With the British government massively cutting public spending, expect reliance on the private sector to grow. And little accountability. Just how both sides want it: The scale of the country’s reliance on private companies to power the state is revealed today as the government takes the historic step of publishing its accounts for the first…
Showing all posts tagged Britain
Afghan politician wants us gone
Here’s a rarity. An Afghan politician calling for the removal of foreign troops. Note the sneering dismissal of her calls for withdrawal by the “balanced” ABC journalist: MARK COLVIN: Not even the optimists claim the war in Afghanistan is going brilliantly. The NATO force of which Australia is a part is still there largely because…
Do we care where we send the most vulnerable?
Many Western states are very keen to prematurely return asylum seekers to their country of origin despite the inherent dangers. Afghanistan or Sri Lanka yet safe? Of course not, but at least it’s one less problem for the government. And now this: Two asylum seekers who were deported to Baghdad and claim they were tortured…
Abusing detainees and bike hiring; in a day’s work for Serco
Serco is finding its way into every part of our lives, a multinational with the right connections and a big wallet: British services giant Serco has secured a 140 million pound contract to set up a bicycle hire scheme in central London that aims to tackle overcrowding on the capital’s commuter networks. The contract with…
Why privatising our lives must be highlighted and stopped
Investigating privatisation, the scourge of our times, receives an appropriate reward: The Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism 2010, worth …£5,000, has been won by Clare Sambrook for her investigating, reporting and campaigning against the government policy of locking up asylum-seeking families in conditions known to harm their mental health, and scrutinising the commercial contractors…
Britain sees the shock doctrine in action
John Pilger on Britain’s disaster capitalism: These days, the stirring lines of Percy Shelley’s The Mask of Anarchy may seem unattainable. I don’t think so. Shelley was both a Romantic and political truth-teller. His words resonate now because only one political course is left to those who are disenfranchised and whose ruin is announced on…
Britain desperate to insulate Zionists from examination
How far will Western states go to protect the Zionist state from legal prosecution? Israel has postponed all strategic dialogue with Britain in protest at a law which allows UK courts to prosecute visiting Israeli officials for alleged war crimes. Strategic dialogue between the two countries takes place annually and focuses on defence and security…
No transparency in Serco dealings with contractors
My following article, with Paul Farrell, appears today in Crikey: As we reported yesterday, private company Serco contracts out some of its security personnel to MSS Security, a company owned by an Indian security company with links to Lehmann Brothers.… By outsourcing to other companies, it’s possible for Serco to distance itself from criticism and in…
Serco and G4S can’t believe their luck in a brave new world
Britain’s future is a privatised world of guards managing and monitoring “undesirables”. Australia and much of the world is following suit. Company G4S may have lost a contract to remove asylum seekers from Britain but its employees will inevitably be working elsewhere soon, possibly doing this to people: A Zimbabwean asylum seeker whose deportation from…
Paper trail of Serco’s detention centre millions raises accountability questions
My following article, with journalist Paul Farrell, appears in today’s Crikey: The recent suicide at Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney again confirmed that the situation in Australia’s immigration detention centres has become critical. But what has remained largely unquestioned is the role of Serco, the British multinational that holds the $367 million contract to run…