A very astute move; pandering to the Daily Mail mentality encouraged by the Conservatives doing what they do: Delivering up ever increasing wealth to
the upper classes and screwing the poorest in society. Perhaps if the wealth divide wasn't so grotesque then there might be less burglaries. No-one
need worry about such technicalities then.
After such fiascos as
BBC
The collapse of the West Coast Main Line bidding process, after the government found significant flaws
where we see the government
completely fold when the threat of it's corruption being properly investigated and publicly exposed becomes reality (
backing down the very day
before the threat of a legal challenge was actually realised) everyone should be aware that this is a typical Tory government who, in the wake of
their attempts at social engineering, have left us with the same results as they did back in the 1980's: mass unemployment, disaffected younger
generation with no hope, the largest riots since those Thatcher's policies pushed society into. Hell, even the Falklands is hitting the headlines in
the same vein.
The only thing I find puzzling about all this is that anyone alive at the time thought they would be any different. Don't take this to be a pro-
Labor shout either - thanks to their term in power people (who never knew the previous Tory government) grew up thinking they just couldn't be any
worse, a great legacy.
It's all just back slapping amongst the rich boys. Take a peek at just one PFI debacle:
publicfinance.co.uk
The last Labour government was a big fan of the Private Finance Initiative. As chancellor, Gordon Brown would castigate the PFI’s critics for
putting new hospitals, schools and transport projects at risk. The alternative, he said, would be ‘reckless and unsustainable borrowing’.
But, as many pointed out at the time, the PFI is itself a form of borrowing, even if its impact on the national statistics is deferred. While upfront
capital is provided by private investors, the taxpayer ultimately funds the whole cost of any project. Now, that essential truth is becoming evident
in communities across the country.
Take the £256m Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. This sparkling new facility was officially opened in October, and is undoubtedly one of
the most impressive health care buildings in Europe. But the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust is already struggling to meet the project’s £40m annual
revenue cost. Its ability to pay was premised on achieving epic savings targets and big increases in activity, which failed to materialise. As a
result, the trust has been forced to take out a £13m loan to pay its bills, while cutting 700 jobs and 100 beds. It is left with a £6m deficit and
many more job losses are expected soon.
Yet the scheme has proved profitable for the investors. Last June, Carillion, a construction group, sold its shares in the project to HSBC
Infrastructure Company Ltd for £31m – a healthy return on the £12m it put into the deal in 2006. It will, meanwhile, continue to manage the
new PFI facilities under a concession worth about £30m a year.
Answering a question on the Queen Alexandra deal in Parliament recently, Prime Minister David Cameron called the PFI programme a ‘shambles’
that he had inherited (although he was special adviser to Tory chancellor Norman Lamont in 1992, when the PFI was introduced) .
It's just that the Tories are more brazen: Kill all public spending, sell everything we can (via contracts to our boardroom buddies), hamstring the
NHS (something that was realised initially only through fear of an angry and disaffected public who has just lost generations of loved ones to two
wars - but hell, enough is enough. That generation are too old/dead to kick off) and privatise the police. Privatise the damned police, a great
idea. Like most other privatisation the motivating factor being it's a great way to earn your mates a few quid with West Coast Main Line-esque dodgy
contracts while giving the room to ship out concern/responsibility so you can just wash your hands and shrug when it all goes tits-up.
Dear govt. don't play on the fears YOU engendered. Don't threaten burglars with violent responses, stop screwing the majority of society and lower
the potential for burglaries in the first place. I'd like to think no one would be hoodwinked by this problem-reaction-solution "Ooohh look, I am
teh halping!" toss any more. It's as pathetically transparent a show as the faux Magna Carta ignorance.
PS: Please stop all this hand-waving gestures rubbish when you talk too, it's pathetic and annoying. Either go full King Lear and ham it up
properly (at least giving us all a giggle) or admit public opinion is just not that interesting, spout your stories, get it over with and bugger off.