PFI, PPP and the Great Tube Robbery (the story of a very British swindle....)

Picture this...you have an ageing, decrepit but working Underground system in London under-invested and over-used. Add to this depressing starting point the oxymoron of a PM who is zealously ideological about his non-ideology and a conniving Chancellor who saw an opportunity to cook the books, plus the construction industry suckling at the public trough and you have a very British swindle indeed...

This then leads to the question: what has allowed the Tube renovation to turn into a corporate dole cheque? Three very simple letters P F I or the Private Finance Initiative. This Tory wheeze has been wholeheartedly endorsed by the Labour Government for all the wrong reasons to Blair it handily presents a 'modern' 'forward' 'New' Labour looking way of involving the private sector in public projects. To his erstwhile rival Brown it allows the government to borrow money of the Public Sector balance sheet. But what is the problem with this I hear you say...

Put simply the government can borrow money at a cheaper rate than the private sector(the joy of a monoply...), which means that any job done using PFI/PPP is inherently more expensive. Ken Livingston repeatedly made this point at the time with his attempts to issue public sector Bonds to fund his Tube modernisation. The effect of imposing PPP on the Tube has been to fragment the command and control of the network compromising safety, raising costs via the enrichment of various fauna of legal and banking parasite.

PPP and PFI are an example of Capitalism at it's absolute worst with all of its mercantile tendencies in full swing. Backs are scratched money is made and the general public is left to pick up the bill that the government has run up on our credit card thirty years later. They don't call it the Great Tube Robbery for nothing...