Liverpool to end the BT contract

When the Liverpool BT joint venture was first set up it was mooted as the new way of doing business. This wasn’t outsourcing it was partnership. Staff would retain their terms and conditions. Liverpool wouldn’t be ripped off like many outsourcing deals. This was different. Except it wasn’t. It is a painful and powerful lesson for politicians of all political parties to learn. If it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck the chances are it is a duck. The BT joint venture was outsourcing in any other name and designed to boost the profits of BT not make services better for the people of Liverpool. Now Liverpool has taken the bold and right step to end the contract.

Cornwall caught in bed with BT as councillors raise red card

'Councillors might have put Cornwall's privatisation on probation. But the council had already begun acting as a joint venture partner with BT. They voted unanimously Tuesday to suspend a proposal to put up to £800m of public services into a company in which BT would own a majority stake' writes Mark Ballard on the Computer Weekly Public Sector IT blog. http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/public-sector/2012/10/cornwall-already-doing-deals-w.html