PFI

[asperity]

Try these charges from PFI providers for size:

 

?47.48 for supplying a key for Blackburn Hospital

 

?149.71 for fitting a new noticeboard (labour only) at Calderdale Royal Hospital

 

?302.30 for fitting new electrical sockets at schools in Wirral

 

?398.30 for fitting new data points at Blackburn Hospitals

 

?486.54 for fitting a new lock at Blackburn Hospital

 

?104,000 paid by HM Revenue & Customs for a 'space planning facility' for redoing the layout of its Whitehall offices

 

?300,000 paid by the Home Office for installing 300 new des

 

?6 million wasted every year on unjustified administration fees

 

?15,000,000 wasted at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, over staff changes

 

?25,300,000 spent on extending Fazakerley prison, which was built too small

 

?180 million paid out in a single year to make contract changes

 

If you're looking for an even worse bit of news, there are some 500 PFI contracts in operation now at a cost to the nation of ?44 billion. The taxpayer is liable for every penny of this amount but Gordon Brown dishonestly excluded it from the national debt, along with the liability for the railway system's track, signals, etc. and all the other familiar hidden debts.

 

And to pay for this the government is making the poorest members of society pay a disproportionate amount of their income in tax. They pretend that the poor can claim back the tax using the highly complicated and over bureaucratic tax credits but they know full well that a lot of people just cannot deal with such a system.

 

 

[Bazj]

Don't be too quick to criticise Asperity.

 

I for one have first hand experience in at least two of the areas you list and I can assure you that installing electrical sockets into schools (some of which are 100 years old and have dubious wiring to start with) and data outlets into hospitals isn't easy and the figures you quote don't even cover a days call out in either profession when you take into account labour rates, fuel costs, overheads and materials.... oh and that other thing which seems to be a dirty word; profit.

 

How many schools were involved for the electrical sockets and indeed how many sockets were installed into how many schools?

 

How many data sockets do you get for ?398.30? If it is one then maybe it seems a lot but knowing the routes involved in some hospitals, it can take two men all day to install one data point if it is done to the required standards.

 

I for one would never seek to justify ripping off the taxpayer (unlike most politicians) but you do need to add more background otherwise it comes across as sensationalism and it makes you sound like a LibDem!!

 

Do you have more information to share?

[observer]

Is that why they want to flood the Country with E/Europeans? To reduce such labour costs?!

[Bazj]

quite possibly.... who knows the real reason behind Labours open door policy on immigration!?

[Peter T]

Isn't it the case that, when dealing with public companies, contracts tend to be inflated because they can "afford" to pay?

Not suggesting that everybody does it, but if you wanted a job doing, you wouldn't pay those sort of prices and as a resident you probably wouldn't be quoted that.

 

It reminds me of the occasion that I wanted a slate fixing, and the first question was:"is it on the insurance?"

Now I wonder what difference that made?

[asperity]

BazJ you can call me a sensationalist or even a downright liar but a LibDem??? I've never been so insulted in my life!!

[Bazj]

I do apologise.... that was a bit low I admit!!

[observer]

If Asp had been a LibDem, he'd have been shipwrecked long ago - errm, should I steer right or left???!

[Paul Kennedy]

Given the collapse in the building trade with massive layoffs etc, prices for some of the work listed in the first post should now be reducing. Why isn't the National Audit Office investigating some of these payments....and those who issued the contracts.

 

The waste in the State Sector has to be seen to be believed, if an incoming Conservative Government couldn't SAVE....as opposed to cutting ?50 billion from the overall budget I'd be very disappointed. People in this country are struggling to pay their taxes, those on the most modest incomes have had their tax doubled, they need some relief and not burdened by ever increasing taxes to pay for poor spending decisions.

 

PFI's will prove to be a nightmare that our children....and their children will be burdened with when we are dead and gone.

[asperity]

That's the point I was trying to make Paul, and that's why you're the politician and I'm the mariner.

[Paul Kennedy]

You're too kind. Worth remembering for one of those jobs you have to have substantial training and be highly qualified...whilst for the other......... 504 votes will suffice.