Carillion

Another problem where big business wins out over the ordinary man/business.

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-01-24/big-pharma-fails-to-disclose-waste-leaked-from-factories

How are they allowed to get away with this?
I can't imagine it improving after Brexit.

So no supporters of capitalism can give nightowl an example of a privatisation that has benefited us.

In the meantime....while we are waiting for enlightenment....

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/01/27/what-if-you-dont-have-socks/

"Fifth, whilst it is true Oxfam do play loose when comparing wealth and GDP on occasion, and they are not the same thing, the fact is that what their report does really drive at is the very heart of the neoliberal project, which is why the CPS, the IEA and others are so frightened of it. What I mean here is that what the Oxfam and Guardian reports reveals is the lack of choice most people have, and yet choice is what, supposedly, the neoliberal agenda is about.

When you live in poverty it’s not just hope that departs through the window, although it does. With it goes any element of choice in your life. And supposedly the whole neoliberal agenda is about ‘taking back control’ to make those choices, except the reality is that, if anything the exact opposite is taking place. What market capitalism is delivering is choice for a tiny proportion, who can pretty much have whatever they want except happiness (which is still not marketable) whilst most get very few options indeed, and no chance to do anything about it.

This is the criteria by which neoliberalism has failed. Other systems have delivered reductions in relative poverty. But neoliberalism has not. And it’s core promise of choice is disappearing from view under mountains of debt and stagnating wages."

"The freeze on social security benefits introduced two years ago will lead to fewer and fewer children escaping the poverty trap, according to a study. The biggest increases in child poverty since the freeze in 2016 have occurred in areas already identified as deprivation hotspots, an analysis by the End Child Poverty coalition of charities has found. In four parliamentary constituencies – Bethnal Green and Bow, and Poplar and Limehouse in east London, and Ladywood and Hodge Hill in Birmingham – children are for the first time in recent years more likely than not to grow up poor.

In 25 constituencies, mostly located in London, Birmingham and Greater Manchester, more than 40% of children now live below the poverty line. On a local level the figures are even more damning, with 62% of children in Coldhurst ward in Oldham living in poverty. End Child Poverty says the government must end the benefits freeze which the group says is a major factor in an “emerging child poverty crisis”, along with rising prices."

How can some people in this country not see that this is just plainly wrong?

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/01/24/no-wonder-the-right-hate-oxfams-inequality-data/

It goes with this, Maizie.

This article was published in the right wing Scottish paper, The Herald a few days ago.

It's an interesting further suggestion that neo-liberalsim has had its day.

Capitalists focus relentlessly on the bottom line, so it is ironic that they have signed their own death warrants. But there’s nothing so blind as human avarice. Our degenerate business class seems incapable of understanding why voters are so incensed at their behaviour. They persuade themselves that they are “wealth creators”, when it is patently obvious that they’re simply syphoning off wealth created by society as a whole.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/15886303.Iain_Macwhirter__RIP_capitalism_____millennials_will_dig_your_grave/#comments-anchor

I'm not sure that current events are signalling the 'death of capitalism' so much as the death of a form of capitalism; this is clearer in the 'Limited Liability' paper I linked to earlier.

I only know one person who doesn't have a landline. He's in his 50s and didn't want to pay to have a landline installed when he is only renting.

Anyway, nightowl, glad to be of use.
I knew you would appreciate the link.
Some people want to know; others don't. I was quite heartened by the man on Question Time who said that most of our utilities are owned by foreign governments.

I know what you mean, Maizie.
When we first moved here, I remember a friend asking if I wanted a coffee in the village, and I had to borrow her mobile to ring my husband to tell him not to worry, as mine couldn't get a signal. Can see the mast where all the whatevers are if I just turn my head. I am sure there is a proper word for it, but I can't recall it at the moment.
I have a landline, but my kids despair of me and mobiles.

But that doesn’t alter the fact Maizie that a lot of young people choose not to have a landline. So whatever package they have, it’s worlds away from the days when we had to use BT to have any kind of phone at all. Apples and pears is all I’m saying.

Hardly anyone has a landline nowadays, and if they do they don’t use it.

My broadband connection comes via my phone line. What alternatives would people have for internet connections? And would they be comparable on cost and security?

My daughter recently took on a new sky package which included a telephone line.

Sky needs a functioning land line, too, doesn't it?.

She has no intention of ever buying a telephone.

Some people have no choice. The valley where we used to live (very near to you, dj) has no reliable mobile phone signal. You have to use a landline.

Just saying, really...

I found the answer I expected in your link thank you dj. I guess I was just wondering whether anyone could point me to a success story of privatisation. It seems not, unless you’re a shareholder of course.

As far as BT is concerned, there really isn’t any comparison between the communications world now and before BT was sold off. Hardly anyone has a landline nowadays, and if they do they don’t use it. My daughter recently took on a new sky package which included a telephone line. She has no intention of ever buying a telephone.

My brother in law waited over six months for a BT phoneline last year in Devon.
Perhaps if more about ownership of public utilities was put into the public domain, and more people knew about it, there would be no need for weownit.
I didn't say it was impartial. However you can get all the information you need in the one place if you can be bothered to read it.
Privatisation was supposed to mean that the Sids of the country had shares in the utilities. What a laugh that was.

jen weownit.org.uk is not an impartial organisation. At no point did I say that any privatised entity is working well. I said

As for the other privatisation, it's recognised that there's been some improvement following some of the privatised entities, but none are considered to be a success.

some improvement... some of privatised entities... like the fact most new BT phone lines are installed within 15 working days - much less if there's an existing line. I waited 6 months in 1985. Like the fact that the number of customers at risk of low water pressure has fallen by 99%.

I firmly believe that privatisation has been bad for the country and struggle with the lack of security because so much of the infrastructure is in foreign ownership.

It was Jon Trickett. I have been trying to put a link to the whole debate.

Found it.

www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-01-24a.334.0

I go on a website called theyworkforyou.
You can actually get a link to all commons debates that mention certain words, or that your MP speaks in.
The next day you get an email.
Obviously I get them mentioning NHS and that was Carillion.
It's the same site where you can send messages to your council about street lights, potholes, etc. Does lots of things, and I find it very useful.

Not according to weownit, Wilma.
Watching Question Time at the moment, and one of the audience said that the water, electricity and railways are all owned by governments, just not our government.

No way can you pretend that prison privatisation and the probation service privatisation have benefited the public in any way. Just have a look at the threads on looking after our parents and see how privatising care homes has not worked.
Can you give one example of what has worked?

Gobsmacked by that, dj. Utterly gobsmacked.

(Who was the MP making this ststement?)

"I beg to move,

That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster that the assessments of risks of Government Strategic Suppliers by Her Majesty's Ministers referred to in the Answer of 19 December 2017 to Question 114546 and any improvement plans which Crown Representatives have agreed with such strategic suppliers since 2014 be provided to the Public Accounts Committee.

Thank you for calling me to speak, Mr Deputy Speaker. My thoughts, and I am sure those of everyone in the House, have been with you during this very difficult time for you and your family.

Time is running on, and I am going to attempt to be brisk, but I am not going to be non-partisan, because the Government have been negligent in the exercise of their duty to protect the public purse. In the past two hours, the Government have attempted to pre-empt this whole debate by sending a letter to every one of us. The purpose of the letter is to attempt to whitewash the way in which the Government have conducted outsourcing, particularly in relation to Carillion. Those who have had the chance to study the letter will find the names of six companies that are going to take over the public sector contracts that Carillion was administering. I have only just had a chance to look at it myself, but that list is quite extraordinary. What a catalogue of failure!

One of the six firms donated money directly to the Tory party. Two of the firms are known for blacklisting workers. Amazingly, one of the firms is currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for suspected offences of bribery and corruption. Another has previously been caught red-handed mispricing contracts, underestimating their eventual cost. As a consequence, £130 million was wiped off its share value. Another of the companies operates in the Cayman Islands and has been shown to use that location as a way of avoiding tax. Another of the firms is part of a group that has reportedly abused and exploited migrant workers in Qatar. My reaction to all that—I do not know whether it is unparliamentary—is to use three letters: WTF! What were the Government doing producing a list of that kind?"

The start of the debate yesterday in parliament. I never noticed anything about it in the paper today, even though it seems quite important to me.

Sorry Maizie I got distracted while I was typing my reply and didn't see your post.

Nightowl there's only one privatisation that is widely regarded as a complete failure and that's the railways. Part of the blame for the failure is the fact that the infrastructure was broken up and sold off resulting in inefficiencies.
The amount of government subsidies is now higher than when it was run by the state.

As for the other privatisation, it's recognised that there's been some improvement following some of the privatised entities, but none are considered to be a success.

Primrose the Conservative belief at the end of the 70s was that privatisation would make the large utilities more efficient and productive. The government wanted to make British capitalism as competitive its European rivals. Margaret Thatcher launched the concept of popular capitalism through privatisation and aimed to create a nation of shareholders.

I'm not sure any of the contracts would specify that there has to be a 'better service' nightowl

The 'privatisation' of utilities and transport were 'sold' on the promise that the competition generated by having a number of providers to chose from would lead to lower prices and better performance as companies fought for custom.

It might not be in the contract but if private companies are not providing a better service then what the hell was the point? Apart, of course, from allowing taxpayer's money to be siphoned off in dividends to the companies' shareholders.

I go out a lot djen ......sorry!
However, if they said what I have just said then they show good sense.

Nightowl, you might find your answer on this.

weownit.org.uk/privatisation-fails

He also said

"I am terribly sorry. I get very excited about the thought of the Leader of the Opposition becoming Prime Minister, which will happen very shortly.

These contracts are an absolute mess. The Government say that civil servants cannot take things in-house. If that is the case, they cannot manage the contracts that they have issued. I call it baloney and ideological rubbish. We will put an end to it. The Government must put an end to it to prevent our country from going to the dogs."