Carillion and the Latest Privatisation Scandal

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1542 ... January 17, 2018
________________________________________________________________

Carillion and the Latest Privatisation Scandal

John McDonnell

This week 20,000 Carillion workers and many more in the supply chain have had their livelihoods put at risk. The responsibility lies with this shambolic Tory government and mismanagement by Carillion’s fat-cat bosses.

The collapse of Carillion, embarrassing for a government that had championed the company and awarded it contract after contract, represents another significant blow to the "private knows best" economic dogma.

Nothing has come to symbolise the worship of free-market solutions -- often against all the evidence -- more than the persistent belief that key public services would be better provided by profit-seeking companies. As the journalist Robert Peston put it, the collapse of Carillion represents the definitive end of a 25-year love... affair with the private provision of public services.