It's been a while since I had a go at Labour, mainly because they are swanning along in the political world doing sod all. Perfectly reasonable for them to do so mind, watch the cuts hurt the public and instantly win the vote of the disgruntled - no brainer.
Since Thursday I've been intrigued by Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) - not the coolest thing to be interested I know! The notion of PFIs was raised on the 10 O'Clock Live show (which if you haven't watched is amazing). PFIs are essentially loans from private companies, but with interest rates that are more similar to Wonga.com rather than your high street bank.
PFIs put cash upfront to fund certain elements of government spending, including building new schools and hospitals. They then essentially rent the buildings back to the government - but at a massive cost to the taxpayer. The craze started under the Conservatives in 1992, but really took off under Blair and Brown, let's not forget Brown was Chancellor under Blair and made these types of decisions. To highlight the cost of PFI funding, here is a run down of how much each project cost originally and how much we'll pay back. For a quick summary, there are 920 PFIs, costing around £64bn but we will pay back £267bn!!!
One such PFI is Innisfree (the irony that the company name includes "is free" will not be lost on you) ran by a Mr David Metter. Heard of either of them? Nope. Neither has 99% of the general public. But taxpayers are paying his company, massive amounts of money, to the total of approximately £60m. One project he has funded cost £118m, but the taxpayer is set to pay back £1.2bn, 10 times the original value.
The whole idea of PFI stinks of New Labour, "spend, spend, spend" should have been their election slogan. Their continuous desire to keep spending when the coffers were empty was abhorrent and dangerous. So now they sit comfortably in Opposition whilst the Coalition gets blamed for trying to sort out their wretched mess. If the government didn't have enough money in the Budget for these new buildings, then they simply shouldn't have built them - that is the point of having a budget, isn't it? Liam Byrne's note back in May summed it up: "I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left" - sadly because of Labour's profligacy.
Since Thursday I've been intrigued by Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) - not the coolest thing to be interested I know! The notion of PFIs was raised on the 10 O'Clock Live show (which if you haven't watched is amazing). PFIs are essentially loans from private companies, but with interest rates that are more similar to Wonga.com rather than your high street bank.
PFIs put cash upfront to fund certain elements of government spending, including building new schools and hospitals. They then essentially rent the buildings back to the government - but at a massive cost to the taxpayer. The craze started under the Conservatives in 1992, but really took off under Blair and Brown, let's not forget Brown was Chancellor under Blair and made these types of decisions. To highlight the cost of PFI funding, here is a run down of how much each project cost originally and how much we'll pay back. For a quick summary, there are 920 PFIs, costing around £64bn but we will pay back £267bn!!!
One such PFI is Innisfree (the irony that the company name includes "is free" will not be lost on you) ran by a Mr David Metter. Heard of either of them? Nope. Neither has 99% of the general public. But taxpayers are paying his company, massive amounts of money, to the total of approximately £60m. One project he has funded cost £118m, but the taxpayer is set to pay back £1.2bn, 10 times the original value.
| Future generations will have to break the bank to pay PFIs back |
The whole idea of PFI stinks of New Labour, "spend, spend, spend" should have been their election slogan. Their continuous desire to keep spending when the coffers were empty was abhorrent and dangerous. So now they sit comfortably in Opposition whilst the Coalition gets blamed for trying to sort out their wretched mess. If the government didn't have enough money in the Budget for these new buildings, then they simply shouldn't have built them - that is the point of having a budget, isn't it? Liam Byrne's note back in May summed it up: "I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left" - sadly because of Labour's profligacy.
You do make a good point here, and I agree that Labour went overboard on spending although I have to say although Labour mucked up on economics to then have a conservative government (Lib Dems are out of it for me I'm afraid) to raise VAT and to make some very vicious cuts to the public sector on top of Browns incompetence is basically adding insult to injury. It still seems as if the TAX payer is suffering for the mistakes of Labour and then the ferociousness of right wing economic policy. This is the Lib Dems biggest down fall as they don't seem to have any grasp on the running of the economy in this coalition (by the way what is a business secretary!).
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