The Brexit Thread

[Ginger Yellow]

Hunt:

“The EU has agreed the backstop is temporary, and that’s a word they have agreed. So what we’re saying, very simply, is we’re not asking for anything new but we are asking you to define what ‘temporary’ means.”

Aaargh. They have. Repeatedly. Temporary means "Unless and until it is supserseded".

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

All under control: latest in an ongoing series.

A firm awarded a government contract to provide extra ferry services has used website terms and conditions apparently intended for a takeaway food firm.

Seaborne Freight was given the £13.8m contract to run a freight service between Ramsgate and Ostend in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Its original terms and conditions advised customers to check goods before "agreeing to pay for any meal/order".

Before the correction, Seaborne's terms and conditions contained other lines that appeared to be for a completely different business.

"Delivery charges are calculated per order and based on [delivery details here]. Any delivery charges will be displayed clearly in your order summary," the original T&C's said.

[Ginger Yellow]

I dunno, this ferry thing seems to be much ado about not very much to me, though certainly the website thing is not a good look. They're far from the first company to copy and paste someone else's T&Cs though. It's not like every company in the world hires lawyers to draft original website terms. It looks like they were just sloppier than most. Maybe that bespeaks wider problems at the company, maybe not

But the whole "they don't own any ships" thing is absurd. Of course they don't, because the route they were set up to reopen isn't ready yet, and even when it is they'll probably lease the ferries. And of course they've never run a ferry service (as a company) before. They were set up to start a ferry service where there wasn't one before.

Now, they may or may not in fact be good at their job, but granting a contract to run a particular freight ferry route to the company that was set up to, and has for the last couple of years been doing the groundwork to, open that particular freight ferry route, doesn't seem particularly egregious in principle.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, I wouldn't expect anybody to have any ferries sat there waiting to go on the off chance. But what due diligence has been done to see they can actually do it? Wouldn't you expect some sort of process like a new train company goes through? Not that this would be the best omen necessarily.

[Nefertiti2]

Really- a 14 million government contract awarded to a firm connected to major Tory donors and Brexit backers without there appearing to have been a tender process.

[Ginger Yellow]

Wouldn't you expect some sort of process like a new train company goes through?

Some sort of process, yes. But surely not the one a train company goes through, which has to be among the worst procurement processes in the world.

[HeavyDracula]

The company is less than 2 years old (you have to show 2 years’ accounts to tender for most local authority contracts), there was no open tender process, the company is headquartered in the same office as (and shares staff with) one run by the brother of the owner of JCB, who happens to be the biggest donor to the Tory party. Oh, and there’s also an ongoing investigation into them for bribing a Thanet councillor. It stinks and while it may only be a small bit of grifting it’s illustrative of the whole corrupt adventure.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Rees-Mogg seems to have moved seamlessly from "it'll all be easy" to "it might get fucked up by Ireland".

It's like a friend of mine at school who complained he lost a game of chess because his opponent "didn't do the opening".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some sort of process, yes. But surely not the one a train company goes through, which has to be among the worst procurement processes in the world.

Not as Treasury-driven, you'd hope, but there's at least something there that requires you to demonstrate you'll turn up on the first day with trains. How has there been time for that in this case?

[Ginger Yellow]

Really- a 14 million government contract awarded to a firm connected to major Tory donors and Brexit backers without there appearing to have been a tender process.

The other ferry contracts weren't openly tendered either, though I should note the government claims there was a competitive process for Ramsgate. I wouldn't imagine it was all that competitive though - the contract notice only says there was one tender submitted for each of the contracts.

The company is less than 2 years old (you have to show 2 years’ accounts to tender for most local authority contracts), there was no open tender process, the company is headquartered in the same office as (and shares staff with) one run by the brother of the owner of JCB, who happens to be the biggest donor to the Tory party. Oh, and there’s also an ongoing investigation into them for bribing a Thanet councillor. It stinks and while it may only be a small bit of grifting it’s illustrative of the whole corrupt adventure.

These are potentially valid concerns, but it doesn't address the point that the company's entire raison d'etre is doing the thing it has been given a contract to do. Ignoring for now the question of whether they are in practice worthy of the contract (though who else are you going to find on three month's notice), I don't understand the surprise at it. It's like complaining that the Boring Company has been given a contract to dig a tunnel (note that I am very skeptical about the Boring Company).

[Ginger Yellow]

Not as Treasury-driven, you'd hope, but there's at least something there that requires you to demonstrate you'll turn up on the first day with trains. How has there been time for that in this case?

There hasn't, hence the rushed procurement. I'm not defending the overall emergency planning. That said, it's pretty clear that given the late start, this is the company that is best positioned to turn up on the first day with ferries, given that they've already been doing the work to do so, unlike literally anybody else.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I didn't mean turn up with ferries literally. I'm sure they can lease some ferries.

Did nobody else who already runs ferries want to run them? They'd already have tons of expertise so they wouldn't be coming at it from nowhere.
t

[Ginger Yellow]

Apparently not, given that there were no other bids. But the point is this isn't simply running a few extra ferries from an existing port. Ramsgate at least needs to be dredged before the ferries can run at all, and there are presumably all sorts of arrangements that need to be made with the port operators at both ends. Seaborne has been doing that work anyway. None of the other potential bidders have, and they'd have to start over when it comes to negotiating.

[Nefertiti2]

I think a lot is about not giving the only contracts to Britanny Ferries (french) and DFDS Danish - as the UK has more or less privatised all its infrastructure.

[Ginger Yellow]

Also, if this ends up being the biggest procurement scandal to come out of Brexit we'll be very, very lucky.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think a lot is about not giving the only contracts to Britanny Ferries (french) and DFDS Danish - as the UK has more or less privatised all its infrastructure.

All of its port infrastructure?

[ad hoc]

It stinks to high heaven. This is what Brexit is and will be - yet another huge transfer of money from the taxpayer to the mates of the government. Fuck this. Can't believe you're so blasé about it GY. Hey, grifters gotta grift

[Nefertiti2]

Associated British ports manages the following ports:

Ayr
Port of Barrow
Barry Docks
Cardiff Docks
Fleetwood
Garston
Goole
Port of Grimsby
Hams Hall
Port of Hull
Port of Immingham
Ipswich Dock
King's Lynn
Port of Lowestoft
Newport Docks
Plymouth
Port of Port Talbot
Silloth
Port of Southampton
Port of Swansea
Teignmouth
Troon)
The holding company is registered in Jersey and 33.3% owned by Borealis Infrastructure,(Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) 33.3% by Anchorage Ports LLP, 23.3% by Cheyne Walk Investment Pte. Ltd (a nominated investment vehicle of GIC a sovereign wealth fund established by the Government of Singapore and 10% by the Kuwait Investment Authority.

[Nefertiti2]

Harwich Felixstowe and the Isle of grain are owned by CK Hutchison Holdings Limited -a Cayman Islands–registered multinational conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong.

[Diable Rouge]

Ireland's national finances increasingly resemble a Jenga tower, becoming incredibly dependent on unexpected corporate tax intakes suddenly materialising:

https://www.independent.ie/irish-new...-37678520.html

[Ginger Yellow]

Can't believe you're so blasé about it GY. Hey, grifters gotta grift

I'm not seeing the grift, at least from the initial reporting. Like I say, the point about "company never operated ferries, doesn't own any ships" which prompted the whole thing is entirely separate from whether the specific people managing the company are in fact appropriate people to be doing so with government money. I'm not saying the procurement process was good, or even that these people won't turn out to be grifters. Just that I find articles like this baffling. If they had been given either of the other contracts I would be up in arms too. But they weren't. They were given the contract to do the thing the company was set up to do. It's an entirely different situation to the Puerto Rico Whitefish thing, despite superficial similarities.

[Nefertiti2]

but hadn't got around to doing until it was given 13 million quid in a no- tender deal.

I agree it won't be the worst bit of brexit related grift - but it's still grift. and Brexit related .

[Benjm]

Ignoring for now the question of whether they are in practice worthy of the contract (though who else are you going to find on three month's notice)...

This seems to explain a lot of it. Last minute desperation measures with a fair chance of leaving the contractor's reputation as mud are always going to appeal more to fringe players. Seaborne Freight may well not be up to the job, but the problem lies with the nature of the job itself. It's just the usual people-have-spoken crazy logic with added grift kicking in.

[Diable Rouge]

Interesting that 56% of Brits support re-nationalisation of rail - anyone who's travelled on Iarnród Éireann can tell you that State ownership is far from utopia, in and of itself.

[Lang Spoon]

(Referring to GY’s post) This was the point a shipping lawyer was making on twitter earlier, what looks like sharp practice is how the ship leasing industry works. That’s separate to the procurement process.