Economic war: banks, PFI, EU crippling UK Treasury

[Linda]

http://eutruth.org.uk/eu200bn.htm


Destruction of Britain's economy by the EU.


The EU has made our Treasury insolvent
Our Treasury is desperate for cash, can't pay its bills, can't pay to keep our Navy running, and is setting up schemes to double charge for anything it can, like the third lane on motorways, residents parking, and new taxes, like taxing plastic bags.

Brown boasted of his "Golden rule" - public borrowing would always be under 40% of Britain's whole economy, or GDP. On paper his borrowing is 37.5% - £542 Billion against a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of £1,330 billion in 2007.

But's he's hidden £800 billion of PFI borrowing, £700 billion of pension debt, and £100 billion Northen Rock costs, by simply not adding them in. Government's true borrowing is nearer £2,142 bn, or 160% of GDP. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are lying, and the markets now know it.

What massive new expenditure caused this explosion in borrowing by our Exchequer?

Cost of the EU's 8,500 quangos now £167 billion pa (12% of our economy or GDP)
The Cabinet Office confirmed the cost of quangos in Britain was £167 billion in 2007 (all the national newspapers reported it). That makes it by far the Treasury's biggest expense - the NHS comes next at £90 billion (itself packed with an internal quango bureaucracy costing £60 billion).

In 2006 the Cabinet Office reported a quango cost of £124 billion. Only the Westminster News, and the Telegraph six months later, picked it up. This is the reason the Treasury is unable to pay its bills and the pound is falling against even the fragile dollar - ten years ago the cost of quangos was negligible. The massive increase is almost entirely due to the EU.

These quangos exist to buy patronage - over 100,000 influential people are bribed with £100,000 - £300,000 salaries to do little but smooth the way for the EU. If quangos do anything, they generally enforce EU regulations. This is the EU gravy train inside Britain.

EU Regulation - £100bn pa (7.5% of GDP)
The annual cost of regulations to industry, is £100 billion per annum or 9% of our economy, according to the 2005 Anual Report of the Government's Better Regulation Task Force. David Arculus, its Managing Director says EU regulation is now our biggest industry (larger than tourism at £67 bn.) There are 113,500 regulations now; only 2% of them are not from the EU.

We lose £45 billion pa trading with the EU
Before we joined the EU we broke even on our balance of trade with the EU. Now, according to the Treasury Pink Book, we lose £45 billion on our foreign exchange with the EU. Even this was a lie by politicians - they said the EU would be good for trade. It has been a disaster.

EU contributions and CAP £23 bn
Our £5bn net annual contribution is now increased, by the loss of our £3bn rebate, to £8 billion. The Common Agricultural Policy CAP costs us £15bn, total £23bn.

The loss of industries to the EU; a lot more than £5 bn
From Petrol stations to car paint shops, abbatoirs, the Rover Car company. We have no figures, except for fishing, £5 billion. We also have no figures for metrication, or the cost of administering the EU's VAT. The EU plans for Britain to be a tourist economy, which is why they have encouraged the closure of so much of our manufacturing.

Deliberate destruction of Britain's economy and the Pound
The EU is close to destroying our economy; that's why the pound has been falling on foreign exchanges.

Immigration and house price collapse
The EU got control of our borders in the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, and have let 10 million immigrants in. Nearly 3 million last year alone: 1.3 million of them were Poles according to the government.

Massive immigration coupled with deliberately low interest rates have forced house prices to the skies. The next plan is to collapse the economy, with high interest rates if necessary, to send house prices through the floor creating negative equity. The banks will end up owning our houses. (The communist EU does not believe in private ownership of property) In real terms immigration has halved the wages for the poorest English workers, more of whom are unemployed now than in 15 years.

Deliberate destruction of Britain's economy and the Pound
The EU is close to destroying our economy; that's why the pound has been falling.

Article 2 clause 4 of the Reform Treaty (Treaty of Lisbon) gives the EU the power to impose the Euro on us. They will not do so. The EU dictatorship cannot be built while there is a strong and freedom loving Britain on its doorstep. That is why they have been undermining us with highly successful Frankfurt School subversion techniques since the 1950's.

If they force the Euro on us, it makes it more difficult to destroy us without damaging the EU too. If they leave us with the Pound Sterling, and order the EU fifth column in Britain (Blair, Brown, Cameron, Clegg, all our ministers, 26,000 footsoldiers) to continue destroying it, the destruction of Britain will be far more complete. Gordon Brown was ordered by the EU to keep us out of the Euro with his "five tests" for this very reason.

Add up the Government’s figures on the total Cost of the EU: £195 billion pa
£167bn quangos, +£23bn, +£5bn = £195 bn /365 days = £534 million/day. £195bn /28m workers = £7,200pa cost per worker. This leaves out the £100bn regulation costs, and the £30bn balance of trade.

Economists’ costs £275 billion or £5.40 per working hour
But this excludes the cost to GDP of associating with Europe's slow growth (1.8%, down to 1.2% in the last quarter) instead of the much faster Commonwealth's growth (3.4% versus our 2.6% =0.8% x our £1 trillion GDP = £80 billion). Cost of being part of the EU's failing economy: 0.8% GDP per annum, £80 bn

Government + Economist's figures £195bn + 80 bn = £275 billion, or 25% of our economy. At this rate, the EU will make Britain the worst performing EU country.

£275 billion per annum = £753 million per day. 3/4 a billion a day. The EU costs us 20% of our economy.

£275 billion divided by the British working population of 28 million = £9,800 per working salary. 1,800 woking hours a year (or £5.40 per working hour).

That's why so many people earn only £5 per hour when they should be earning double that – the EU has sucked the wealth out of the economy before it gets to them.

Estimation of total cost of 34 Years in the EU = £275/2 x 34= £4,675 billion.

The total cost of the EU to date is probably over £5 trillion, or 5 years GDP. If we hadn’t just lived through the biggest boom in history, the EU would already have destroyed Britain economically. In the next downturn, it will.

References

A Cost Too Far? published by Civitas, £15bn CAP, £5bn net annual contribution.
Eurostat put Europe's growth at 1.8% at 30th Sept 2004. The next quarter was an annual rate of 1.2% and its still falling.

Regulations The BRTF is now renamed the Better Regulation Commission. Its 2005 Annual Report -Better Regulation from Design to Delivery repeats the conclusion it has often made elesewhere: The Managing Director, David Arculus's states in his foreward, page 2, that regulation costs us £100 billion pa. Tony Blair's page 6 forward to the government's BRC's report confirms beyond all doubt these are government figures. www.brc.gov.uk/downloads/pdf/designdelivery.pdf

In a Parliamentary answer to Lord Stoddart in January 2003, the government (Lady Symons, Deputy Leader of the Lords) admitted there were 101,811 EU regulations from 1972 up to August 2002. (13 January 2003, Lords Written Answers, "EC Regulations", Hansard, Volume No. 643). EU regulations are arriving at the rate of 3,500 a year, so about 113,500 regulations now.

The number of British regulations not inspired by the EU is less than 2% of the total.

The £100 billion these regulations cost us is cash, paid out by industry implementing these regulations, and paid by the government, enforcing them. Regulation is 12% of the EU economies - the reference is the EU Commission's Annual Report on Competitiveness: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/competitiveness  /doc/comprep_2004_en.pdf

In April 2004 the New York Federal Reserve Board produced a report concluding the UK's Gross Domestic Product would be 12.4% bigger (at least £125 billion) without the EU's baleful regulations.

The EU trade deficit is a simple matter: We were lied to there would be "trade benefits" if we joined the EU. We had an even balance of trade before we joined the EU - we lost nothing.

Now we've been in for 33 years we lose £30 billion a year (2005) trading with the EU (balance of payments deficit)- this is the opposite to what we were promised. Even the one benefit the EU was to deliver is a lie.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2004 we had a trade deficit with the EU of £22.1 billion a year http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/PinkBook2005.pdf, figure 9.3. Its now higher, running at £2.9 billion for the month of December 2005 alone, acording to the Office for National Statistics, and reported by the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4696312.stm That's £34 billion a year if it stays at this level, and its growing, not falling.

The EU - a corrupt leadership, six treaties that build a dictatorship, with the laws of a police state, that has already cost us over five trillion pounds, and will lead us into poverty.

David Noakes http://eutruth.org.uk 07974 437 097

[Serge]

Complete nonsense. Labour: Bliar and Brownstuff are entirely to blame for it. Surprised nobody has picked up on what was actually discussed between banks today, and why brownstuff is visiting the US about also. Maybe NR should be blamed as a result of the EU aswell.

'GAME OVER' Get ready for some major bank runs.

[Hetware]

All very much by design.

[blackcat]

[Serge]

[Rory Winter]

[blackcat]

[Rory Winter]

I absolutely agree with you, Blackcat, in what you say about the way Blair hijacked the old Labour Party and recreated it as this abortion called Nu Labor (deliberate American spelling).

I have been warning folk about this on my blogs &c for years now. See, for example http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GAIALINK/message/5438

The way I see it, Blair was the last wrecker who did in the Labour Party. Before him there was the infamous Atlanticist Gang of Four --David Owen, William Rodgers, Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams-- who did so much destruction. The other Atlanticist, Denis Healy, stayed (deliberately?) in the Labour Party to keep doing the wrecking from inside.

And before that miserable lot were the Gaitskellites, the original generation of Atlanticists, who betrayed their country to their American paymaster who funded Britain at vast interest-levels at the end of WWII.

Looking at its history I think there's good reason to believe that the old Labour Party was destroyed in a calculated manner by the CIA and its fellow-travellers. I believe Blair joined Labour with the deliberate intention of wrecking it and that he was all along a CIA/MI6 agent. Of course a lot of British politicians do work for the spooks anyway, being recruited in their youth & then blackmailed into lifelong servility.

I wonder if anyone has written a book on (1) the way the Labour Party was destroyed by the CIA and the Right, and (2) the way British politics is, in effect, run by the secret services of both this country and the USA?

[TonyGosling]

Tell them to balance the books first
How many years is it now
Cheeky so-and-sos


EU's disciplinary action on Britain over budget deficit

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 12:04am BST 09/07/2008

European Union finance ministers have voted to condemn Britain for flagrant breach of the Maastricht spending rules, irked that the UK government has not even tried to keep its budget deficit below the treaty limit of 3pc of national income.

By its own admission, Labour will need to borrow at least 3.2pc of GDP this year, even if the economy holds up well. Brussels described this as "prima facie evidence of a planned excessive deficit". It warned that UK public finances were no longer on a sustainable course after the spending blitz of recent years.

Yesterday's vote is the first time the EU has launched disciplinary action against a big Western state under the revamped Growth and Stability Pact.
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While France and Germany both violated the old pact, they did so at the bottom of the dotcom mini-slump.
# More on economics

Britain's sins are more serious. The breach has occurred at the top of the cycle when tax revenues should be at their peak. Brussels said there had been a "deterioration of the structural balance of 4.5pc of GDP" since 1999. Brussels said Britain did not qualify under the "exceptional" circumstances clause.

The humiliating verdict came as Slovakia won approval to adopt the euro at the beginning of next year as the 16th member of Europe's monetary union. The country will join at an exchange rate of 30.126 koruny.

Fitch Ratings yesterday raised the country's sovereign debt from "A" to "A+". "Fitch considers euro adoption as a net positive for a country's external creditworthiness. As a member of the euro area, Slovakia will be sheltered from monetary shocks and the risk of a self-fulfilling currency crisis," it said.

With just 5m people, Slovakia will scarcely make a ripple in the eurozone. Its accession will make life marginally more difficult for the European Central Bank, which is already struggling to manage the chasm between the German and Latin blocs.

The ECB has been trying to slow down the pace of expansion, warning east European candidates that it is hazardous to join the one-size-fits-all interest rate regime before they have carried out root-and-branch-reform of their economies.

The UK now has the worst fiscal profile of any developed country in the North Atlantic sphere.

The European Commission expects the UK's public debt to rise from 43.2pc of GDP last year to 47.5pc by the end of next year. The ritual of naming and shaming at EU meetings is likely to prove a constant thorn in the side for Labour.

There is no chance that the deficit can be brought back under control in the foreseeable future. The deficit always deteriorates in a downturn. Capital Economics said borrowing needs could explode to £120bn a year if the country tips into a severe recession, as many now fear.

Britain is now in an ugly predicament. Unlike Spain or the US, it cannot easily resort to a fiscal boost - either tax cuts or extra spending - to cushion the effects of the property collapse.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/09/cneu 109.xml

[Micpsi]

Actually, Miranda was taken under the wing of MI5.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Cancel these crippling PFI hospital contracts and put the ministers who signed them in the dock
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2165011/PFI-Cancel-contracts -MPs-signed-dock.html

By Henry Deedes - Daily Mail - PUBLISHED: 16:19, 26 June 2012 | UPDATED: 20:32, 28 June 2012

It is hard to know what is more terrifying about this morning’s news that South London Healthcare Trust has been placed into administration: That Britain’s hospitals are, effectively, on the brink of bankruptcy or that the news has been greeted with such little surprise.

As anyone who has followed the previous government’s plans to provide public services through Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) - in which private contractors pay for the building and running hospitals, schools and other services in return for being repaid by the taxpayer over a number of years – will testify that the system was entirely unsustainable.

For those unfamiliar with absurdity of the deals struck with private contractors, let me put them in layman’s terms. More than 900 or so of these schemes have been completed at cost of around £56 bn. However, the amount that we – the taxpayer - will have to repay currently stands at £229 bn.

If there was ever a more flagrant example of the previous government’s determination to saddle future generations with unrealistic levels of debt in a cynical attempt to shore up its short term popularity, this was it.

Thanks to the stupidity of the ministers who signed off these arrangements, some hospitals are now paying £60m simply to service the interest charges on their debts, money which could be spent on treating patients. In other words, they are operating under the sort of business model that would make even the most egotistical Premiership Football Chairman blush.

On top of these payments, it was revealed last year that hospitals locked into long term PFI deals were also being forced to pay absurd charges for basic services.

They include: £8,450 to install a dishwasher; £13,704 to install three lights in a garden; £242 to change a padlock on a garden gate; £75 to install an air freshener; £676 to put up four ‘fire assembly signs’ and – best of all - £525 to move three beds.

No doubt people will complain that the private sector was immediately at advantage when negotiations took place, as companies employ streams of legal advisers and financial experts capable of running rings around the government. Maybe so. In which case it is vital that the coalition does everything it can to get these contracts cancelled.

But isn’t it yet more proof that we are governed by a political class whose life experience extends little beyond a University degree in PPE and yet five years later somehow find themselves in charge of the nation’s book keeping?

PFIs are undoubtedly one of the greatest fiascos of our age. It is scandalous that those responsible for them will never live long enough to see the damage it inflicts on the future generations. It jars even further that many of them now currently enjoy lucrative directorships in the private sector.

A better place for them would be in the dock.

[TonyGosling]

Developers net millions from hospital ‘lab’ project
Monday 20 August 2012
http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/developers-net-millions-from -hospital-lab-project-1-4152144

Published on Thursday 16 August 2012 11:56

A CONSORTIUM of property developers, investors and health insurers are set to net at least £59m after providing just £15m upfront for a pharmacy lab at Altnagelvin which opened back in 2007, the Sentinel can reveal.

The Sentinel has learned that the cost of the project to the Western Trust has been revised upwards due to the rising Retail Price Index (RPI).

Recently, the paper reported how the United Healthcare Land Company Ltd. was set to earn £40m for its help in financing the new lab.

The Stormont Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were advised that the company would get £1.6m every year from the Western Trust until 2032 when the 25 year Private finance Initaitve (PFI) contract ends.

However, it’s now been revealed that the annual repayment for 2012 was over £300k more than the £1.6m agreed in 2005. That’s because prices have been rising, according to the Western Trust.

But that means the United Healthcare Land Company Ltd. will now be paid at least £58.9m over the next two decades from the public purse.

That’s a profit of £43.7m after its initial investment of £15.2m and maintenance costs at the lab for which it is repsonsible.

In a statement released to the Sentinel a spokesperson for the Western Trust said: “The Northern Ireland Audit Office issued a report in September 2008 on the PFI Laboratory and Pharmacy Centre at Altnagelvin which reflected a positive outcome for the PFI scheme.

“The report was presented to the Public Accounts Committee in October 2008 and the Trust was commended by the Committee on the management of the project.”

The spokesperson continued: “In relation to the Trust repayment of £1.981m in 2012, this was the unitary payment for that year. I would refer you to note 1.16 of the accounts for a full explanation of accounting for PFI transactions.

“In particular please note that the annual payment is separated into the following component parts: payment for the fair value of services received; payment for the PFI asset, including replacement of component parts; and payment for finance (interest costs).

“The amount of £1.6m relates to the agreed amount at the start of the contract in 2005 which increased due to Retail Price Index (RPI) adjustments by 2012.

“The figure of £1.981m is modelled on RPI as at that date and future unitary payments will increase or decrease dependent upon movements in RPI.

“Based on the current level of RPI it is expected that total unitary payments over the lifetime of the contract are envisaged at an amount of £58.9m.

“Please note this is the total unitary payments and includes over and above the repayment of the capital costs amounts to cover lifecycle and full maintenance costs as well as inflationary adjustments in line with the agreed contract.

“The amount of £15.225m included in the accounts is the amount of commitment under PFI for this scheme, and will reduce annually as the contract proceeds and repayments are made.”

Compare this with what a sitting of the PAC was told back in 2007: “The construction of the Centre, which cost £15.2 million, was funded through a PFI.

“This will be repaid by the Trust over the 25 year term of the partnership Agreement through annual payments of £1.6 million; these payments will also cover the operation and maintenance of the building over the term of the Agreement. A further £3.1 million was also invested by the public sector in providing a range of specialised equipment for the Centre.”

[TonyGosling]

Handing over public services to the banks
By Kerry-anne Mendoza | 1

http://newint.org/blog/2013/05/15/pfi-schools-hospitals/

The Private Finance Initiative is hitting taxpayers Images_of_Money, under a CC License

There is a scandal unfolding quietly in Britain which poses an existential threat to our most critical public services. It is called the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). This dangerous circle of self-interest means our government is making the taxpayer pay the bill for private service providers and banks to take over our schools, hospitals and other core public services.

PFI schemes were initially designed by Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont in 1992 and were rapidly expanded under New Labour. They are touted as a form of Public Private Partnership. The government uses private finance, rather than borrowing in the usual way, to raise funds for projects. Since 1992, our hospitals and schools have been built this way. PFI loans are at least twice the rate of interest of ordinary government loans, and repaid over 25-30 years.

A recent report by the Treasury Committee condemned PFI as ‘always… more expensive than government borrowing’. The report continues: ‘we have not seen clear areas of savings and benefits in other areas… quality was lower in PFI buildings (and)… PFI is also inherently inflexible, especially for NHS projects’.

The majority of PFI debt does not appear in government debt or deficit figures – the government can therefore use it to bury the true debt burden. Departments can use it to increase their own budgets without dipping into their allotted funds for capital investment.

PFI also allows the private sector to develop the infrastructure to deliver national services while shifting the costs and the risk to the taxpayer. It is the loan provider of the PFI scheme (the bank) which retains ownership of the asset (the school or hospital) for at least the term of the loan, or in the case of default.

Banks are seeking to make profits on the financialization of our public services, and successive governments seeking to put a gloss on their spending figures. The simple interests of the taxpayer – to get what they pay for – have been quietly abandoned amid this circle jerk of the state, private service providers and the financial services sector. The only people who are not benefiting from PFI are the people actually paying for it.

Already, 22 of the 103 NHS trusts to enter PFI are facing financial difficulty due to the exorbitant repayments. Some hospitals are having to handover a fifth of their annual budget on paying for the deal.

In education, it was revealed that we are due to have a shortfall of 250,000 school places for our children by 2014, whilst the tax payer has picked up a £70 million ($106.6 million) bill for PFI schools which had to close.

A recent report by the European Union Services Strategy Unit, showed that the average profit for banks in PFI projects is over 50 per cent.

Some might well ask – so what? If the services are still free at the point of use, what do we care who provides them?

Our taxes pay for the services. PFI, by the Treasury Committee’s own report is proven not to provide value for money for the tax payer.

As the recent health care disaster in Mid Staffordshire, and the unfolding NHS 111 scandal have taught us – prioritising the financialization of a service over its core purpose (helping people) costs lives.

Despite being an entirely manufactured cost inefficiency for the benefit of private companies, the PFI scandal is being used by those vested interests as a case for more privatisation. It is turned into proof that publicly run services are inherently inefficient, bureaucratic and costly.

British Prime Minister David Cameron recently told the 300 delegates at the Global Investment Conference 2013 that he believed it was time stop ‘endlessly bashing bankers’ because the City was one of Britain’s greatest strengths.

According to the National Audit Office, The UK National Debt rose by £1.5 trillion as a result of the bank bailout. This is twice the nation’s total annual budget. For this amount, Britain could have funded the health service for 14 years, the entire education system for 40 years or over 300 of Job Seeker’s Allowance.

‘Banker bashing’ by the public will not, and cannot, end until this sector and its cronies in parliament are held to account properly.

The British public needs to face up to a terrifying but empowering reality. We have no advocates. This is not a Conservative, a Liberal Democrat or a Labour issue. This is a democratic issue. All three major parties have participated in these scams; they are all in it together.

We need to really get it in our bones that the cavalry is not coming. We are it. Only our newly emerging people’s campaigns and institutions can resolve the crisis, because our existing institutions not only created it, but exist to serve it.

For a longer version of this post, along with ideas for taking action see the Scriptonite blog. Crossposted with the author’s permission.

[TonyGosling]

All in it Together: How Government Is Handing Ownership of our Schools and Hospitals to Banksters

http://scriptonitedaily.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/all-in-it-together-ho w-government-is-handing-ownership-of-our-schools-and-hospitals-to-bank s/

There is a scandal unfolding quietly in this country which poses an existential threat to our most critical public services. It is called the Private Finance Initiative. Today, we look at the dangerous circle of self-interest which means our government is making the tax payer pay the bill for private service providers and banks to take over our schools, hospitals and other core public services.

What is PFI?

PFI stands for Private Finance Initiative. The schemes were initially designed by Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont in 1992 and were rapidly expanded under New Labour. They are touted as a form of Public Private Partnership. The government uses private finance, rather than borrowing in the usual way, to raise funds for projects. Since 1992, our hospitals and schools have been built this way. PFI loans are at least twice the rate of interest of ordinary government loans, and repaid over 25-30 years.

The Truth about PFI



A recent report by the Treasury Committee condemned the Private Finance Initiative, as “always…more expensive than government borrowing”. Furthermore, the report continues “we have not seen clear areas of savings and benefits in other areas…quality was lower in PFI buildings (and)…PFI is also inherently inflexible, especially for NHS projects”.

The report did identify major benefits to PFI unrelated to absolute costs or value for money.
The majority of PFI debt does not appear in government debt or deficit figures – the government can therefore use it to bury the true debt burden.
Government departments can use PFI to increase their own budgets without dipping into their allotted funds for capital investment.

Another benefit of PFI is that is allows the private sector to develop the infrastructure to deliver national services while shifting the costs and the risk to the tax payer. Put another way, the tax payer is funding the development of a private network of service providers. For it is the loan provider of the PFI scheme (the Bank) which retains ownership of the asset (the school or hospital) for at least the term of the loan (25-30 years) or in the case of default.

In fact, the only people who are not benefitting from PFI are the people actually paying for it.

The report could not have been clearer “These incentives unrelated to value for money need to be removed”.

They need to be removed because they create a conspiracy of mutual self-interest between private service providers eager to create new markets in publicly run services, banks seeking to make profits on the financialisation of our public services, and successive governments seeking to put a gloss on their spending figures. The simple interests of the tax payer – to get what they pay for – has been quietly abandoned amid this circle jerk of the state, private service providers and the financial services sector.

It Gets Worse


It is actually in the interests of the private service providers and the banks engaging in PFI for the state to default on its payments. In which case, they can retain ownership of the asset – the school, the hospital, the road, the bridge etc. This might draw one to a more sinister interpretation of the “poor quality procurement methods” used by those responsible for negotiating the PFI contracts.

Already, 22 of the 103 NHS trusts to enter PFI are facing financial difficulty due to the exorbitant PFI repayments. Some hospitals are having to handover a fifth of their annual budget on paying for the PFI deal.

In Education, it was revealed that we are due to have a shortfall of 250,000 school places for our children by 2014, whilst the tax payer has picked up a £70m bill for PFI schools which had to close.

Overall, for a capital investment of £54.7bn (that’s how much money we actually borrowed to build stuff), the tax payer will pay back an astounding £301bn in just twenty five years. Given what we have already seen, many of the 771 PFI projects currently running will bust the budgets of these public services long before then, leaving us with the debt but not the service.

The average profit for a Bank on an equivalent capital investment project would be between 1-2%. A recent report by the European Union Services Strategy Unit (EUSSU), showed that the average profit for banks in PFI projects is over 50%.

So why is PFI so profitable for the banks?

Firstly, as we have seen above, the interest rates on the loans are enormous. They are double ordinary government borrowing and the equivalent of using a credit card to build our hospitals and schools.

Secondly, the ‘Special Purpose Vehicles’ or shell companies set up to manage the PFI projects are generally based in offshore tax havens. This means that a tax payer funded enterprise, is itself exempt from paying tax.

So the Banks have become heavily engaged in chasing the PFI pound.

At least 91 pieces of public infrastructure are now owned in this way.

HSBC has a controlling stake in 27 PFI projects, predominantly schools and hospitals. It is now the outright owner of three NHS hospitals in Barnet, Central Middlesex and West Middlesex.

Barclays has joined HSBC in aggressively chasing the PFI pound, setting up its own wealth fund on the back of this rigged market.

As a sign of things to come, one might look at Barnet Council’s ‘Easy Council’ outsourcing project which sees 70% of the Borough’s services handed out to the private sector to exploit in just the same way.

So What?


Some might well ask – so what? If the services are still free at the point of use, what do we care who provides them?

This question is so ill conceived, it pains me to even have to counter it. It pains me more that it appears to be the predominant view of an increasingly out of touch electorate, without the knowledge base or the curiosity to appreciate their own mugging.

Financial Costs

The service might be free at the point of use, but it is not free. Our taxes pay for the services. PFI, by the Treasury Committee’s own report is proven not to provide value for money for the tax payer. The scale of this cost has seen 4 out of 5 Local Authorities (LA) report that their LA will be in financial trouble by 2014. As reported above, these costs are seeing the closures of hospitals and schools. We are being bankrupted.

Human Costs

As the recent health care disaster in Mid Staffordshire, and the unfolding NHS 111 scandal have taught us – prioritising the financialisation of a service over its core purpose (helping people) costs lives. Real people get poor quality care and die as a result.

The Economy, Stupid

Historically, a national construction project would have created jobs in a domestic construction industry, profits for domestic building and services firms, a publicly owned asset and tax revenues to the Treasury.

Now, the taxpayer forks out double the costs for the build, whilst the profits and in many cases the assets themselves go to an offshore company, which is not eligible to pay taxes in the UK. The money is siphoned out of our economy.

The End Game

Ultimately, as seen in Hinchinbrooke hospital, it is the public and not the private side of the ‘partnership’ that gets the blame when the service inevitably collapses.

Despite being an entirely manufactured cost inefficiency for the benefit of private companies, the PFI scandal is being used by those vested interests as a case for more privatisation. It is turned into proof positive that publicly run services are inherently inefficient, bureaucratic and costly. They claim the answer is to allow the market (those same banks and private service providers who bankrupted the services in the first place) to take over entirely.

Every Day is Christmas Day for the Banks



UK Prime Minister David Cameron recently told the 300 delegates at the Global Investment Conference 2013 that he believed it was time stop “endlessly bashing bankers” because the City was one of Britain’s greatest strengths.

According to the National Audit Office, The UK National Debt rose by £1.5trn as a result of the Bank Bailout. This is twice the nation’s total annual budget. For this amount, the UK could have funded the health service (£106.7bn a year) for fourteen years , the entire education system for forty years (£42bn a year) or over three hundred years of Job Seekers Allowance (£4.9bn a year). Not a single banker has gone to court, let alone to jail. Instead bankers are being let off with fines and the removal of honours, effectively buying their way out of justice.

The bankers needed bailing out not due to some unavoidable natural disaster, but because of their own greed. The bailout was the taxpayer paying down the banking sectors own bad bets, allowing the sector to privatise its profits, but socialise its losses.

Now we find, with PFI, that they have been invited in to pilfer from the tax payer in ever more elaborate ways for more than two decades.

Banker bashing by the public will not and cannot end until this criminal sector, and its cronies in parliament are held to account properly in a court of law. This has not happened, and shows no signs of happening.

The British public needs to face up to a terrifying but empowering reality. We have no advocates. This is not a Tory, a Lib Dem or a Labour issue. This is a democratic issue. All three major parties have participated in these scams, they are all in it together. That’s the terrifying bit.

Now for the empowering bit. We need to really get it in our bones that the cavalry is not coming. We are it. We are the cavalry. Only our newly emerging people’s campaigns and institutions can resolve the crisis, because our existing institutions not only created it, but exist to serve it.

We are only ever as ignorant and powerless as we make ourselves.

Email your local MP/Council – Ask how much they are spending on PFI projects, who those projects are with, where the shell companies are based (are they offshore tax havens) and send this information to this blog (email on the ‘About’ page). We can then publish this information. Not only will you help create the bigger picture of the PFI scandal, but between us we can turn a whisper of discontent into a roar of outrage. We must become as relentless in opposing this corruption as the participants are in furthering it. People who have taken up this challenge are posting their FOI requests here.

Move Your Money – take your money out of your bank. More than 2.3 million people moved their money last year, double the usual number. This means that knowledge of the corruption is having a real impact on consumer behaviour. We enable these banks by keeping our custom with them. Get out, now, and do so loudly.

UK Uncut Legal – support the activism and court cases to bring these scoundrels to justice.

Note of Thanks: Joel Benjamin of Move Your Money supported today’s blog with invaluable research.

[TonyGosling]

details of the Southmead hospital PFI at North Bristol NHS trust (NBT)

NBT are £33 million in debt and they failed to account in their financial planning for additional fees for cleaning surgical equipment, storing medical notes and for the Frenchay to Southmead park and ride. They have been referred to the Sec of State who may decide to ask the Trust Development Agency to open up a tender process, but Andrea Young has moved quickly to send the Dept of Health a financial report saying that they have a 2 to 3 year financial turnround policy.

ON the PFI. The total debt is £627 million over 30 years. made up of £430 million construction costs and around £170 million in facilities management. The European Investment Bank put up £250 million at the initial stage, but then Lloyds Bank (in partnership with Carillion as the builder but at no cost to them) put up £627 million of senior debt, equity etc which they then had to take out insurance for. Lloyds acted as the main financial partner but thought that the risks associated were very high, so immediately decided to stay as the lead financier but to package a financial package to other financial groups. So the Lloyds part reduced as RBS put up £75 million, NAB (national australia bank) £51 million, Credit Agricole (french) £51 million and Soc Gen £50 million. leaving Lloyds with £150 million.

The lloyds figure could be higher if the EIB were repaid in full, but they are usally long term financiers who invest in 3rd world european countries. Southmead qualify for that? Perhaps it was sold as a very deprived area that would extend life changing opportunities with the investment.

[TonyGosling]

Leak about NBT Southmead hospital NHS Trust

- NBT are £33 million in debt and they failed to account in their financial planning for additional fees for cleaning surgical equipment, storing medical notes and for the Frenchay to Southmead park and ride. They have been referred to the Sec of State who may decide to ask the Trust Development Agency to open up a tender process, but NBT CEO Andrea Young has moved quickly to send the Dept of Health a financial report saying that they have a 2 to 3 year financial turnround policy. ON the PFI: The total debt is £627 million over 30 years. made up of £430 million construction costs and around £170 million in facilities management.

The European Investment Bank put up £250 million at the initial stage, but then Lloyds Bank (in partnership with Carillion as the builder but at no cost to them) put up £627 million of senior debt, equity etc which they then had to take out insurance for.

Lloyds acted as the main financial partner but thought that the risks associated were very high, so immediately decided to stay as the lead financier but to package a financial package to other financial groups. So the Lloyds part reduced as RBS put up £75 million, NAB (national australia bank) £51 million, Credit Agricole (french) £51 million and Soc Gen £50 million. leaving Lloyds with £150 million. -

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Britain crippled by £222bn debt from backroom PFI deals – report
Published time: April 13, 2015

http://rt.com/uk/249085-uk-tax-payer-debt-pfi/

Each UK citizen has amassed a debt of £3,400 ($4,976) without even knowing about it. This is due to a UK government scheme that signed controversial deals with private companies to borrow money on behalf of the public and pledging to pay it back later.

READ MORE: 'Super-rich, me? Absolutely not': Tony Blair says just lucky, despite lucrative business, property empire

The deals, which are known as Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs), were used by London to pay for public infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals. Signed with private enterprises, they would allow the government to “buy now, pay later,” the Independent on Sunday reports.

A problem is emerging though. Despite not having paid a penny, every UK national is now in debt to the tune of £3,400 ($4,976) because the cost of paying back the PFIs is growing every year. 2014 saw an increase of £5bn ($7.3bn) and this figure could rise even higher with inflation.

The system has proved to be fantastic for private companies, who are managing to reap large profits from investing in public infrastructure. However, financial experts have labelled the government’s policy a “financial disaster,” due to the high amounts of interest accumulated.

The data has been verified by the National Audit Office (NAO) and is based on more than 720 PFIs using data from the Treasury.

John Major’s Conservative government came up with the idea in 1992 to introduce PFIs, with Tony Blair and now David Cameron continuing to use them to fund public spending.

Read more
House in Parliament? Activists want Westminster for social housing
Though PFIs have paid for assets worth £56.5bn ($82.70bn), the UK will have to pay more than five times that under the PFI’s leasing agreements. By 2049 the total bill for PFIs will be £310bn ($453bn). Since 2012, London has managed to pay just one percent of the total cost owed to paying off the PFIs.

“Frankly it’s very corrupt…no rational government, looking at the interests of the citizenry as a whole would do this,” said Jean Shaoul, a professor emerita at the Manchester Business School, told the Independent on Sunday.

The government is facing a difficult situation. PFI’s do not take account of the country’s economic climate, so if there was a recession, they would not be adjusted accordingly. There are unlikely to be any loopholes either, as the contracts run into thousands of pages.

“Crippling PFI debts are exacerbating the funding crisis across our public services, most obviously in our National Health Service,” said TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady.

Read more
‘Mockery of democracy’: UK govt flip-flops, allowing fracking under National Parks
Even the Public Accounts Select Committee, chaired by Margaret Hodge, whose job is to examine how the government spends its money admitted, “I’m afraid we got it wrong…we got seduced by PFI.”

While Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury for the current government said last month, “Too many of the old PFI deals were poorly negotiated with high costs draining local and national coffers.”

The latest investigation into PFI comes after it was revealed in December by MPs that a £10.5bn ($15.36bn) deal for new trains through two PFIs were poorly managed and have transferred all the risk to taxpayers.

“The Department for Transport’s decision to buy the new trains…has left the taxpayer bearing all the risk. This means that if passenger forecasts are wrong and fewer new trains are needed in future taxpayers will have to pick up the bill,” said Margaret Hodge MP, who chairs the Commons committee told the Financial Times.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

You won't believe how much money privatisation is wasting EVERY WEEK
https://weownit.org.uk/blog/waste-privatisation-we-cant-afford
13 September 2019

This week, IPPR revealed the shocking cost of PFI contracts in the NHS. In total, by the time all these contracts are paid off, the NHS will have spent a staggering £80 billion, in return for just £13 billion of initial investment. The waste is appalling.

We could spend that money on doctors and nurses salaries, or on improving treatments, or making sure young mental health inpatients don’t have to stay in hospitals hundreds of miles away from their family and friends because of a lack of beds.

But this is just part of the story. Privatisation of ALL of our public services is a costly waste, and has to stop. It’s OUR taxes and OUR bills that get wasted on shareholder profits, extra admin costs, and higher interest rates on borrowed money.

We sat down to figure out just how much privatisation is costing us every week:

Rail - £1 billion a year or £19 million a week
Buses - £506 million a year or £9.7 million a week
Water - £2.3 billion a year or £44 million a week
Energy - £3.2 billion a year or £61 million a week
NHS - £6.65 billion a year or £128 million a week*.
(*The cost of maintaining the internal market is (at a very conservative estimate) £4.5 billion a year or £86 million a week. Add that to £2.15 billion a year in 2020-2021 on PFI contracts, and all together, the NHS is wasting £6.65 billion at a minimum every year - or £128 million a week. We need to end privatisation in our NHS as soon as possible to end this waste, especially with trade deals on the horizon. Take action here.)

Let’s add that up.

Every week, privatisation means more than £250 million of public money is wasted.
What a shocking waste. Imagine how much better our public services could be with that money.

Bringing our services into public ownership is a good investment - it will pay for itself. We need to bring our services into public ownership as soon as possible, including these wasteful PFI deals so that we can cut out the middle man - which will pay for itself in two years!

Make sure your friends know what a rip-off privatisation is, and how much of a great deal public ownership will be - share this blog on facebook and twitter.

Let's stop wasting our money on privatisation!

Do you believe in public services for people not profit?

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Comments

Taraneh Ahmadi-... replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I totally agree with you on privatisation of public services .it is immoral and wasteful , and it is designed to profit from our hard earned taxes . Public services are not there for shareholders profit .. We need to take it back in public hands as soon as possible.

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David Homer replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
You could add Royal Mail to your list as prices have shot up and service standards have plummeted since privatisation. The workers now face a battle to preserve working terms and conditions in the usual mercenary pursuit of profit after the vultures take control.

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Brian Russell replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I was an RMT Rep until i retired So I've fought the privatisation of the railways from the start

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Kelvin Lewis replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Our families have payed so much only to make money for those financier who don’t use the NHS

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Edward Robert Tate replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
We knew it was a rip off, but such sums are staggering!!!

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stuart radford replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
NHS for the public not for profiteerng scum

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stuart radford replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
NHS for the public not for profiteerng scum

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Brendan replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
PFI contracts should be scrapped it is a absolutely waste of public money. Whoever set these contracts up should have known the consequences regarding the amount of money the tax payers would have had to pay back. Government should use the law to make sure you see if all challenges as the public don’t need to be taken to high court to lose their battle.

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Charis Fygetakis replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Privatisation of services meant to serve the public means that few benefit at the expense of the majority.

That is just not right!

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Arthur Leewis replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
More than 10 years ago, I was one of the few that saw this rip-off materialising, and I made this clear on a number of occasions. The stance of government then, as now, was/is that the NHS and other organisations were not allowed to borrow to build hospitals, schools etc. I was silenced under a barrage of “ You don’t know what you’re talking about” pressure, and my working life was made very difficult, because I made my view clear at different levels of our NHS Trust, so much so that I eventually resigned. What needs to be done is that all PFI contracts are declared paid for after 10 years, the contractor will have recouped his investment by this time. If not, tough for the contractor. I always maintained PFI was a license to print money for the contractor. It should not be allowed to make excessive gains for public projects. There should be a modest gain, e.g. 8% for the contractor, which could be taxed differently to normal corporation tax.

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Neil Forshaw replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
A disgraceful waste of public money.

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Roland Laycock replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
This is the same with all privatised companies,

I worked in the Telecom Industry (Post Office Telecom) and it as not advanced since the day it was privatised, only thing that as advised is the price you pay for poor service.

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Rachel Boulton replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Have you done a dividend calculation - because I think the sums above include the pathetic amount spent on infrastructure.

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Jennifer Hall replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
This is scandalous. Makes a mockery of the paltry erroneous sum of the 350 million a week for the NHS that BJ , NF and the brexiteers offered as a bribe to attract Brexit supporters, Wish we'd had these figures earlier.

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John HARRIES-COULMAN replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Yes it is deindtly time to stop privatisation. Which is only for the rich.

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Fiona Cameron replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I fully believe that our N.H.S is one of the finest institutions in the world , without it we would have a joke of a system like the do in the USA where people are allowed to suffer and die unless they are mega rich

We need to protect it with all our might , I come from a generation that has never lived without it , however remember stories from my grandma who had ,she knew of families that had babies dying because there was no money to bring a dr to the house , she ran a soup kitchen and had stories of those days that made me gals even as a child those days were gone , and I felt safe ,

I no longer feel safe , we have food banks , the N.H.S is in its 70s a human life span , I feel it fragile , and in need of our efforts to protect , respect , and value it , this can not be done by the present govt those who selfishly want to destroy it and privatise our NHS , I also believe that other essential services should be free of greedy fat cats making fortunes at the expense of all

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stella shackle replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I was livid to read about the fact that the NHS owed £208 million - Why? Successive governments have

made changes to this amazing institution, and not always for the best, or I wonder with the best of

intentions as far as the Tories are concerned. I came into healthcare later in life, when I had the

opportunity to qualify as an Occupational therapist at the Royal London Hospital in 1992. I then witnessed

changes directly for myself, and the effect they had on every single person involved in patient care.

I think there should be a law to state that governments can establish the funding requirements, but only

with all NHS organisations - a 'big ask' maybe but a vital one. The money is the 'ring fenced' The running

of these establishments is then closely scrutinising and monitoring at a local level, by local experts, and not

a national establishment such as the CQC.

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stella shackle replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I was livid to read about the fact that the NHS owed £208 million - Why? Successive governments have

made changes to this amazing institution, and not always for the best, or I wonder with the best of

intentions as far as the Tories are concerned. I came into healthcare later in life, when I had the

opportunity to qualify as an Occupational therapist at the Royal London Hospital in 1992. I then witnessed

changes directly for myself, and the effect they had on every single person involved in patient care.

I think there should be a law to state that governments can establish the funding requirements, but only

with all NHS organisations - a 'big ask' maybe but a vital one. The money is the 'ring fenced' The running

of these establishments is then closely scrutinising and monitoring at a local level, by local experts, and not

a national establishment such as the CQC.

reply
Alan Bond replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Those of us with any sense knew what the figures were right from the start and we were betrayed by tony b liar who sold us down the river. Meanwhile, the tories cronies have remained on the bandwagon and WE are the ones who are losing out.

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George Jeffreys replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
We need public control of rail, water, ports, canals, airports, ferries, NHS, Met Office, Land Registry, FE, National Grid, Prisons, armed forces and aerospace. We also need co-ops & worker control.

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Alex replied on Tue 17 Sep 2019 Permalink
Couldnt agree more! We need strong communities to defend against the parasitic bodies that render the NHS and our services unable to function properly and tax us over and over!40 years of robbery and roll back of rights for the poor-a Nanny State for the rich and an early death and debt for us!

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Alex replied on Tue 17 Sep 2019 Permalink
Couldnt agree more! We need strong communities to defend against the parasitic bodies that render the NHS and our services unable to function properly and tax us over and over!40 years of robbery and roll back of rights for the poor-a Nanny State for the rich and an early death and debt for us!

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Peter Evans replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Our money should be spent on nationalised industries and services, definitely not paying for private sector scams.

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Adele Fletcher replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
This Government must stop putting the financial interests of itself & corporate companies & their shareholders before the interest of the population. Renationalise every service, put back into public hands.

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Keith Shipsey replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
There would be enough resource to service mankind, if the small minority that control our planet were not so hell bent on gathering and secreting the vast proportion of the wealth of the world and in the process using all such means as chasing the cheapest labour , using slave labour, and progressively destroying the environment instead of protecting it.

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wilfred phillips replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Sadly it is too late to do anything about the vast sums of money wasted on interest paid and due on the PFI loans. We can however by clearly thought out legislation make sure it can not happen again.

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Amanda Bouskill replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
This is what a lot of people are unaware of & think on it as scaremongering. The truth has been withheld from us so long that people don't know what to believe.

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Susan Saullo replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
This is staggering !!!!!

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Kathryn Bhola replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
We must bring the public services into public ownership, especially the NHS which was never, and should not now, be a profit making company. It should be for healthcare, services and treatment for the sick, not a profit making company for the shareholders.

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Valerie Kerry replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
We must save our NHS ! OUR Nurseing Staff do a GREAT JOB & should get look after much better ?

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Z. Sullivan replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I hope the fact that the EU treaties (Rome, Lisbon, Maastricht), mean as long as we are involved with the EU we are "directed" to sell-off our services & would be unable to re-nationalise! France is now preparing their state owned railways to be sold privately as EU require this!!

Surely Labour's 'customs union' would tie us in to this??

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Jenny Tomkinson replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Agree a needless waste. Brexit has also been an appalling waste of public funding..

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Aneurin Davies replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Democratic Socialism seeks to restrain the destructive excesses of Capitalism and Government's use of Taxes and Resources into creating opportunities for the Many Not The elite Few.

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joan taplin replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Put a stop to all of this ASAP!!

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Ian leggat replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
James Meek Private Island still best expose of the shenanigans

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1731-private-island

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Gordon Keegan replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
On top of the scandalous PFI payments,we have to look at the new management structures. The legal teams that commission (private companies) services,private sector advisory teams, all this money comes from the NHS pot, and costs the taxpayer billions a year.

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thomas lamb replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I am appalled at the waste.

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mike perkins replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I am very dissatisfied by the large number of bus services that are continually reducing due to profit motive and private ownership.

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Janet Courtenay replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Stop this lunacy, we are always crying about not having enough money for our services.

Now we know how much of OUR MONEY you are wasting. You are bringing down organisations such as the NHS when you should be I N V E S T I N G it them not throwing it away on companies that are trying to destroy the companies owned by the PUBLIC.

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Christine Davies replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
The NHS was launched by Aneurin Bevan the Labour Party in 1948 offering free health care for the people of Britain. The government at the time were given responsibility to ensure that this service would not be sold to private owners but always belong and stay with the people of Britain, therefor the NHS BELONGS TO US and a law passed that it will NEVER fall into privatisation of any kind or be taken over by any foreign buyer, eg. America.

Please read information about the NHS and understand the implications if ever we should loose it. Type: Aneurin Bevan and the Health Service, on computer or mobile.

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Anthony Hetherington replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
these services should all be brought back from the private sector

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Helen Evison replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I don't know why people don't realise the phenomenal cost of privatisation. I have always known that private services have to pay shareholders so that there is not so much to fund the services themselves. Privatisation of the NHS costs the service more money so there is less to spend on doctors and nurses and patient needs.

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Sandra Walter replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Nationalisation is the only fair way forward. Services should be making profits which are used to improve services and NOT to line the pockets of a few companies and their shareholders.

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Sandra Walter replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Nationalisation is the only fair way forward. Services should be making profits which are used to improve services and NOT to line the pockets of a few companies and their shareholders.

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Jean Edwards replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I believe very strongly in our NHS and it should stay in Public ownership. I am now 83 years of age and I have been into the hospital for four operations and have received consultant care and nursing care each time I have been admitted. Check ups from consultants and nursing staff following my operations have been excellent and I couldn't have been treated any better. We will lose this first class and excellent service if the NHS is privatised, we will find we have to pay for it through private insurance that wont come cheap. My worry is coming out of the EU is a danger to our NHS and Donald Trump stepping in and our NHS could become part of the American system. One of the Lies told by Boris Johnson and other conservative MPs when the referendum came to the Country was £350 million to go into our NHS if we leave the EU. We now know this is not going to happen. The Country as been divided over Brexit and I find it very sad.

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Sue Rose replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Stop it!

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George Howe replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
This has being going on since Mrs Thatcher. The politicians behind this were Tories initially but when Labour came to power they just continued same old policies. Shameful of that Labour government but wasn't that the same government that joined American President George Bush in a illegal war in Iraq ? Capital runs the world !! God help us all !

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S. Bell replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
The present government are guilty of PFI mark Two. Most of the companies which are involved in this scam have mps in their pockets. the government pour "our" money and mps reap the cash.Doubles all round. The USA will fleece the NHS. The poor will pay with their lives. Thank you S. Bell

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hetty replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Yep must have been the biggest SCAM on the planet, Labour party carried this out btw. Scotland is £BILLIONS in 'debt' to private companies for the next 25-30 years, for far from adequate builds, hospitals and schools, some not safe! The contracts cannot be reversed. and the buildings will not belong to the city or be in public hands even after the 30 years of debt. So you have councils like Edinburgh owe £1BILLION to private companies, it's a huge 'debt' across Scotland's councils. Labour's legacy. It's money taken away from essential services, improving infrastructure and making buildings safe! Not only that, the contracts also meant that hospital staff were forced to paymhuge amounts to private companies just to park at their place of work! The Scotgov ie SNP have managed to at least part put a stop to that.

What an utter disgrace and you can bet your bottom dollar that the throughers who made this policy are sitting in the HOL's paid £300 a day plus expenses, or even have shares in the private companies. It's corruption on agrand scale by a supposedly left wing government. A crime against the people.

Where is the media on this? State run right wing media hide this kind of crime from the people.

renationalising services etc will not wipe out the so called 'DEBT' of Labours' legacy that was PFI. Ps SNP have scrapped PFI we now have

NFP ( not for profit) though still usng private companies because as with railways, we are forced by UK England gov to keep services private! Though Scottish water is not private no thanks to Labour who privatised the non domestic arm of SW< and planned to priavtise the domestic arm as well had they held onto Holyrood!

Great Britain eh, ripped off by the government, only on eof 3 in the world to have an UNELECTED house, ie House of Lords! No where near democratic.

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Heather Wilson replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Ps where can we see comments for this please?

Really important to make that open to people signing!

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Charles Church replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Privatisations benefit the few not the many Boris will have us Americanised and some will make a bomb!

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Wendy fletcher replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Why should the very basic needs of the people be priced in the private sector in such a way as to cater for The burden of keeping shareholders happy. This punishes everyone but mainly the poorer in our society. This is deeply, ethically questionable.

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Suzanne Whitmore replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
Stop wasting money. It should be used to fund essential services for British people.

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margaret gordon replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
privatisation does not mean better management. It means huge salary increases for senior management,profits go to shareholders and not mainly towards improving the business. Many previously public assets are now owned by other countries so their loyalty is divided.

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Penny Jones replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I remember when these services were first made public- it was wonderful! Before then my mother had worried if we could afford to see the doctor! Do think controls should be put in place to avoid wastage. But to reinstate

the old system is madness!

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Michael Skinner replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
It does not say how the figures e calculated. If it is the total cost then it does not calculate what it provided for that. It also assumes that anything spent on doctors and nurses is good value.

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Eddie Dougall replied on Sun 15 Sep 2019 Permalink
I totally agree with you: we, the public, are being ripped off for the benefit of the private companies running (fleecing) the former public services. Also benefitting are the shareholders (many in politics) who bought into the various privatisations at knock-down prices.

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Colette Quinn replied on Mon 16 Sep 2019 Permalink
Keep Fighting. Never Give Up.

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David McClarty replied on Mon 16 Sep 2019 Permalink
I wonder how much of that money finds it's way into ministers pockets.

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Viki Miller replied on Mon 16 Sep 2019 Permalink
You can have competition without privatisation.

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Margaret Bradshaw replied on Mon 16 Sep 2019 Permalink
I absolutely agree that this government is wasting tax payers money on privatisation of services.

Hopefully we will soon see a change of regime.

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Gary Bowman replied on Mon 16 Sep 2019 Permalink
What about the banks we took into public ownership during the World financial crisis that they caused (with another looming apparently) being sold off at a knock down price. The fantasy of the garden bridge, the cut down in refuse collection that has led local councils to spend millions cleaning up after fly tippers. The list just goes on and on!

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Research
Citizens Advice report: Consumers owed £5.1m in compensation from utility companies
Source: www.citizensadvice.org.uk

Video
G4S prison failure shows that privatisation isn't working
Source: www.youtube.com

Video
Let's END local privatisation
Source: www.youtube.com

Video
Capita and Serco are gearing up to run the MoD fire service. Here's how we stop them.
Source: www.youtube.com
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Research
Pills and Profits: How drug companies make a killing out of public research
Source: stopaids.org.uk

Video
John McDonnell on Labour's public ownership policies
Source: www.youtube.com
10 reasons to end privatisation now

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