I've read the full 46 page report from the National Audit Office on PPE procurement and it's a doozy.

This government has awarded over 1300 PPE contracts without any competition, for a total of £10 billion.

This is corruption to the core.

To put it plainly, the government developed a "fast-track" system that gave preferential treatment to their friends.

What the report doesn't tell you is the broader context: British textile companies were ignored in favour of middlemen and govt cronies.

I'm yet to see a single media outlet use the words "corruption" or "kleptocracy."

When rich people waste your money, it's called a "chumocracy." Just a group of mates in Barbour, having a good time, yah!

When poor people claim disability benefits, they're "scroungers."

One case sticks with me from April.

Reputable, medium-sized British textile company.

They offered to manufacture PPE at *cost price*. They had family working in NHS, and understood gravity of the crisis.

They were fobbed off, and government went to a middleman in Miami.