Economics and politics are converging to create a best case scenario for the vultures of the UK’s public service industrial complex (PSIC). Years of donations to the main political parties (but particularly the Conservative Party): right wing academics and think tanks as well as propagandist fronts such as the Taxpayer’s Alliance are no paying off as dozens of transnational companies move into displace public bodies as providers of public services with no areas sacrosanct:
‘Outsourcing firms are preparing for a bonanza of local authority contracts to provide everything from bin men to back office bureaucrats and have reported a doubling in the number of deals on offer this year. Private health companies are also expecting to earn billions of pounds from the planned overhaul of the NHS in which GPs would take over responsibility for spending £70bn.’
Capita is a major player in the PSIC and its spokesman is reported as saying: "A major problem for the public sector is, we feel, a significant opportunity for us. Opportunities are at their highest level in two to three years. This year we have probably seen a 100% increase in opportunities [compared with 2009] and I suspect we will see another 50% increase in the following year."
The new Local Government Network is a typical patsy of the PSIC and its spokesman said:
"The private sector likes the clarity it has seen from the new government. It will see the present climate as a greater opportunity than over the last couple of years even though the budgets are shrinking. The low-hanging fruit have already been picked in terms of rubbish collection and street cleaning. The services that are now likely to be privatised are those such as probation and care homes, and the public will feel a different emotional attachment to them."