Incompetence in government 


 

Incompetence in government is something one usually takes for granted, and the sad thing is that it shows few signs of being prevented or reversed. For once, I'm not talking about the US, but my dear own UK, where New Labour have been intent on being the people's party, which they felt gave them the mandate to sell off every asset they could to private companies in an effort to keep necessary renovations off the One Eyed Bastard's balance sheet.

Briefly, PFI works something like this: I sell you the land my current hospital is on, which you then make lots of money from. You build me a newer, crappier hospital that I then lease from you, and at the end of the 30 year deal, I get to keep no assets. You can substitute hospital for railway network, school, aircraft carrier as appropriate. Anyone with half a brain could see this was a shitty deal, but good old OEB made sure it was a reality in the caring, sharing, New Labour generation.

Well, thankfully these harebrained schemes are under attack, as the public and various watchdogs are cottoning on. One particularly close to home, that involved selling off the Brompton and moving it in with St Mary's, along with the NHLI and the loss of most of the ICU beds, has been dropped, at a cost of £14 million. At least they didn't go through with it and waste £1.1 billion. 

Posted: Tue - July 5, 2005 at 11:54 am        

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