A Labour Party policy we look forward to
In the interests of being fair handed, for recall that we are not a party political organisation, here is a Labour Party policy just announced that we thoroughly look forward to:
He added: “David Cameron’s ideological selloff has ended a public sector service which has delivered over £1bn to the Treasury, kept fares down, had record passenger satisfaction and engaged the workforce with unparalleled success. “It is clear that when it comes to transport, people have a straight choice – the status quo or Labour’s better plan. Labour will start the process of legislating in the first 100 days of a new parliament to allow a public sector operator to be able to take on lines and challenge the private sector on a genuinely level playing field.”
We have no problem with public sector organisations applying to run anything at all. Nor with capitalists, cooperatives or Uncle Tom Cobbleigh. Our desire is that there should be that level playing field so that the best people for the job do the providing. And we're just overjoyed at the idea that there might be competition between forms of organisation just as much as there might be between individual examples of the same type of organisation.
So, yes, we fully support this.
However, in the same story:
Stagecoach has pledged to invest about £140m to deliver what it calls “an improved service and a more personalised travel experience for customers”, and is scheduled to pay £3.3bn in premiums to the government.
That capitalists are pledging to give the government £3.3 billion over 8 years, the public sector organisation gave the government £1 billion over 5. So this is actually going to be a level playing field is it? That the privatisation would have gone ahead anyway as the capitalists are quite obviously offering the better deal?
Good, excellent, glad we've got that sorted then.