Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?

Back in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher sold us a pup. She told us private companies could run public services more cost-effectively than government. Either she was badly mistaken or she was lying.

Most voters believed her, though, and in the decades that followed, she and her successors have sold off as many public utilities and services as they could, hiring private contractors in to run crucial aspects of most of the others.

The Carillion case is indicative of what happens next.

The outsourcing company, which has maintenance contracts in the NHS, a contract for work on the HS2 rail link, contracts with the Ministry of Defence, and is a major supplier of rail infrastructure, is in serious financial trouble.

Its major lenders – banks including Lloyds and RBS – have rejected the company’s rescue plan and are urging the government to pay off its debts – using public money.

So these banks – who were themselves bailed out with public money when they caused the financial crisis that led to the Great Recession 10 years ago – are now saying they need the public to bail out this private company, because they won’t.

It is the most damning evidence possible that privatisation of public services is a failure.

The idea of privatisation was that the public wouldn’t have to pay for services. Instead, it seems we are being asked to pay time and time again.

We bailed out the banks once; now they want us to bail them out again, repaying their loans to Carillion.

No! Let the company go out of business and take the contracts back in-house.

Oh, but the Tories probably can’t manage that because the state no longer has the wherewithal to carry out that kind of work. Typical Tory short-sightedness.

Another brilliant example of the same stupidity is rail privatisation. Private companies took over rail services in the 1990s, and we were led to believe that this would lead to better services, with profits being ploughed into infrastructure and other improvements. Instead, the public subsidy has skyrocketed and so have fares; 70 per cent of our rail companies are owned by foreign concerns (some of them, ironically, nationalised) which means we are subsidising rail services abroad rather than funding improvements here, and those that aren’t seem to be in permanent financial difficulties, meaning more public money is used to bail them out. Look at the Virgin East Coast franchise.

Do you call that value for money? Because I don’t.

It should be no surprise that Chris Grayling is the transport secretary who has admitted Virgin overbid for the East Coast franchise. The company offered to pay too much and that is, we’re told, why it is in financial difficulty now. The same thing happened with the probation service when Mr Grayling was justice secretary.

The social media commentariat have been on the case, of course, so I refer you to a few people who understand the situation better than myself – for the benefit of those who won’t just take my word for it:

Banks incl. Lloyds, RBS, Barclays & HSBC reject Carillion's rescue plan and seek govt bailout out for the beleaguered outsourcing giant https://t.co/3vBlZfHr3D — Ian Fraser (@Ian_Fraser) January 12, 2018

Carillion was teetering on the brink from July onwards, but the govt. awarded them 2 contracts in Nov worth £320m. They have £300m missing from their pensions obligations. Any govt. bail out means socialism for corporations, austerity for the rest of us. — CrémantCommunarde#ActivistLawyer ⚖️ 😷 ✋ (@0Calamity) January 13, 2018

#Carillion, well known for #blacklisting trade unionists, runs:

– 50 prisons

– 8,675 schools

– 200 operating theatres

– 11,800 inpatient beds

Private companies have no business running our essential services; #Labour's policies on public ownership & control the only answer #JC4PM — Jennie Formby (@Jennieformby1) January 12, 2018

Carillion, Serco, G4S, Capita, Virgin etc run a shadow state – their owners and managers become hugely rich; they are not subject to FoI; they are unaccountable; they provide a poor service. When will our supine media properly expose their workings? Is there corruption here? — Tom London (@TomLondon6) January 13, 2018

How can it be right for billions of pounds of public funds to be paid to Serco, Carillion, G4S, Capita, Virgin etc when these companies use elaborate devices to aggressively avoid UK tax? Is there corruption here? In a healthy society, MSM and BBC would be investigating… — Tom London (@TomLondon6) January 13, 2018

If the Tories can't find money for patients dying in hospital corridors then a Carillion bail out simply can't be an option. The only option is public ownership. We tried it the other way and it's failed. The need for government change is greater than ever. https://t.co/G1BPGRf2is — Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) January 13, 2018

Bailed out banks seek bailout for client so their loans will be repaid by taxpayers. Good grief! https://t.co/JfIBkJz55U — Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney) January 13, 2018

I don’t know about good, but grief is certainly an appropriate word.

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