It is not very often that I agree, if ever, with a statement issued by the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers). However, the statement issued recently that, “Britain's public finances are worse than Gambia, Uganda and Kenya, because of privatisation” does hold up under examination. It puts UK public finances at the bottom of the world’s economies. It also states that the tendency of governments to focus on debt “misses large swaths of government activity and can fall victim to illusory fiscal practices”. We ordinary folk in the UK are fully aware of the fact that the UK government, for ideological reasons, and much to the detriment of the well being the ordinary folk, has pushed full throttle one of the most drastic privatisations of any economy since the early 1980s.
Over the previous three years the Conservative government has forced privatisation to run rampant, by coercing local governments and local authorities to flog off public assets, usually at knock down prices, to pay for the day to day running costs. This is pushed out under the lie that all this suffering of the ordinary people is necessary to bring down the national deficit.
The IMF also states that selling off public assets may not in any way improve the public finances. It also states: “For instance, privatisations increase revenue and lower deficits but also reduce the government’s asset holdings,” and “Similarly, cutting back maintenance expenditure reduces the deficit and lowers debt, but also reduces the value of infrastructure assets, which could cost more in the long term.”
Of course every Joe Soap knows this, and we also know that it is all done following an ideology to enrich the corporate parasites' wealth and power. The repeated mantra, that to survive it is necessary to bring down the deficit, is pushed in an attempt to get the public to see their suffering as necessary.
Another statement this time by the GMB union, that makes this purloining of the public purse more glaringly obvious, the example they give is that, privatised water companies, over the last five years, paid £6.5 billion in dividends and interest to its shareholders. That could have been £6.5 billion into the public purse, and the asset still in public hands for future generations.
Yes, the IMF has pointed out the illusion that privatisation helps the country as a whole, but don’t expect it any time soon to come to the logical conclusion, that therefore, we would all be better of if we took all the UK assets into public ownership. That’s a statement that the members of the IMF would choke on. Ah, if only they would make that statement, then choke and die.
Over the previous three years the Conservative government has forced privatisation to run rampant, by coercing local governments and local authorities to flog off public assets, usually at knock down prices, to pay for the day to day running costs. This is pushed out under the lie that all this suffering of the ordinary people is necessary to bring down the national deficit.
The IMF also states that selling off public assets may not in any way improve the public finances. It also states: “For instance, privatisations increase revenue and lower deficits but also reduce the government’s asset holdings,” and “Similarly, cutting back maintenance expenditure reduces the deficit and lowers debt, but also reduces the value of infrastructure assets, which could cost more in the long term.”
Of course every Joe Soap knows this, and we also know that it is all done following an ideology to enrich the corporate parasites' wealth and power. The repeated mantra, that to survive it is necessary to bring down the deficit, is pushed in an attempt to get the public to see their suffering as necessary.
Another statement this time by the GMB union, that makes this purloining of the public purse more glaringly obvious, the example they give is that, privatised water companies, over the last five years, paid £6.5 billion in dividends and interest to its shareholders. That could have been £6.5 billion into the public purse, and the asset still in public hands for future generations.
Yes, the IMF has pointed out the illusion that privatisation helps the country as a whole, but don’t expect it any time soon to come to the logical conclusion, that therefore, we would all be better of if we took all the UK assets into public ownership. That’s a statement that the members of the IMF would choke on. Ah, if only they would make that statement, then choke and die.
