LABOUR'S £27 BILLION DEBT LEGACY TO SCOTLAND

A BILLION POUNDS IN £100 NOTES YESTERDAY

The legacy of Labour’s use of the Private Finance Initiative is estimated to cost the Scottish Government a total of £27.7 billion from 2010-11 financial year.

The figure was confirmed in a parliamentary answer from SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney.  The SNP has also released figures on the annual repayments (as estimated in 2009) and the level of repayments to be made by local authorities over the next two years.

SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson has branded the £27.7 billion figure a “disgraceful legacy of Labour” with the repayments being made to banks and finance firms at the same time as both Labour and the Tories propose cuts to Scotland’s budget.

“This is the disgraceful £27.7 billion legacy that Labour has left Scotland.  “While the SNP is working hard to put new money into building schools, hospitals, homes and delivering public services Labour’s love of debt sees council’s, the NHS and the Government being stripped of funds to make excessive repayments.

“While the SNP is building public services Labour built debts.

“As we face tighter budgets in coming years as a result of Labour’s mismanagement we will be repaying billions to banks and finance firms to meet Labour’s debt legacy.  "All across Scotland's public sector it is not just Labour's cuts that are affecting public services but Labour's legacy as well.  “PFI repayments are now approaching the same level as Scotland’s annual budget. Labour’s refusal to recognise the problems of PFI and the better deal for taxpayers being delivered by the SNP in Government leaves them in a ludicrous position.”

Whenever you have a Labour Government in power they always leave a mountain of debt after they go.  We can only hope that the Tories in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood can succeed in getting us back on an even keel.

PFI-AN INVESTIGATION OF BRIBERY AND LARGESSE IN GOVERNMENT BY DARK LOCHNAGAR

During the last thirteen years, NEW LABOUR, has grasped the mantle of PFI for 667 hospitals, schools and public buildings in England.  The CAPITAL COST OF THESE BUILDINGS would have been £55Billion but because they have been built by companies who then lease them back to the Government over as long a period as 40 years the true cost will be nearer £262Billion.  Some indeed will cost up to 37 times their capital cost.  Just like putting it on a credit card and only paying the minimum payment each month.

Many MPs who have been in Government or opposition over the last 13 years have also done very nicely out of PFI, arranging nice cushy, well paid jobs with many of the companies they dealt with when THEY WERE MINISTERS AND GAVE OUT CONTRACTS.

Some familiar faces with PFI connections:


Alan Milburn MP
He famously described PFIs as the "only game in town" during a stint as health minister, and is now a director of Diaverum Healthcare – a company that is contracted to run the kidney dialysis unit at the PFI-funded Burnley General Hospital.

Quentin Davies MP
The Defence minister is a former director (he resigned in 2008) of Vinci UK and Vinci SA – firms involved in PFI projects with a total capital value of £223m which will cost £933m over the terms of their contracts.

John Reid MP
The former home secretary is (since November 2009) a paid consultant to G4S UK and Ireland. G4S is involved in PFIs, mainly in prisons, with a total capital value of £330m; they will end up costing £3.6bn.


Steven Norris
Once Conservative Transport minister under John Major, he is now the chairman of Jarvis, a major PFI player which has a number of contracts, worth £721m, with government. The total capital value of PFI programmes funded by Jarvis comes to £175m.

Adam Ingram MP
A defence minister for six years under Tony Blair, he now gets paid more than £50,000 a year as a consultant to Electronic Data Systems – an MoD contractor responsible for the PFI-funded Tafmis IT system which cost £171m over its 10-year contract.

Patricia Hewitt MP
During her tenure as health secretary, BT won IT contracts from the NHS. The former minister is now a director of BT Group and was paid £59,475 for 140 hours' work over the past six months – a rate of £424 an hour.

This is only a few of them.  To my mind this BRIBERY OR LARGESSE, call it what you will, IS WORSE than fiddling a few quid on expenses or flipping homes.  THIS GOES RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS.  MPs should not be allowed second jobs and should not BE ABLE TO TAKE EMPLOYMENT FOR FIVE YEARS AFTER LEAVING A MINISTERIAL POSITION without express permission from a TOTALLY INDEPENDENT TRIBUNAL.