Revealed: How the world gets rich from privatising British public services.

[Mr Angry]

"Foreign governments are making hundreds of millions of pounds a year running British public services, according to an Independent investigation highlighting how privatisation is benefiting overseas – rather than UK – taxpayers.

Swathes of Britain’s energy, transport and utility networks are run by companies owned by other European governments – meaning foreign exchequers reap the dividends while UK customers struggle with increasing fares and bills.

In the past two years alone, overseas taxpayers have taken dividends totalling nearly £1bn from companies which make their profits from UK households and passengers."


The indy.

[admars]

NHS Shared Business Services, does a lot of the NHS Payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, purchasing and other services, its a joint venture between the French Company Steria and Department of Health, outsources a lot of work to India, in theory saving us the taxpayer money, but if it wasn't a good earner for France and India, I'm sure it wouldn't be happening.

[ianch99]

The joy of the free market ... why try and stop foreigners coming into this country to take our money? No need, we make sure they can take it without having to come here .. In fact, we go out of our way to make sure it is available for them ..

[Osem]

Originally Posted by ianch99

The joy of the free market ... why try and stop foreigners coming into this country to take our money? No need, we make sure they can take it without having to come here .. In fact, we go out of our way to make sure it is available for them ..

Gordon Brown would call you a bigot you know...

Originally Posted by admars

if it wasn't a good earner for France and India, I'm sure it wouldn't be happening.

You could substitute "France and India" for the name of any company. Or how about your local Asda ... if it wasn't a good earner, I'm sure they wouldn't be there on the high street, selling you baked beans for more than it cost to buy them, the filthy capitalist pig dogs. We have exactly the same mule-headed lefty wining here in Scotland at the moment, because the Scotrail franchise has just been handed to a company called Abelio, which just happens to be the Dutch state-owned rail company. Cue much whinging about how rail tickets bought in Glasgow are subsidising services in Amsterdam, and disappointingly little airtime given to the counterpoint, namely that as long as the profits aren't funding terrorism, prostitution or drug-running, who cares where they go just so long as the service meets the needs of it passengers.

The point is, when you offer someone the chance to earn a profit at something, they have an incentive to do it better than someone for whom the rewards for basically not giving a toss are the same as for putting in a hard day's work. That's the basis of our entire economy and is the reason why this is one of the richest and most successful countries in the world.

Just so long as the surgeon is there when I need him, frankly I don't care who arranged to buy his scalpels or pay his salary.

[ianch99]

If you agree that foreign companies can control our national infrastructure, you must accept that they will no longer have our national interest as a priority.

I agree that foreign companies can *operate* our national infrastructure. There is more than a semantic difference. Rail, healthcare, schools, you name it, all these things are heavily regulated. It would be very difficult, for example, for the Dutch to work to cripple those parts of the UK where they run our railways, in such a way as to give their own economy an advantage at the expense of ours. The service required of them is a legal obligation and its delivery is measured. In the worst case, a foreign operator found to be working against national interest could simply be removed from their position. It's not as if they will have been able to quietly asset-strip the country of its trains or hospitals without anyone noticing.

[admars]

my point was that it happens in a lot more places than we notice. the problem is "we" want cheaper services, lower taxes, cheaper prices etc, so use lowest bidder, who is inevitably overseas, or at least outsourcing overseas for cheaper labour, thus costing jobs here.

"We" want it both ways, like shopping, we like the idea of supporting local businesses, but at the end of the day, I pay £1.00 to Tesco for a 4pint bottle of milk, rather than £1.60 at the local corner shop