Privatisation: Social Contracts Not Tory Contracts

I was struck by the words of Elizabeth Warren because what's relevant for the other side of the pond, is surely relevant for the UK too. 

Our Government have been very forthcoming about it's plans to award millions of pounds of tax payers money to private companies. 

In regards to the privatisation and dismantling of the Probation Service, the Commons Justice Committee report says, "When it comes to providing information about the likely costs of its rehabilitation revolution......the Ministry has been less than forthcoming".

Now, this Government has shown that is more than able to award contacts to corporations as it privatises public services. But is has shown itself to be less able at managing those contracts properly. 

For me any awarded contracts need to be, in Elizabeth Warren's words, "part of the underlying social contract".

In other words, awarding contracts worth millions of pounds of tax payers money should have a level of social responsibility.

And of course this is very relevant today because as The Telegraph points out Atos and G4S paid no corporation tax last year despite carrying out £2billion of taxpayer-funded work. 

Should Contracts Be Awarded to Companies That Don't Pay The Right Tax?

Now you think it strange that the question even has to be asked. But for the government things are not a clear,  and it seems to me that people are becoming more aware that contacts are being used to generate popularity, donors, and extra wealth.

Tax on Corporation earnings need to come back to the public purse and not stay in the pockets of the super rich.

It seems that the UK is a paradise for Corporations that avoid paying tax though avoidance schemes, illegal tax dodging and mistaken underpayments, and the Government treats this with scant regard, rather than as a serious, preventable crime.

The Independant writer, Owen Jones writes that we need, "An all-out campaign to recoup the £25bn worth of tax avoided by the wealthiest each year, clamping down on all possible loopholes with a General Anti-Tax Avoidance Bill, as well as booting out the accountancy firms from the Treasury who help draw up tax laws, then advise their clients on how to get around them.

Should Contracts Be Awarded To Companies That Don't Pay A Living Wage?

The Public don't want the the people at the top getting huge benefits, at the expense of workers who don't get a living wage.

The Public needs those contracts to deliver to as many people as possible and not to just the privileged few.

Happen the Government should ask themselves the question as to whether Corporations & Business' should be in business if they can't afford to pay at least a Living Wage?

A living wage isn’t just something corporations owe their workers, it’s something corporations owe the nation, because if corporations aren't forced to pay a living wage, the taxpayers will only have to pick up the slack.

Personally, I think that the selling of public assets is a disaster waiting to happen. But neither am I in favour of Tory contracts being awarded to the lowest bidder that will exploit it's workers by putting profits before people. 

With an estimated 13 million people in poverty in this nation, most of them working, this generation, and the next one ("the next kid who will come along"), need some social responsibility in the affairs of corporations and their government.

I've started with Elizabeth Warren, and so I close: