Pandora Papers ! .

[Staunton 18]

...and that outline of neoliberal doctrine which highlights hostility to taxation, resentment at the very existence of a public sector (the constant target for abolition, with potentially profitable services being handed over to the private sector of course), and deregulation reveals another tory lie.

 

When George Osborne hollowed out HMRC he did so for stated reasons of austerity. Therefore when he subsequently spent huge sums of taxpayers' money to second private sector personnel from his friends, the big City accountancy firms, his action exposed the fact that austerity was a deceit, an ideologically motivated attack on the public sector based a bogus premise - it was tax abuse that drained the treasury of revenue, not police officers, library assistants, local authority staff or tax officials.

[Anna B 1,401]

I agree. This government won't rest until everything we've got is privatised and run simply for profit. 

A government that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing...

 

Yet the government are being asked to support gas dependent industry, but they won't support the poorest people in this country who are threatened with homelessness and heat or eat. 

 

[Tony 10]

3 hours ago, Anna B said:

This government won't rest until everything we've got is privatised ...

 

Let's hope that day comes sooner than later. 👌 

[tinfoilhat 11]

42 minutes ago, Tony said:

Let's hope that day comes sooner than later. 👌 

Really?

[Tony 10]

1 hour ago, tinfoilhat said:

Really?

Really. Can you think of something that government does well at the moment? 

[tinfoilhat 11]

2 hours ago, Tony said:

Really. Can you think of something that government does well at the moment? 

Nothing really. They underfund alot and that makes a difference. I've seen things that have been run by the public sector and seen it farmed out to sodexo et al and it's much worse. Do you think utilities would be better or worse under state ownership?  Railways? Put it this way if you looked at the most reliable/most value for money railways across the globe - where would we come? And we invented the bloody things!

 

Better question would be, why can't our government run things properly.

[Guest sibon]

4 hours ago, Tony said:

Really. Can you think of something that government does well at the moment? 

Maybe we need a better government. And a better way of running vital services.

 

You are correct that the previously nationalised industries didn’t work very well.

 

Its also quite clear that leaving energy and transport provision at the mercy of market forces doesn’t work very well either.

 

So, we need another way.

 

 

[Anna B 1,401]

1 hour ago, sibon said:

Maybe we need a better government. And a better way of running vital services.

 

You are correct that the previously nationalised industries didn’t work very well.

 

Its also quite clear that leaving energy and transport provision at the mercy of market forces doesn’t work very well either.

 

So, we need another way.

 

 

Does it not occur to anyone that the Tory government was quite happy for nationalised industries to fail (and had a hand in it) so they could privatise them when they got the chance? In a similar way I believe they are running down the NHS to provide an excuse to privatise it. 

The management in this country is not good. Hasn't been for a long time. The now defunct car industry is a case in point. We no longer make our own cars in this country, Yet Nissan can turn a healthy profit and make successful automobiles  with the same workers. Yet still the management take the lions share in bloated salaries. 

[despritdan 241]

I remember before the utilities were privatised, a minister called Paul Channon assured us all that competition would lead to long term reductions in the price of water, gas and electricity. As soon as they were privatised, the prices rocketed as the people running them awarded themselves massive salaries and told us they were private companies and had a duty to their shareholders, so a bit of a change of tune there. Before they were privatised, if you turned on the water tap, water came out, if you turned on the gas tap, gas came out and if you flicked a light switch, the light came on. After privatisation, exactly the same happened but we had to pay a lot more as they were being run for profit, not as public services. These huge prices we're now having to pay is one of Thatcher's legacies and although we'd have to pay more anyway because of the soaring costs of energy, we'd be paying a lot less if they weren't being run by greedy private companies.

[Anna B 1,401]

29 minutes ago, despritdan said:

I remember before the utilities were privatised, a minister called Paul Channon assured us all that competition would lead to long term reductions in the price of water, gas and electricity. As soon as they were privatised, the prices rocketed as the people running them awarded themselves massive salaries and told us they were private companies and had a duty to their shareholders, so a bit of a change of tune there. Before they were privatised, if you turned on the water tap, water came out, if you turned on the gas tap, gas came out and if you flicked a light switch, the light came on. After privatisation, exactly the same happened but we had to pay a lot more as they were being run for profit, not as public services. These huge prices we're now having to pay is one of Thatcher's legacies and although we'd have to pay more anyway because of the soaring costs of energy, we'd be paying a lot less if they weren't being run by greedy private companies.

Not only that, but in their rush to take profits they have failed to invest in the maintenance and infrastructure of the utilities, for example the terrible waste of water due to leaks. So we're in for an ever diminishing and unreliable services. 

 

 

 

[despritdan 241]

13 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Not only that, but in their rush to take profits they have failed to invest in the maintenance and infrastructure of the utilities, for example the terrible waste of water due to leaks. So we're in for an ever diminishing and unreliable services. 

 

 

 

That always happens when the private sector are given responsibility for public services. They spend as little as possible whilst charging as much as possible. We're told that they bring efficiency to the public sector but the only thing they're efficient at is maximising their profits. It's the same story when private companies are given contracts to provide goods and services to schools, colleges, hospital etc. They charge eye-watering amounts for things that are a fraction of the price if bought online. I remember a woman who worked in the admin department at a school I once worked at telling me they had to pay £75 for a single large roll of blue tissue paper when those same rolls cost £1.50 for two at Pound Saver.

[L00b 441]

18 hours ago, Tony said:

Really. Can you think of something that government does well at the moment? 

I seem to remember an awful lot of clapping not so many months ago.

 

This is the current reality on the other side of the A&E curtain:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/10/people-are-being-very-angry-with-us-ae-doctor-on-abuse-of-nhs-staff?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

When governments gradually defund public services, their performance gradually worsens: who’d have thought?

 

I bet most of these angry A&E patients still believe that the NHS has been getting an extra £350m per week for the last few years.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by L00b