Tag: privatisation

Privatisation Is Creating Unfair Access to Immigration Services
The government recently outsourced visa application centres to private company Sopra Steria. Inconsistencies in the service – which is free in some parts of the country and not in others – and inadequate customer care highlight the dangers of privatising a vital public service.
Outsourcing Incarceration: Privitisation in Britain’s Immigration Detention Estate
The private companies that run Britain's detention centres have repeatedly failed to protect the rights, dignity and safety of the people they imprison. But the Home Office has created a system in which it is incredibly difficult to hold them to account.
Public Ownership Means Ensuring the Future of Public Services Works for All
Far from being tied to notions of top-down bureaucratic management, John McDonnell's plans for public ownership are about empowering workers and consumers alike. It's a welcome step towards ensuring public services in the 21st century, writes Paul Mason.
Profits For Investors: The Political Economy of PFI
Following the collapse of Carillion, it would be easy to say private finance intiatives (PFIs) simply don't work. But governments from Major to Blair to May have pursued the PFI agenda despite its terrible record - so who does it work for?
The Peckham Terminator
Matt Zarb-Cousin and Max Shanly welcome Tony Blair’s former director of political operations John McTernan to All The Best to discuss their competing world views in a comradely fashion.
Choo-Choo! All Aboard the Deselection Express!
Max Shanly and Matt Zarb-Cousin celebrate the completion of Jeremy Corbyn’s Red Army Takeover of the Labour Party.
Britain’s Prison Industrial Complex
The Lockdown is a show all about prisons and the criminal justice system in Britain. Oonagh Ryder and Sam Swann discuss what the prison industrial complex looks like in Britain and why privatisation in the prison system matters.
We Will Lose Our NHS
Aaron shows four key areas where the NHS is in freefall. The solution to the present crisis? More resources, an end to outsourcing and, of course, the resignation of Jeremy Hunt.
The Meaning of Home
The UK is in the grip of an acute housing shortage. Prices are sky high and not nearly enough new homes are being built. But even for those who do manage to get accommodation, it is often unstable and of poor quality, with the threat of eviction omnipresent.
Campesinos Against Climate Change: The Fight for Economic Justice in Colombia
In the second of our features on social justice movements in Colombia, Milo Phillips reports on how climate change and neoliberal economic reforms have endangered the livelihoods of farmers - and how they are fighting back.
Redeveloped into Fuel Poverty: The Story of Myatts Field North.
The 'redevelopment' of the Myatts Field North estate in Lambeth, South London has lead to the effective eviction of many residents -  whilst those who remain face worsening conditions and fuel poverty. It stands in grim testimony to the failures of PFI schemes.
How to Open up a Second Front in the Battle for the NHS
Today's all-out junior doctors' strike marked a step up in the fight for the NHS: not only was it the first healthcare strike where emergency cover was left to consultants, but supporters also targeted those who stand to gain from the privatisation of the NHS.
3 Reasons the Fight for the NHS Needs to Go on the Offensive
Beyond the unsafe contracts being imposed on junior doctors, it's clear the current wave of strikes is also about the future of the NHS. With private providers waiting to pick at the carcass of universal healthcare, it's time to turn the pressure up.
Jeremy Hunt: Aristocrat, Liar, Secretary of State for Nepotism and Privatisation
In this bumper ‪#‎IMOBastani‬ Aaron explains why the secretary's plans ARE in fact a form of privatisation, and delves a little into Hunt's family history uncovering a web of greed and nepotism.
What is POPS and Why is it Bad for the City?
Sunday Long Read: Increasingly, land we assume to be public is being turned over to private hands. Privately owned public space (or POPS) is transforming cities across the country, blurring boundaries between the common, the private and the state.
Modern Homelessness: Privatisation, Policing and Public Toilets
Sunday Long Read: Since 2010 homelessness has soared in London. What does privatisation feel like for those forced to sleep rough?
Bad for Business? 5 Ways a Corbyn Government Could Change the UK Economy
Perhaps second only to 'aspiration', 'working with business' is among the most common dog-whistle refrains from the Labour leadership candidates. Dismissed by many for being 'anti-business', what would Corbyn really mean for the economy?
Barts Health: The Real-Life Consequences of PFI in the NHS
The realities of the Private Finance Initiative's role in the decimation of the NHS are at their most stark in the case of Barts Health. The east London NHS Trust covers 6 hospitals and will owe £7.1bn in PFI debt, while politicians remain silent.