News

News 18^th November
A Spanish man who was an adviser to help to get PPE equipment was paid £21million.  Unbelievable.  This story came out in a court case in the USA.  A tiny American company that designs and sells jewellery was given a huge contract to find PPE for UK.  They employed this Spanish man and paid him this money because they were charging the UK Government a crazy amount of money.  UK Government says they checked all this in advance.  A justice group wants a proper investigation into the money that has been wasted by the Government.  A report today has come out by the National Audit Office. They have been checking the contracts that the Government has given to companies with no experience and with no competition.  There are millions of pounds given to companies where there are links to friends of members of Parliament.  There are also scandals about equipment which was delivered which cannot be used.
It is coming up to Black Friday 27^th November.  With the UK in lockdown, people will be looking at their computer and buying.  There are already special deals advertised.  Shops like Currys and Debenhams are already offering discounts to persuade people to buy early.  When Black Friday came over from the USA to the UK, there were fights in shops over televisions and other goods.  This year no shops  – so everything will be online.  One issue will be to make sure the goods people buy are delivered on time.
It may not affect deaf people so much but it looks like the music business will be reduced by a half this year.  There are no public concerts and no festivals.  This is not just about the sounds of music and singing but also the income for people selling goods, like t-shirts  and food to people who go to the concert.  They say many thousand jobs will be lost.