A Good Model for a Mugging
Labour’s first full-scale privatisation involves the multiple fleecing of the taxpayer By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 14th February 2006 From the hubbub surrounding the privatisation of...
View ArticleAn Easter Egg Hunt
The £95 million that private companies extracted from a hospital project was not a mistake, but a deliberate gift from the government. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 9th May 2006 Whenever...
View ArticleA Scandal of Secrecy and Collusion
Why have we paid £93m for a £15m bridge? By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 28th December 2004 One of the ways in which the government can avoid the freedom of information laws, which come...
View ArticleOur Very Own Enron?
Is the private finance initiative melting down? By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 28th June 2005 For how much longer can this farce carry on? Everywhere, the chickens released by the...
View ArticleThe Fat Cats Protection League
Wherever you hear the words “free market”, you’ll find massive state handouts to corporations By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 4th September 2007 After my column last week, several people...
View ArticleThe Patient Stalkers
Beware of privatisation schemes dressed up as customer choice. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 10th March 2008 This was surely a victory for the people. We have lost, over the past 20...
View ArticleThe Great Consolidation
What more can the government shut down? Oh yes, doctors’ surgeries. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 29th April 2008. Everything is getting bigger and further away. Hospitals, post offices,...
View ArticleThe Proceeds of Crime
The US and British governments have created a private prison industry which preys on human lives. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, 3rd March 2009 It’s a staggering case; more staggering...
View ArticleThe Biggest, Weirdest Rip-Off Yet
The widening of the M25 is a private finance initiative scheme that requires little private finance. Or initiative. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, 7th April 2009 Here’s what the banks...
View ArticleThe Real Expenses Scandal
It’s a thousand times bigger than the one we’re talking about, so why doesn’t it ignite public anger? By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, 26th May 2009 For a moment, my heart leapt. The...
View ArticleThe UK’s Odious Debts
Many PFI deals were undemocratic and against the national interest. It’s time we stopped honouring them. By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 23rd November 2010 You’ve been told that nothing is...
View ArticleThe Self-Hating State
Devolving policy to “the market” doesn’t solve the problem of power. It makes it worse. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd April 2013 In other ages, states sought to seize as much power...
View ArticleRooting Out Democracy
The Sheffield tree massacre is one result of the monstrous, impenetrable officialdom that neoliberalism creates By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 25th October 2017 One of neoliberalism’s...
View ArticleThe Sting
Repeated warnings that the Private Finance Initiative was an outrageous rip-off, dumping ultimate risks on the taxpayer, were ignored By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 17th January 2018...
View ArticleQuantomania
Neoliberalism promised to save us from bureaucracy. Instead, it has delivered a mad, semi-privatised authoritarianism By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 10th April 2019 My life was saved...
View ArticleWithout Trace
The huge amount of public money spent on test and trace has been wasted by incompetent private contractors and executives, with devastating results. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 21st...
View ArticleA Total Fiasco
England’s response to the coronavirus pandemic now relies on unskilled teenaged call centre workers, taking the place of experienced clinicians. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 28th...
View ArticleBleeding Out
Thanks to systemic and deliberate underfunding, NHS Emergency departments are now a vision of hell. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 11th January 2023 You have to see it to believe it. A...
View ArticleLying Through Their Teeth
What the government has done to NHS Dentistry is what it wants to do to the rest of our public services. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 2nd March 2023 Every child in the UK is entitled...
View ArticleStranded
Privatisation and austerity don’t cut costs: they just pass them on to us. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 12th January 2024 The weather was worse than forecast. By the time I reached...
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