On BBC UK this morning, several times, the story above.
From BBC Scotland, with no mention of the nursing strike or the First Minister’s role in averting it, this morning:
The UK Government is suing a company that made personal protective equipment for £133 million. PPE MEd Pro won a contract to supply gowns but the Government wants its money back. The company was ‘referred’ to the Government by Scottish-born Baroness Mone.
Referred? Doesn’t that sound like she was acting against the company on our behalf?
On the BBC Politics site at the same time:
PPE Medpro won contracts through the so-called VIP lane in 2020, after being recommended by Tory peer Baroness Mone.
The government revealed last year that Baroness Mone was the “source of referral” for PPE Medpro getting a place on the so-called VIP lane for PPE offers coming from ministers, officials or peers.
In other words, she recommended the company.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64029040
In the Guardian on 9 December 2022:
Meanwhile, the Guardian revealed that Mone had been “aggressively’” lobbying ministers on behalf of a second company, LFI Diagnostics, which was another secret entity of her husband’s family office in the Isle of Man.
Now, the Guardian can reveal previously unreported details about the PPE deal at the heart of the Mone controversy and the enormous profits it appears to have generated – mostly on the back of supplies that have been rejected by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in a dispute with the company.
Mone, Barrowman, PPE Medpro and three other intermediary companies in the supply chain appear to have made in excess of £100m in profits from government contracts worth £203m, according to a Guardian analysis.
It is a business chain that stretches from the Isle of Man to Cyprus, Hong Kong and then China, and it resulted, it seems, in vast fortunes that were moved offshore.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/09/revealed-the-full-inside-story-of-the-michelle-mone-ppe-scandal
Referred? Recommended? Propaganda at its subtlest and thus most effective.
Talking-up Scotland 
Michelle Mone is very hostile to, indeed, scathing and contemptuous of, Scottish independence. In the ‘news values’ of BBC Scotland, that trumps everything else.
“Trump”? – a Freudian slip? I see he is being recommended for prosecution by the US Congress. Again, the BBC is soft-pedalling this – committee insufficiently bipartisan, recommendations no binding of Department of Justice, could rile Trump supporters. He is hostile to Scottish independence, too because the SG would not bow to his bullying demands.
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Noted that BBC Scotland said she was Scots born, must be the first time that justified spending so much time on what is still a non story.
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As was picked up elsewhere John, note the “Scottish-born” tag with total avoidance of “Tory” in HMS James Cook’s repeating narrative – Compare that with UK reports where she is simply referred to as “Tory peer Baroness Mone”….
Yet this is part of a wider media smokescreen to obscure Tory wrong-doing – Would PPE MEd Pro have been take to Court had media investigation not revealed Mone’s personal benefit, and brought attention to the Tory VIP-Lane ?
– Had the Tories maintained the NHS emergency stockpile properly the initial “problem” would not have arisen, they were warned repeatedly and ignored it.
– Had Hancock been more focussed on doing his job rather than his sex life the initial problem may may still have been lessened if not averted.
– Had the Tories not been more seized of opportunity to make a fast buck for friends, colleagues and associates, these VIP lane contracts would never have arisen.
– You can bet Mone wasn’t the only Tory to benefit.
By taking legal action, further revelations may fall foul of contempt of Court…
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on last night’s 6pm news prog from London the Mone and Clarkson stories were covered with 2 sentences, before moving on quickly to the important stuff, cricket.
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Clarkson story at 6pm news had 12,000 complaints to IPSO. Half an hour Labour, Repressing Scotland had it down to 6,000.
BBC this morning were positing Clarkson’s “horrified” statement as an apology.
It was no such thing!
Baroness Mone of Mayfair, OBE —Scottish?
Not if she can spin it differently!
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On nurses pay, I spotted this on the Wales page of the BBC News website today:
‘First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended a decision not to improve a pay offer to nurses on strike in Wales. He was asked if his government was abdicating responsibility for public sector pay by arguing it could not make a better offer without extra cash from Westminster.’
“It is simply the truth that the amount of money we get for public services and pay in Wales is a consequence of the decisions that English ministers make for England. That is just the way the system is,”
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-63993499
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Now they’re back to the “Gender Reforms” squirrel, with Holyrood expected to debate and vote into the evening.
I now see HMS James Cook’s Scotland webpage supplants their “Scotland” lead with “Train drivers announce new January strike date” from the UK’s Business page, yet Scotland/Politics places retains the “MSPs to vote on changes to gender reforms” in prime spot in Scotland/Politics.
I have no problem over misgivings of some over these worldwide reforms, but there has been more than just a bad smell to the media treatment of this with regard to Scottish legislation since Westminster shelved them – Normally such legislation would compel compel enactment under Scottish Law…
Yet note the UK’s lead story “Live – ‘Deep worry’ among hospital bosses ahead of ambulance strike”….
Presumably James Cook is more interested in keeping Tsunami Baillie and Disaster Gulhane sweet and Lazy Winters in a job…
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Anent the leading article on the Scotland page – the train drivers’ strikes in the New Year: ScotRail is NOT one of the train companies where drivers will strike. We have some services from Avanti and CrossCountry, but these provide only a small proportion of services in Scotland and are cross border services.
It receives little prominence on the BBC UK page and is culled from the Business page.
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Thank you for that clarification as that was my understanding also – Yet another of James Cook’s personal misdirection’s of the “news where you are”…
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