The 31st G8 summit was held on the 6-8 July 2005 at the Gleneagles Hotel Scotland. The perimeters of the site were guarded by a battalion of UK police officers drafted in for the special event from police forces across the UK. It left London and other UK cities with minimal cover for policing. Enter stage right the perfect opportunity for the tragic 7th July attacks on London.
With just days to go to the Olympics, the debacle over G4S sees the response from Government to draft in the army and police officers to step up, as public services, to cover yet another gap left by the incompetence of a private company.
The media rightly points out the major security risk that this failure by a private contractor will create for the Olympians and staff in Olympic sites but the question that they are collectively failing to ask is ‘where will this leave the rest of the UK‘s security?’
As police services throughout the UK, including many of our UNISON members providing vital back office and specialist support, have faced redundancy as a result of the savage Tory cuts, there is no slack left in the system to cope with these new demands; that should leave all citizens seriously concerned. From the parties that collectively promised a ‘fight on terror’ their incompetent mismanagement of cuts to public services has left the UK at very serious risk of a repeat of the horrors of 7th July.
It is a stark warning of the dangers of privatised public services. If the Tories get away with privatising public services we will be left without capacity to intervene in future crisis situations, that will be the real outcome, if we entrust our public services to the Tory values of private profit over public services.
Anna Rose
