Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Everything that is wrong with privatisation

You remember the G4S Olympics shambles. Private company contracted to do security, fails to understand the scale of the job required, fails to budget sufficiently, fails to find enough staff with the minimum qualifications to meet even their own minimal standards, has to be rescued by the army at public expense. That one.

A deal is done today whereby G4S can walk away having "reduced" the cost to the taxpayer. No wonder Nick Buckles is pleased. He is G4S's boss, remember. He was boss at the time of the cock up, and he is still the boss. He shouldn't be the boss, but he still is because G4S have been able to come out of this still standing. When a private firm cocks up, it should pay the price, the full price. Instead of which it is allowed to walk away with a "reduced" cost to the taxpayer. I don't want to see a reduced cost, I want to see zero cost to the customer for G4S's shambles. I want to see the entire cost borne by the shareholders and the managers, not by me, and people poorer than me. And a lot poorer than Nick Buckles's reported £800,000 salary (that's before bonuses).

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