Speaking after it was announced that G4S had reneged on its contract to provide security for the Olympic Games which had necessitated the Army being brought in to do its job Roger Godsiff said “it was always going to happen”.
He went on to say: " The neo-liberal ideology which has driven our politics over the last three decades has yet again been shown to be totally flawed. This ideology which decrees that everything done by the private sector is productive, efficient, worthwhile and cost-effective whereas everything done in the public sector is incompetent, inefficient, bureaucratic and costly has been shown for what it really is - a self-serving dangerous fallacy promoted purely by those who sought to make profit out of it."
Mr Godsiff concluded: "The ridiculous situation whereby the security for the most high profile event in the world is handed to a so-called security company who are dashing around trying to recruit the cheapest possible employees to put their uniforms on in the pretext that these are ‘security personnel’ is laughable were not so tragic. The Head of the Army said that back in 2005 when the Olympic bid was won he offered the Government to use the Armed Forces to provide security for the Games but he was told that this would not be needed as it was a ‘civilian event’. Now, with the Armed Forces having just been emasculated under the Government’s defence cuts we have the ridiculous situation of 3,500 troops being brought in to provide security because the promises given by the private sector security firm, G4S, had not been fulfilled."
I agree with the notion of flawed neo-liberal ideology, however, I think there isn't really enough happening to connect the overall distrust of this model by the public with policy. I don't think there was any degree of dissatisfaction in Birmingham over the privatisation of post offices, for instance, as they community hubs that they provided for isolated rural populations weren't an issue - the savings that have been made and ideologically driven politics of this nature aren't what the public generally want.
ReplyDeleteAre there any telling signs over what the limit is for privatisation in the Labour Party - does privatisation finish with Post Offices or will the Tory plans for the NHS and Schools not be overturned?