One of this government’s biggest domestic balls-ups has been the continuation and expansion of the PPP/PFI schemes begun by the Tories. When the tories first put forward the idea for these ‘Private/Public Partnership’ and ‘Private Finance Initiative’ schemes for funding public service contracts, the then labour opposition opposed them, as well they should. The scheme was flawed beyond belief, and even at that stage everyone could tell just how costly it was going to be.
As a labour government got closer they changed their position from one of scrapping the scheme, to not commissioning any new ones. When they got into power, they kicked it up a gear, to a level that the Tories could only have dreamed of.
The definitive attack on the scheme is George Monbiot’s outstanding book, Captive State – subtitled ‘the corporate takeover of Britain’, it outlined just how hideous and insidious that takeover has been, and how the primary agent has been the PFI.
So now George has updated the statistics and re-presented the case in an article in today’s Guardian. The evidence is damning, and the governments position is entirely untenable. The catalogue of disasters, wastage, failed projects and unsuitable buildings is incredible. Tragic even.
The PFI has been doomed from the start, in the last 10 years, the failures have been spectacular, and still the government presses ahead with it, wasting our money. Please write to your MP, demanding an explaination.
if you’re an RSS/XML kind of person, here’s the feed for Monbiot.com – it’s a feed of all the articles he writes for the Guardian. Amazing, depressing stuff.
Soundtrack – me and Cleveland – need to get this demo finished ASAP.