You will not be surprised to know that, as a long-stumbling, jaded and beaten down Socialist, I have problems with the apparent advantages of private companies being heavily involved in public service provision.
The assumption that the profit motive guarantees efficiency has always struck me as inherently false, and I am yet to be convinced otherwise.
Likewise, the assumption that public sector organisations cannot operate efficiently is proved wrong on a daily basis. And, just remind me, when did a state-run industry cause an international banking crisis?
And yet the attitudes still persist. Even with the latest catastrophe to hit.
The scapegoats have been released, skittishly frolicking in the fields of accusation, and counter accusation.
The Government shouldn’t have continued to allocate contracts to Carillion because of financial warnings, even though to do so would be illegal. There seem to be revelations emerging of the standard ‘noses in the trough’ behaviour amongst senior executives.
But, amidst all the initial concerns about continued service provision, attempting to minimise the negative fall-out – which will severe over time, and throwing copious handfuls of mud wherever the inquisitor thinks it may stick, one group wanders through unscathed.
Actually, significantly better off.
Carillion and / or the Government may have been incompetent, stupid or politically misguided, but there are fund managers who have made a killing.
The fact that they were gambling on Carillion collapsing in order to make money, which it did and which they have, is unsavoury in the extreme. It stinks. It is the modern equivalent of the Roman Arena, with gladiators against unarmed or untrained slaves and prisoners.
This is the same lack of conscience within the financial industry that led to the collapse in 2008. And although it has been mentioned in news reports, it has only been raised as an indication that something was wrong that the government should have noted.
No. It is, in itself, what is wrong. Money without thought for the repercussions.
This is the world that we live in. Supported, even praised, by the present administration.
The smell of rot is getting stronger, but a lack of conscience goes with a lack of smell.
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