We all know that David Cameron likes to give people, (well, some people anyway), second chances, with this being his excuse for giving Andy Coulson the job as The Conservative Partys Director of communications despite him leaving the News of The World under the cloud of the phone hacking scandal, but now its appearing that giving second chances is becoming a guiding principle when it comes to the employment of people his government employ to carry out his policies with Mike ODonnells appointment as Chief Medical Officer of Atos health care in March of this year being a brilliant example of this.
You may ask why is this yet another example of giving somebody a second chance?
For those of you who dont know, Mike ODonnell was also Chief Medical Officer of Unum from March 2000 to September 2010 with this being the period when Unum were dragged through the US courts in a massive class action where the California Department of Insurance Commissioner, John Garamendi, stated that, Unum Provident is an outlaw company. It is a company that has operated in an illegal fashion for years. By 2007, the American Association for Justice identified Unum Provident as, The second worst insurance company in the US, and the company was fined over $30 million dollars for this. They were even, until 2008, banned from carrying out business in over 13 US states, something Unum is now using their complex business structure to deny was anything to do with them as a company, with them saying it was somebody else called Unum. (A bit like the ridiculous not guilty claims you hear of where despite being clearly identified by several eye witnesses the accused says, It wasnt me Guv, it was my twin brother in court), with all this happening on the watch of, yes, the same Mike ODonnell.
Who next are we going to get at the helm of other private companies the government bring in to implement their policies you may ask?
Peter Sutcliffe, (The Yorkshire Ripper), heading up a private company to sort out the problem of prostitution in our society? Rose West heading up a private company to sort out the wayward girls in our society? Perhaps I shouldnt be giving them ideas, they may even decide to try and bring Harold Shipman back to life and put him at the helm of a company employed to sort out the problems of OAPs living too long in our society.
You couldnt make it up, could you ?
