Got To Be Another Way

By all accounts electioneering is now in full swing even though we've got to wait until May 2015 for the novelty of a fixed date for the General Election. We know this for certain because politicians like Iain Duncan Smith has accused the BBC of political bias. Silly ideas are being tried out on us for reaction, such as the 'illegal immigrant's go home' poster vans, and my MP suddenly e-mails wanting to know if I want to keep receiving updates on his activities? 

We need to brace ourselves because we've got more than 18 months of this shenanigans, but as far as I can recall, the Electorate have never been asked specifically to voice an opinion about privatising public services. In the old days of class-based tribal politics, one could have assumed that the Tories would be in favour, Labour would be dead against and it wasn't really worth bothering what the Liberal Democrats thought because they had no hope of being in power. 

But that's all history as we have come to realise that Tony Blair was Thatchers true disciple and whatever Labour might say in opposition now, they embraced privatisation with gusto when last in power. Although it surprised us all when the Lib Dems jumped into bed with the Tories, low and behold they too turned out to be just as keen on privatisation. Not a cig paper can be put between them on the issue of privatising public services, which means that the Electorate is effectively disenfranchised on the topic. 

My suspicion is that a majority of the public feel pretty unhappy about this privatisation by stealth and here's an opinion poll commissioned by We Own It and reported on the Left Foot Forward website that seems to bear out the view by a staggering majority of 80%:-   

80 per cent of the public believe there should always be a public sector bid when a public service in contracted out to judge if the service could be provided at better value, according to a new survey.

The poll, carried out by Survation and commissioned by We Own It, a new organisation launching today, also found that 79 per cent believe the public should be consulted and have their views considered before services are privatised or outsourced.

60 per cent believe local and national government should run public services in the public sector by default, and only consider contracting out if this fails.

Other findings were that:

• 79 per cent believe the public should be consulted and have their views considered before any service is privatised or outsourced.

• 69 per cent of Labour voters believe the public sector is more accountable than the private sector when running public services

• 90 per cent of Tory voters believe the government should be required to end private company contracts early when they are found to be doing a poor job of running public services, following public complaints.

• 88 per cent believe private companies running public services should be required to be as transparent about their performance and financial data as the public sector

• 48 per cent (mistakenly) believe that private companies running public services are obliged by law to respond to Freedom of Information requests

Commenting on the findings, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office John Trickett said the poll demonstrated that the public were “deeply troubled” by the government’s “ideological approach” to public services.

“In Recent times the country has witnessed some high profile failures by private providers of public services, such as Serco’s disastrous out of hours GP service and the failure of A4e in getting people back to work to name just two. It is now time for the government to put evidence before dogma in its approach to public service provision,” he added.

Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It, said she hoped the report would “spell the beginning of the end for privatisation-as-usual. In the future, public services will need to be owned by and accountable to the people they serve”.

If the present political structure is simply not able, or unwilling, to adequately reflect the views of the Electorate, then surely there's got to be another way. 

Recently this blog seems to have unintentionally stumbled upon a rich vein of discussion involving film analogies that just might help lift the general depressive mood. I have no idea why, but I'd like to try and keep it going a bit longer and with reference to another of my all-time favourites, 'Dark Star'. 

Now being basically lazy, I really can't be bothered to get out my VHS copy, fire up the trusty Ferguson Videostar and fast forward to the closing scene in order to check exactly what Doolittle says, but as he surfs towards earth on a bit of space junk, I think he says "Guys, I think I've found another way!" 

Right, film analogy out of the way, isn't the time right for another political party, but one spawned of the internet age, capitalising on it's utterly democratic nature courtesy of Sir Tim Berners Lee? For those with long memories, isn't this another SDP moment? 

Don't we have all the elements in place to challenge the orthodox political ruling class in the form of a) politically-focused blogs b) sites like Guerilla Policy that pull it all together, c) discussion forums like Open Democracy and d) democratic campaigning sites like 38 Degrees with huge scope for mobilising public opinion. I can't be the only person thinking that the time must be right to harness all this passion and energy, form a new political party and give the buggers a damned good thrashing in 2015?