A recent
report states that Richard Branson's Virgin company paid the London
Metropolitan Police more than £5,000 after police raids aimed at
proving television set-boxes were being used to view channels without
paying. It is very likely that the police only conducted the raids
because of the money offered by Virgin. This is a trend that we will
see more of as the state hands over more and more to the corporate
world. The present philosophy of privatising everything from
education to health will continue and there is no ideological reason
why the police can't be run by the highest bidder. Police priorities
will shift according to who is prepared to pay the most, as state
funding dwindles the police force will be obliged to raise money from
its activities and eventually show a profit. What chance will you
have then if your house is burgled, or a member of your family is
ripped of in some scam, if the big paying police customers want them
to spend their time trying to track down those who might be
downloading their stuff for free on the internet. He who pays the
piper calls the tune. Corporate fascism is well and truly embedded.
