I was an RMT Rep until i retired So I've fought the privatisation of the railways from the start

We knew it was a rip off, but such sums are staggering!!!

NHS for the public not for profiteerng scum

Privatisation of services meant to serve the public means that few benefit at the expense of the majority.

That is just not right!

A disgraceful waste of public money.

Have you done a dividend calculation - because I think the sums above include the pathetic amount spent on infrastructure.

Yes it is deindtly time to stop privatisation. Which is only for the rich.

I was livid to read about the fact that the NHS owed £208 million - Why? Successive governments have

made changes to this amazing institution, and not always for the best, or I wonder with the best of

intentions as far as the Tories are concerned. I came into healthcare later in life, when I had the

opportunity to qualify as an Occupational therapist at the Royal London Hospital in 1992. I then witnessed

changes directly for myself, and the effect they had on every single person involved in patient care.

I think there should be a law to state that governments can establish the funding requirements, but only

with all NHS organisations - a 'big ask' maybe but a vital one. The money is the 'ring fenced' The running

of these establishments is then closely scrutinising and monitoring at a local level, by local experts, and not

a national establishment such as the CQC.

Those of us with any sense knew what the figures were right from the start and we were betrayed by tony b liar who sold us down the river. Meanwhile, the tories cronies have remained on the bandwagon and WE are the ones who are losing out.

We need public control of rail, water, ports, canals, airports, ferries, NHS, Met Office, Land Registry, FE, National Grid, Prisons, armed forces and aerospace. We also need co-ops & worker control.

Our money should be spent on nationalised industries and services, definitely not paying for private sector scams.

There would be enough resource to service mankind, if the small minority that control our planet were not so hell bent on gathering and secreting the vast proportion of the wealth of the world and in the process using all such means as chasing the cheapest labour , using slave labour, and progressively destroying the environment instead of protecting it.

This is what a lot of people are unaware of & think on it as scaremongering. The truth has been withheld from us so long that people don't know what to believe.

We must bring the public services into public ownership, especially the NHS which was never, and should not now, be a profit making company. It should be for healthcare, services and treatment for the sick, not a profit making company for the shareholders.

I hope the fact that the EU treaties (Rome, Lisbon, Maastricht), mean as long as we are involved with the EU we are "directed" to sell-off our services & would be unable to re-nationalise! France is now preparing their state owned railways to be sold privately as EU require this!!

Surely Labour's 'customs union' would tie us in to this??

Democratic Socialism seeks to restrain the destructive excesses of Capitalism and Government's use of Taxes and Resources into creating opportunities for the Many Not The elite Few.

James Meek Private Island still best expose of the shenanigans

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1731-private-island

I am appalled at the waste.

Stop this lunacy, we are always crying about not having enough money for our services.

Now we know how much of OUR MONEY you are wasting. You are bringing down organisations such as the NHS when you should be I N V E S T I N G it them not throwing it away on companies that are trying to destroy the companies owned by the PUBLIC.

these services should all be brought back from the private sector

Nationalisation is the only fair way forward. Services should be making profits which are used to improve services and NOT to line the pockets of a few companies and their shareholders.

I believe very strongly in our NHS and it should stay in Public ownership. I am now 83 years of age and I have been into the hospital for four operations and have received consultant care and nursing care each time I have been admitted. Check ups from consultants and nursing staff following my operations have been excellent and I couldn't have been treated any better. We will lose this first class and excellent service if the NHS is privatised, we will find we have to pay for it through private insurance that wont come cheap. My worry is coming out of the EU is a danger to our NHS and Donald Trump stepping in and our NHS could become part of the American system. One of the Lies told by Boris Johnson and other conservative MPs when the referendum came to the Country was £350 million to go into our NHS if we leave the EU. We now know this is not going to happen. The Country as been divided over Brexit and I find it very sad.

This has being going on since Mrs Thatcher. The politicians behind this were Tories initially but when Labour came to power they just continued same old policies. Shameful of that Labour government but wasn't that the same government that joined American President George Bush in a illegal war in Iraq ? Capital runs the world !! God help us all !

Yep must have been the biggest SCAM on the planet, Labour party carried this out btw. Scotland is £BILLIONS in 'debt' to private companies for the next 25-30 years, for far from adequate builds, hospitals and schools, some not safe! The contracts cannot be reversed. and the buildings will not belong to the city or be in public hands even after the 30 years of debt. So you have councils like Edinburgh owe £1BILLION to private companies, it's a huge 'debt' across Scotland's councils. Labour's legacy. It's money taken away from essential services, improving infrastructure and making buildings safe! Not only that, the contracts also meant that hospital staff were forced to paymhuge amounts to private companies just to park at their place of work! The Scotgov ie SNP have managed to at least part put a stop to that.

What an utter disgrace and you can bet your bottom dollar that the throughers who made this policy are sitting in the HOL's paid £300 a day plus expenses, or even have shares in the private companies. It's corruption on agrand scale by a supposedly left wing government. A crime against the people.

Where is the media on this? State run right wing media hide this kind of crime from the people.

renationalising services etc will not wipe out the so called 'DEBT' of Labours' legacy that was PFI. Ps SNP have scrapped PFI we now have

NFP ( not for profit) though still usng private companies because as with railways, we are forced by UK England gov to keep services private! Though Scottish water is not private no thanks to Labour who privatised the non domestic arm of SW< and planned to priavtise the domestic arm as well had they held onto Holyrood!

Great Britain eh, ripped off by the government, only on eof 3 in the world to have an UNELECTED house, ie House of Lords! No where near democratic.

Privatisations benefit the few not the many Boris will have us Americanised and some will make a bomb!

Stop wasting money. It should be used to fund essential services for British people.

I remember when these services were first made public- it was wonderful! Before then my mother had worried if we could afford to see the doctor! Do think controls should be put in place to avoid wastage. But to reinstate

the old system is madness!

I totally agree with you: we, the public, are being ripped off for the benefit of the private companies running (fleecing) the former public services. Also benefitting are the shareholders (many in politics) who bought into the various privatisations at knock-down prices.

I wonder how much of that money finds it's way into ministers pockets.

I absolutely agree that this government is wasting tax payers money on privatisation of services.

Hopefully we will soon see a change of regime.

Agreed unanimously.

Simply put: public services should be for people, not profit. (In other words, the 99%, not the 1%.)