Making money

New Labour's complete commitment to privatising everything in sight was exposed by their premature leaking of their plans for the health service in the contracts section of the European Journal.

Rarely have the results of privatisation been comprehensively examined. The Public and Commercial Services Union have published a report by Steve Davies of Cardiff University which examines the impact of contracting out public services. Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS Union, comments that the report destroys the myth that charities and the private sector perform any better than the public sector.

In fact Blair's sole agenda is to transfer wealth to the private sector creating a new range of welfare millionaires and huge unaccountable charities that unquestioningly carry out the government's bidding.

Leeds has had a recent example of this private enrichment process. The tough job of helping unemployed people to be trained and to find jobs has been run by the Council on behalf the Department of Work and Pensions. The Council has won awards for the quality of its service. It has run the programme through a group of learning centres in the most deprived areas of the city and it has linked it with its own recruitment. Its staff is represented by UNISON and have the same conditions of service, including pension rights, as the rest of the Council. Above all the programme was run to benefit the citizens of Leeds and not for profit.

The government, and there is no doubt the decision was political, awarded the contract to a small private training provider . This company initially panicked on receiving the contract, closing down its website and refusing to meet the trade unions over its TUPE [Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations] obligations. Even the normally supine New Labour MPs in Leeds have complained to the Government. The DWP's response has been to say it's about delivering a modernised service to the unemployed of the city. They have no evidence that a better service will be delivered but certainly they will transfer more money from the taxpayer to the company's shareholders.

More privatisation

It is not just the Department of Works and Pensions that is privatising. The NHS has decided to rationalise Prescription and Pricing Division prior to privatising it. This could mean 180 staff losing their jobs in Wakefield. The changes are needed to pay for a new computer. There hasn't yet been built a computer that results in fewer hours being worked by frontline staff. It also means that sensitive information about patients will transferred into the private sector.

When will the Chinese economy overtake that of the USA?

This is an important political question as the US and China are the two biggest nations with the least commitment to international law and both have large nuclear armaments. They are already manoeuvring around each other for the world's dwindling stocks of oil. As its economy grows stronger the Chinese are more likely to be more confrontational with the USA -- a scenario which will radically affect hopes of world peace.

The CIA has predicted that the Chinese economy will level with that of the USA comfortably in the future between 2040 and 2050. This estimate was endorsed by a recent report from Goldman Sachs which estimated that parity would be reached by 2040. Of course this does not mean that Chinese standards of living will reach those of the West. This could take another 100 years, according to Shi Jianxin, a senior official at China's London embassy.

This kind of timescale puts the political problems raised by the US's demise to some kind of unknowable Keynesian future. After all 20 years ago economists were predicting that the Japanese economy would have overtaken the US by now. However there are other estimates which bring the crunch time much closer. The UK Treasury estimates that by 2015 China and the US's share of global output will be equal to about 19 per cent. This estimate is closer to the group of economists inspired by Bob Sutcliffe's pioneering work on international economics, who put the parity date at 2011. Their argument being that the Chinese currency should be valued by its purchasing power in China and not by its exchange rate with the dollar.

Of course within the limits of their assumptions all the estimates are accurate and the US will continue to be the world's superpower both in terms of its accumulated wealth and its overwhelming military power. However its domination will be increasingly challenged by China. Without a stronger international framework such challenges endanger us all.

Protecting Company Directors

Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, has rejected calls for company directors to take account of environmental and social factors. Instead they would "have regard" for these factors. In reality they can pursue profit regardless of the damage they cause to our communities. This decision follows on from keeping shareholders secret in order to remove any vestiges of democratic accountability. But even shareholders are being undermined as the government has removed the requirement for small companies to hold Annual General Meetings. This measure alone will increase tax avoidance scams by at least 50%.

New Labour ignores the way companies routinely break even the present laws governing their behaviour. Examples include ICI and others being fined £236 million for rigging the market in acrylic glass, and the failure to prosecute the NatWest bankers involved in the Enron scandal.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Unregulated companies can fulfill the wildest conspiracy theories. The above named documentary (of which more can be found at the Sony website -- WARNING: heavy Flash use) details how General Motors and the oil companies deliberately sabotaged the electric car trials in California, so preventing its development into a pollution-saving alternative. The executives of these companies still walk free.

Working for a clampdown

New Labour wants to abolish local control over police forces. Their strategy includes amalgamating police forces into huge organisations with the minimum elected representation and these in turn to be "guided" by a national police regulator run by the Home Secretary. These measures rest alongside the plans to abolish the independent inspector of prisons, attacks on the independence of the judiciary and proposals to extend the period of prisoners being held without trail up to 90 days. The authoritarian plans even extend to into the Parliamentary Labour Party with proposals to suspend any MP who speaks out.

The huge police raids in Dewsbury and London, including the shooting of one house occupant, have been backed "101%" by Blair. Presumably he also backs the arrests under the Prevention of Terrorism Act of people waving a copy of the Independent in the vicinity of Parliament. Another example was outlined in the Yorkshire Evening Post of an elderly couple from Leeds who stopped by the side of the road during a country drive. They were aggressively questioned by a passing police vehicle. Their offence was parking near the US spy base at Menwith Hill. Rumours are reaching me of the impact of the base on the rich commuter villages surrounding it, where their Tory-voting inhabitants are coming under increasing restrictions over their movement.

Saving Miles Hill Primary School

Leeds City Council is trying to close this Primary School in the Beckhill area of the city. For over 5 years the parents, pupils and staff have faced constant threats of closure, but each time they have bravely fought them off. Some months before the local elections, they were assured the school was safe. Liberal Democrat councillor Richard Harker assured parents that the school had an important role to play in the area. When the issue came to Leeds City Council Executive Board, after the election, he voted for closure. No wonder he has missed 50% of the council meetings he has been elected to serve on.