Adjectival Single Issue Independents

At some point someone will make the above comment. People ain't keen on single issues, or what they perceive as single issues. But PFI isn't a single issue. It affects all major government and local authority briefs as I will demonstrate below. (For your information, there is a claim that you can get from one person or subject to another in six links, no matter what they are.)

PFI Six Links

Health

For good health, you need hospitals. Hospitals are built using PFI. 2 links

Education

New schools are being built to replace old stock. The funding method? PFI. 2 links

Law and Order
New prisons are being built using PFI. 1 link

Foreign Policy
Multinational health companies are moving in to take over GP practices, day hospitals, specialist clinics and ACADs (ambulatory care and diagnostics centre, a kind of minor injuries and operations unit). This has been made much easier for them to do, because the health centres and hospitals they move into are leased, not owned by the NHS. This situation exists because of PFI. 3 links



Housing

Local authorities are providing housing for people in currently in continuing care, those with learning difficulties and elderly. They are having to shoulder this burden because the day hospitals that used to look after them are shutting. The day hospitals are shutting because health authorities are in debt. The health authorities are in debt because of PFI. 4 links.

Rent, rates etc

Local authorities will have to raise their rates and rent because they will be paying off debt. (Either that or cut services.)The debt that they will be paying off, is for new schools. The new schools have been built using PFI. 3 links

Transport

Most people are going to have to use their cars in future to travel to hospital. Their local hospitals are shutting because their health board cannot afford to run them. They cannot afford to run them, because they are in debt. They are in debt because of PFI. 4 links

Environment

More and more people will have to resort to cars to travel to schools or hospitals, which damages the environment. They have to do this because their local schools and hospitals have shut. They have shut, because they need replaced and the Treasury will not give them public funding. Therefore they have to resort to PFI, which is far more expensive and means they can't build as many schools and hospitals. 4 links

National debt

A new national debt through PFI is being created, although at the moment it only exists on local authority and health board accounting sheets. It is running at £4 billion per year and that will continue for the next generation at least, because many of these contracts last for 20-30 years. At the end of that, we will not own the buildings we paid for; under PFI, ownership of the building usually remains with the creditors. So we'll have spent all that money for nothing. 1 link

Still think PFI is a single issue?