New Labour's legacy apart from spending all the money... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...on-empty-demolished-schools-pfi-a7867366.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...on-empty-demolished-schools-pfi-a7867366.html PFI is undoubtedly one of the big mistakes of the late 20th century - my view is that the name says it all *Private* Finance Initiative. Anything that takes taxpayers cash and puts it in the pockets of financial speculators is of dubious benefit in the long term - 'no such thing as a free lunch' comes to mind... PFI was never actually criticised by the right, well not until it proved a poisoned chalice and after lots of people had secured their and their descendants future for the next 200years - in fact it was 'invented' during the Major administration in 1992.. and the reason? PFI debts are not included on the government's deficit spreadsheet... so effectively it was hidden debt, which is another reason they became so popular... the equivalent of the payday lenders' buy now pay later philosophy. Another problem with PFI is that it's not just about buildings... it's pernicious influence has permeated all the way down into things like maintenance contracts... you know, the ones that charge £350 to change a lightbulb etc. PFI is indeed a huge problem...now. But just like the financial crisis, at the time no-one was saying don't do it... no-one was saying don't bail out the banks, no-one was saying don't use private finance to fund public spending, no-one was saying don't (not) regulate the banks! Hindsight is a wonderful thing... it's also a great stick to beat the other guy with, especially when you were complicit at the time. Like most reasonable people, no-one would claim that everything was acceptable during 1997-2010 But child poverty was down, NHS spending achieved the lowest waiting times for a generation, we had 40,000 more teachers, 200K+ more school assistants, nearly 1m pensioners lifted out of poverty, 44K more doctors, 200K+ more nurses, child benefit was increased by 25%, free bus passes for over 60s were introduced, tobacco advertising was banned. It was an unequalled time of economic prosperity and social fairness in modern times - but if you want to talk legacy, how about the 1m children plunged into poverty since 2010? The doubling of the national debt to £1.8bn? Or that the Tories have borrowed more since 2010 than every Labour government combined and they still haven't managed to erase the deficit. Or that in 2016 UK productivity fell by its greatest margin since the 2008 recession, putting our workforce at 14% less productivity than pre-crisis levels? Perhaps the Fire Service who have had their numbers cut by 10,000 posts since 2010 yet there are still are plans to cut a further 20% of posts by 2020? I could go on - and if you want me to I will... but if you want to talk about legacies.. let's have some balance, and list some actual, evidence-based, social positives from the administrations since 2010?
British Gas to put electricity prices up by 12.5%. Didn't May promise a price cap? Could she have been lying?
Maybe she said something which didn't commit her to it entirely but could have misconstrued as that and she'll now be hounded by the right wing press as if she definitely came out and said there would be a cap. Probably not.
Jeremy Corbyn on Venezuela: ‘Chavez showed us that there is a different and a better way of doing things. It’s called socialism, it’s called social justice and it’s something that Venezuela has made a big step towards.’ Venezuela yesterday:
What - like the same 'promise' that Corbyn said about scrapping all student debt? Honestly, socialists have such short memories...
I think the point was that Corbyn made no such promise, nor was it in the Labour manifesto, whereas May specifically said that she would introduce an energy price cap and it was in the Tory manifesto, but they didn't bother to put it in the Queen's Speech. After attracting criticism today, the government now says it 'hasn't ruled out' a price cap (a Sir Humphrey get-out), when the fact is they are too busy tearing themselves apart over Brexit and sorting out bribes to far-right parties to bother with anything else.
Indeed. It's the press jangling keys and distracting people with a standard 'dishonest' leftie story, when, if anything, the other side are far worse and actually in a position to make good on their pledges.
