And lo, Gordon Brown spends, spends, spends to bailout Metronet
A few days ago I wrote about the huge financial headache left when tube maintenance company Metronet collapsed. Labour has now had to bail out the mess - a mess caused by their part-privatisation of our tube network in the first place.
It again shines a light on one of the real problems with these sorts of PPP deals: there were sold as shifting the risk to the private sector (who also got the chance to make profits). Instead, we've seen firms making profits - but in the end the risk still stays with us taxpayers. As Norman Baker (Lib Dem MP and general scourge of all things wrong) put it: "Just like Northern Rock, the private sector takes the profit when they can, and the public sector bails them out when matters go pear-shaped."
The one small piece of good news in all this? The bailout bill looks to be coming in at £1.7 billion rather than £1.9 billion.
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