Public Services, Privatisation and Taxes

Posted on by Opher

This is quite simple really.

Public Services

This is simple.

We need public services like Water, Education, Health, Police, Courts, Defence, Social Services, Councils and local issues – roads and infrastructure.

We have to pay for these things because they are necessary for the country to run. The question is how to provide excellent services for the minimum costs?

The obvious cheapest way is to centralise, organise and gain economy of cost and a fully integrated system.

The downside is there is a possibility of inefficiency because of lack of drive and poor quality because of complacency. The answer is quality management.

Privatisation

This puts the services out to tender to private companies. They don’t exist to provide a service. They exist to make a profit. They provide a service and bung on a charge so their shareholders and managers get a good return.

The only way this can make any sense is if the efficiency is so much greater that the exorbitant salaries for managers and gross handouts to shareholders.

In practice managers and shareholders get very rich, prices go up and up and we pay! (Just look at medical costs in the USA! and water companies in the UK!)

Tax

Tax pays for the public services. If you don’t pay enough tax you get lousy public services – (USA low tax – lousy health care, lousy social, lousy work conditions, lousy education Denmark – high tax – great social care, education, health and great pay and conditions.)

I know which I prefer!!

The media are already applying the spin. Immigrants are the scapegoats.

Posted on by Opher

There is no doubt that immigration needs dealing with, but that isn’t what has broken Britain. They are using it to deflect from the reality. They robbed the public services, imposed austerity and gave the money to the wealthy. CEOs and bankers, already earning millions, have had enormous pay rises but that isn’t reported!

Scapegoating Immigrants! This is where the real problem lies!

Posted on by Opher

Who has doubled their wealth during Tory austerity? Money flowed from the poor and public services into the pockets of the wealthy. Immigrants were a way of deflecting the truth!!

Public Services are not unproductive. They perform an essential service that promotes the economy.

Posted on by Opher

The Tories have an attitude towards Public Services: they regard them in the same way as they look at parasites – unwelcome.

The Tories regard Public Services as an unproductive drain on resources. They wish to reduce them to a minimum and curb pay for public servants.

The Tory ethos is that it is the Private sector that generates wealth. That is where the money should go. We can do without the Public sector.

This is short-sighted. While the Public sector does not generate the wealth directly it is essential to enabling the wealth generators to function. I would make the analogy to the army. The soldier may be the effective force at the front-line but without a munitions industry making the bullets, a transport industry to get them to the front, food, water and information they are helpless.

The Public services provide essential back-up.

We need our teachers, nurses, doctors, road workers, social workers, fire-fighters, police and council workers.

If you look in the field of education (that I happen to know something about) this is obvious. The workforce who are going to power the country and create the wealth are only able to do so because they have been properly educated. Every parent wants their sons and daughters to receive a first-rate education. They want nice schools which are properly equipped, excellent teachers who are well-motivated and a curriculum that stimulates their children.

If you don’t put the money into the system it falls apart. If you don’t pay properly then you do not attract the best. If you have poor work conditions and pension schemes you end up with demotivated staff. If you do not have the money to buy equipment lessons become substandard and boring. If you do not repair buildings they rapidly become dilapidated. You end up with a poor quality service.

The Tory answer is to introduce competition and threat. They deploy Ofsted as a weapon bring in business and use the big stick.

Result – the best teachers leave. The ones left are depressed. The children suffer.

I’ve witnessed it first hand.

The same is true for the Health Service, the Police, The Council Workers, The Fire Service, Social Services and the rest. They are all being paid less, have worsening conditions, reduced numbers, poorer pensions and expected to perform at the same standard. If I get ill I want to be operated on by one of the best. If I get mugged I want the police to sort it out. If my house catches on fire ……..

The rich buy in private to ensure they get the best. The rest of us have to make do with what’s left.

The infrastructure and support provided by the Public Services is a crucial part of the economy. They contribute!

Don’t believe the lies! We should have the best education, health care, policing, fire service, road maintenance, social care and environmental standards. You cannot do that on the cheap!

Public Service cuts are hitting at the poor. The rich are immune. They have their private services!

Posted on by Opher

public services

Austerity is the excuse for a colossal assault on public services. It is nothing but political dogma!

We’re all in it together? A joke!

The Tories have seized the opportunity to decimate public services. Our schools, hospitals and services have been subjected to political reorganisation that is nothing other than political interference and control.

The Tories hate Public Services with a vengeance and resent every penny spent on them. But where would business be without roads? Schools, A health Service? Police? Fire services? Bins emptied? Bodies buried?……….

The business sector depends on the Public Services. The wealth of the country comes out of our combined endeavours. For every soldier in the front-line there is a munitions worker, logistician, supplier of uniform, weapons and food. Thus it is with business. You cannot create wealth without a good support system.

Public Servants enable the wealth producers to function!

This attack on Teachers, Nurses, Firemen, Police and the rest is politically driven. It has little to do with austerity!

Read what a highly successful ex-Secondary Headteacher has to say. I’m the only one making sense!

Bullingdon Boys to Bully Public Servants – £70 Billion planned Cuts – Decimation – Tax Cuts for the rich?

Posted on by Opher

 

Here they are! The Bullingdon boys – Osborne, Cameron and Johnson and co. The toffs who do not care about ordinary people are planning an unprecedented £70 Billion set of cuts on the Public Services.

The rich do not need public services. They send their kids to public schools, have private health care and live in their gated communities.

Business needs public services though. The wealth of the country depends on an educated workforce, good roads, transport systems and infrastructure, the policing of crime, a healthy workforce, the rubbish taken away and bodies buried. They need saving when there are fires and emergency care when they are in an accident or mugged.

This is nothing more than the application of nasty Tory dogma. There are other ways of doing this. These cuts are draconian!!

See what a real ex-Headteacher thinks. This very readable book tells how it is in education. You don’t have to be a teacher to love it.

Public Services – We need quality!

Posted on by Opher

While some small minority is in a financial position to no longer require public services the majority of us would appreciate quality.
When I am on an operating table I would like to be in the hands of a superb surgeon.
I would like to be quickly diagnosed by an expert GP treated and cared for by a motivated nurse.
When I am threatened or have suffered a burglary I would like enthusiastic and skilled police to protect me and investigate with some hope of bringing the felons to justice.
I would like my grandchildren being taught in happy schools to really high standards by expert teachers.
I want fires put out by highly trained firemen, bins emptied, roads maintained and the council run effectively.

Why is it that some people think that these jobs are not vital? That these professions are not highly skilled? That these public servants are not worthy of our appreciation?

Why is it that the damage created by the politicians and bankers is being paid for by the public services?

Why is it that the public services are being subject to redundancy, pay freezes, puny 1% pay rises, worsened conditions of service and drastically reduced pensions?

Supposedly we are all in this together. So why tax cuts for the top end? Why inheritance hand-outs? Bonuses and pay rises in double figures for politicians and bankers?

Where is the justice? Fairness? Equality??

Clearly we are not all in this together!

If you create misery among our public servants it will be no surprise when it all goes pear-shaped!