seem to have completely forgotten
@scullingmonkey I spent 6 months at the start of the pandemic NHS volunteering delivering meds to vulnerable people, 2 dead bodies, 3 rounds of Covid leading to eventual long covid, losing 30 friends dead to it in 6 different countries and gammons being spat on me/assaulting me when I was jumping (legitimately) the queues at pharmacy to pick up the meds to deliver…gave me wonderful insight into it all!.
@filmcritic yes its been and awful time, and those who spent it at home learning how to do new stuff and getting fit - yes it maybe wasn't the greatest time - but they dont understand what the reality of covid looked like and for some of us still looks like as we are ill years later.... and now suddenly they claim there is no money (or even time to talk to the unions) when plenty of tories made millions out of the pandemic

@filmcritic not to comment on the disastrous decision to not give furlough to 3+ million forgotten self employed or between jobs at time of pandemic.

Contrasted with this : https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boss-paid-himself-13m-for-covid-ppe-that-went-unused-5flkv8cmp

Boss paid himself £13m for Covid PPE that went unused

A businessman whose company made a £70 million profit on a contract for PPE that was mostly unused has paid himself £13 million — and celebrated his birthday la

The Sunday Times
@scullingmonkey @filmcritic
9% over 2 years for Royal Mail workers is nothing considering their boss got a 27% increase even though he missed several targets. Senior management & Tory elites reward themselves for failure, generously praise themselves for their astute cheating while claiming everyone else are spongers.

@filmcritic @paul_briley and they are gaslighting the public pretending all was well during covid.

The risk all postal workers took to deliver letters, parcels up and down the country so people can do their cocktail parties on zoom etc - and then to be so under appreciated, it makes me angry. I don’t know what I can do to show support to them, we have a sign on our door and I think they are amazing.

@scullingmonkey @filmcritic
I think all public service workers whether rail or post etc should be nationalised. Those that worked during lockdown should've all been rewarded for their endeavours & sacrifice. Certainly Johnson rewarded himself with his parties & £250,000 after dinner speeches & their PPE, furlough, covid loan frauds sucked away billions of taxpayers money to their offshore tax havens. So why not the real workers. Plenty of money available.
@paul_briley @scullingmonkey @filmcritic I find it crazy that the govt spent £6bn on PPE that the NHS couldn't use or didn't want. This is £200 per taxpayer. It's absurd profligacy, and all the more shocking that this money was mainly funnelled to their VIPs. The magnitude of failure in this procurement exercise beggars belief. £6bn on stuff they couldn't use.

@paul_briley @filmcritic @wtfrank yes and then they just casually wrote it all off.

If I ordered anything from Amazon/youNameIt shop and it would arrive unusable, I would be asking for my money back

@scullingmonkey @filmcritic @wtfrank
A Florida jeweller got $50 million as a middleman!
https://goodlawproject.org/the-jeweller-and-government/
Yet genuine British PPE firms turned away & ended up supplying them oversees instead
https://inews.co.uk/news/british-firms-government-ppe-abroad-421112
The US jeweller, the middleman, and the UK Government - Good Law Project

Almost $50 million to one man. Not to supply PPE, but to act as a middleman to sort the logistics for the jeweller from Florida whom the UK Government selected to supply PPE.

Good Law Project
@paul_briley @scullingmonkey @filmcritic I accept that there was a worldwide surge in demand leading to elevated prices - but this is all the more reason for the Government to have been careful about what they bought, and ensuring that the NHS wanted it! It's like some clueless senior managers were just signing anything that was put in front of them. That said - $50m in profit is extraordinarily high...surely if they'd asked around beyond their VIPs they could have got a way better deal.
@wtfrank @paul_briley @scullingmonkey but they didn’t and that’s the Tories for you! They SAY they support a free market but then give all the contracts to their mates!