https://leftfootforward.org/2017/09/if-labour-wants-to-end-pfi-the-deals-need-to-be-carefully-unpicked-heres-how-to-do-it/ Left Foot Forward is the home for UK progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy. Wed, 22 Nov 2017 04:45:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.5 https://leftfootforward.org/2017/09/if-labour-wants-to-end-pfi-the-deals-need-to-be-carefully-unpicked-heres-how-to-do-it/#comment-943063 Wed, 22 Nov 2017 04:45:34 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=123634#comment-943063 This insidious process continues. The construction of PFI GPs surgeries is another manifestation. My GP now operates from a huge PFI building, well beyond any likely future needs of the practice. Here we have public funds being wasted on entirely unnecessary projects. This obsession with building at the expense of service has to stop. We should be asking why today’s GPs suddenly need so much more room than previous generations. To my mind the political intention is to make the NHS so unaffordable that it can be junked entirely.

]]> https://leftfootforward.org/2017/09/if-labour-wants-to-end-pfi-the-deals-need-to-be-carefully-unpicked-heres-how-to-do-it/#comment-927556 Thu, 28 Sep 2017 08:19:20 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=123634#comment-927556 Isn’t the 3% deficit and condition of being in the Eurozone and not a legal requirement of being in the EU?
What matters is the size of the debt and the flow of repayments. The size of the public debt increasese but the NPV of the repayments will be less than that due to the PFI contractor(s). Let’s not forget that the government can easily refuse to engage any more PFI arrangements. Some Trusts have already ended PFI agreements and in at least one case by borrowing from a local council.

]]> https://leftfootforward.org/2017/09/if-labour-wants-to-end-pfi-the-deals-need-to-be-carefully-unpicked-heres-how-to-do-it/#comment-927187 Tue, 26 Sep 2017 15:25:47 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=123634#comment-927187 PFI enabled the UK (and others) to circumvent the Maastricht Treaty. Neolberal UK preached less borrowing to others. Maastricht limits have been breached but the EU wants member states to return to the fiscal discipline. Hence the crisis for Greece, Spain, Italy, etc. Does the UK want to renegotiate the treaty? May be. The exceptions would need unanimous approval and I don’t think would be secured. Yes, we don’t have to leave the EU. May be a second referendum would help. What if that is lost or won by a narrow margin? Would that trigger another?

]]> https://leftfootforward.org/2017/09/if-labour-wants-to-end-pfi-the-deals-need-to-be-carefully-unpicked-heres-how-to-do-it/#comment-927182 Tue, 26 Sep 2017 15:15:45 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=123634#comment-927182 John Major negotiated op-outs from Maastricht. Why can’t we? and did we ever obey those rules anyway? We still do not have to leave the EU.

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