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Wednesday 23 February 2011

Look Out Bolton ! Latest “Big Society” Trick: Paving the Way for Mass Privatisation

Latest “Big Society” Trick: Paving the Way for Mass Privatisation

David Cameron has turned his “big society” trick into an excuse to justify the mass privatisation of almost all remaining public services such as the Royal Mail, schools and even local authorities.
In an article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Mr Cameron said that the transformation from a “big state” into a “big society” would mean that services could be transformed without the need for repeated legislation.
The only areas he identified as exempt from privatisation were the national security services (the police, intelligence services and army) and the judiciary.
These services were exempted only because not even they could possibly be made profitable in any sense of the word.
The pledge to create a “big society” has however now been revealed as nothing but an excuse to turn the rest of the civil service over to the profit-driven private sector.
The claim that privatisation was lead to a better service is exactly the same “reasoning” provided by previous Tory and Labour regimes when the railways and household utilities were handed over to the private sector.
Since then, without exception, service levels have declined and prices have increased.
In October last year, ConDem Business Secretary Vince Cable launched the Postal Services Bill which will privatise Royal Mail.
At the time, Mr Cable said that private buyers will be allowed to own up to 90 percent of Royal Mail, while the Post Office may be mutualised.
In addition, he made it clear that the government would not oppose a foreign company buying up the Royal Mail.
The Dutch Post Office was one of the first to be privatised, and is a yardstick by which all such undertakings are measured.
According to an earlier report, privatisation in Holland led to the closure of nearly 90 percent of the country's post offices.
In addition, complaints about the reliability of Holland's privatised post are widespread.
The Dutch Post Office was also one of the first to adopt EU directives and allow new companies to compete in its postal market, a move which was supposed to increase competition and lead to better services.
In reality, the complete opposite has occurred. New firms which pay far below the minimum wage have cherry-picked the most profitable routes, and have brought the Dutch Post Office’s finances to its knees.
There is no reason to think that the situation will be any different in Britain, and this is only the post office sector. It can only be speculated upon what will happen to schools and health services, to name but two.
But at least Mr Cameron has finally come clean with what he manes by the “big society.”
Previously, the naïve might have thought that he meant that everyone would have to somehow “work together” to make society better.
Now however, it is clear that what he actually intends is to sell the very last of the state assets in a privatised free-for-all which will make all previous privatisations seem like child’s play.
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