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Why do you want to see public services run for people not profit? Tell us your story here.
We'll use your comments to help make the case for public ownership - look out for your thoughts on our homepage!
Thanks for telling us what you think.
Photo used under Creative Commons licensing, thanks to anw.fr.
Comments
J. P. replied on Permalink
Non-profit-driven services mean that quality products and delivery are the no.1 priority. This equates to services for the public and not for greedy CEOs and shareholders.
Susan Hannis replied on Permalink
Privatisation not only takes profits from public services, so away from the public purse, but when it performs badly who picks up the tab? The public!
Chris Heale replied on Permalink
Privatisation is morally dubious for many essential services. As soon as profit is prioritised over people in (for example) healthcare and education, we see a race to the bottom; competing companies drive costs down in the name of efficiency, and all they ultimately concern themselves with is the bottom line. The provision of the service becomes the by-product, and if it works for the people then that's because of a happy coincidence rather than it being a primary objective.
George replied on Permalink
Public services help everyone - not just the well-off.
Dave Eagle replied on Permalink
I don't believe that anyone pays taxes wanting some of that money to go into the pockets of shareholders in the private sector. Efficiency is good, but privatisation is not the only way for an enterprise to be run efficiently.
Anthony Thorley replied on Permalink
Public services are meant to ensure that every one has a roof over their head, food to sustain them, and access to medical services for a life that has quality and hope. To put a price on that and moreover to expect to profit is to demean humanity.
Adrian Finney replied on Permalink
Keep it up!
Helen Tierney replied on Permalink
I feel very strongly that public services MUST remain public & not be sold off to the private sector.
John replied on Permalink
Fares on privatised bus companies continue to soar to increase profits. They should be treated as part of the national infrastructure and be a public service.
Julie Boston replied on Permalink
I value We Own It for supporting action.
Tim Westwood replied on Permalink
I just think making money out of public services, particularly health, is wrong, unjust and inhumane.
Chris Hawes replied on Permalink
I believe public services should be for the public good and any profit or loss should go to the government.
Chris Hawes replied on Permalink
I believe public services should be for the public good and any profit or loss should go to the government.
Nik Sutton replied on Permalink
It is driven by ideology not economics.
Rose replied on Permalink
I hate the way private companies put profit first. I believe that public ownership means that public needs are the most important consideration.
Shirley Salter replied on Permalink
I think this country should be back in the hands of the people, not profiteers.
Irene replied on Permalink
You're all doing a grand job ... onwards and upwards
Laraine Ward replied on Permalink
With Privatisation prices go through the roof and services becomes shoddy and non-existent. Just look at the trains, buses, NHS, post office and energy suppliers.
Simon James replied on Permalink
It is a vital roll you are taking on to ensure that we have services left for our children
Jon Lisle-Summers replied on Permalink
Privatisation results in inconsistent provision. The private sector pulls out, often at short notice, from insufficiently profitable contracts.
Rex Hora replied on Permalink
We are increasingly being governed by companies, not elected governments. This is a denial of democracy.
Paul Robison replied on Permalink
With the signing and imminent ratification of CETA, the Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement, between the EU and Canada, privatisation will become more widespread and taking anything back into public ownership will be breaking the deal. Not enough people are aware of the storm brewing with CETA. We need thousands of people to contact their MEPs across the country and demand they vote no when it comes before the European Parliament on Valentine's Day 2017. Maybe your supporters could make a huge difference in this vote.
Alastair Stone replied on Permalink
It will be a long, hard struggle to reverse the damage already done, but it will be worth it. Thank you for running this campaign, it is sorely needed.
Howard Wingfield replied on Permalink
Thanks. Keep up the good work!
Sally James replied on Permalink
I've been corresponding with the CEO of our local bus company for over a year to try to get a more sensible service for my daughter from school. It's really made me think about who privatised services are really for, and has made me absolutely passionate about stopping the government from banning councils from setting up their own companies.
I'm also really worried about how the NHS is being dismantled and privatised bit by bit through the back door. I work for a company that uses Sodexo for catering and cleaning, which I know also supplies the same services to hospitals. I can tell you from experience that their services aren't cheap, and I can't believe it is more economical to outsource such services in hospitals to companies who are operating for a profit. This, of course, is the tip of the iceberg in the NHS!
Stephen Redfern replied on Permalink
Just keep up the good work.
Jo Allen replied on Permalink
I just feel that things that people need - from transport to care services and everything in-between - should be owned by the people and run for the people.
Geof replied on Permalink
I have seen both private and public bodies running eg: British rail. There were problems but it was run for the people and any profits either put back or used by the government. The privatization of OUR NHS is being done with the utmost stealth by underfunding to make an excuse for privatization. All this has to stop!
Mike Yeadon replied on Permalink
For me it is a moral issue. ALL utilities should be run for the benefit of all the people in the country.
Amelia replied on Permalink
We need these services and therefore we must own them!
David Grey replied on Permalink
Public services can and should be run at a fair profit, not at a loss, but that profit should be ploughed back into improving the service, not to line shareholders pockets.
Graham Smith replied on Permalink
Privatisation is an irrational choice in public services. Please keep going!
Joan Innes replied on Permalink
I resent the fact that people make money out of providing for our basic needs and those needs of our society.
Ruth Facey replied on Permalink
I am so grateful for the stand you have been making as so many of the areas under threat are already marginalised in the minds of the policy makers. Trees, parks and open spaces only have our voices to speak out. Public transport is sometimes the only choice for those with limited incomes and so slips off the radar. And as for Land Registry/Ordinance Survey etc...!!! But together we can be powerful in defending things that should mark our country as a decent civilised place that values these quiet but valuable assets. Rock on We Own It!!!
Al Wilson replied on Permalink
Keep up the good work.
Wendy McCormack replied on Permalink
I think that private companies are businesses and not natural service providers. It is in their interests to put their profits and shareholders first which therefore means their customers do not come first.
John Raithby replied on Permalink
I feel very strongly that anything society believes essential, should be run on a not-for-profit basis & as a service.
Emma Randle-Caprez replied on Permalink
I don't want to go back to a time when we have to pay to visit Hyde Park and it's wrong to make prisons or social care services a business. Keep up your great work and thank you for doing it.
Nanette Gregory replied on Permalink
A public service should be exactly that. Any profits should be put back into the community to improve facilities.
Carol Russell replied on Permalink
The companies or organisations who take over public services are in it to make a profit, lets make no mistake about it, and this is wrong and creates more problems than it solves.
Yvonne replied on Permalink
Privatisation of public services has just meant profit for a few and bad services for the public.
Nicholas Humby replied on Permalink
Privatisation is not in the public interest and fragments public services and often involves taxpayer subsidies to companies
Den Carter replied on Permalink
We lose at every stage - and we own it! It is theft and piracy and is morally and socially wrong and it has to be reversed.
Shirley Carter replied on Permalink
I would like to live in a caring society, where people are more important than profit, but I feel we are going the opposite way, encouraged by successive governments.
Trumpkin the dwarf replied on Permalink
I think you should be going for private schools as well as academies because the most well off children get much more spent on their education. In our local area most children have a choice of 1 school (their catchment school) whereas those with money have a choice of their local school plus four others. The top state schools do better at A level than the top private schools and state educated pupils do better at university. But private school children get the best jobs due to the old boy network and having more resources on their education. Thus there is a loss of talent in the top jobs and a completely divided country which has led to Brexit. We need the children of the best off families to be responsible and send their children to local schools so they are not seen as unreachable elite. Private school supporters argue that people should be able to spend the money they have earned as they wish. However they have only earned the money because they have been paid more than necessary if they have enough money to spare for private education. Our taxes, food bills, utility bills, sky tv, bbc licence are all more expensive because we are in fact paying for some people's children to have an education which negatively affects the life chances of most children in this country. To be able to afford the fees there will be pressure on people to do dodgy deals, vote for governments that cut taxes and stay with abusive partners.
Anna Zimmerman replied on Permalink
This is the organisation that the UK - and the whole world, by extension - desperately needs; one to counter the unfortunate myth of the greater 'efficiency' of the private sector, and the need for high-quality, fully-accountable public services. I mention the whole world because this facile and dangerous cancer has spread out from the US and UK and damaged the lives of ordinary people everywhere.
I believe that the pendulum of anti-public sector rhetoric is slowly starting to swing back, and We Own It has a vital role to play in that.
David Hard replied on Permalink
It is great to see the emergence of an all-in-one campaign group.
The NHS is politically controlled and it has become fragmented to such an extent that members of the public and their children are now more at risk than ever of dying unnecessarily.
The land upon which NHS hospitals are standing are publicly owned and should not be eyed-up as gifts to developers because we own it.
Far too many ordinary members of the public are now seriously ill and they need an NHS that is not facing extinction.
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Natalie Murphy ... replied on Permalink
Recently I went on a trip across many countries from Sydney, Australia, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, Busan, Nagasaki, Osaka, Honolulu, San Fransisco, San Diego and even some of the Caribbean islands one things was common, cheap publicly owned transport systems. Not only that, many had tram systems, and San Fransisco had older trams from across the world including Blackpool. Several had tram, streetcar and trollybuses, hybrid buses and two of them had all electric road vehicles. San Diego's system was partly run by First and Stagecoach and also TDG had the biggest part of the share. Yet prices were lower than the UK. Everywhere I went I could all day tickets for a really reasonable price, Honolulu was $2.50 and travel for 6 hours on any bus, and the same kind of price structure in San Fransisco too. All the public transport systems were clean and efficient, the Hong Kong tube system was sardine tin rides though, always packed yet the trains were run like clockwork and appeared to be endless. Sydney's urban and underground trains were double deck and very smart, and China had bullet trains running at nearly 200 Mph and cost a mere £10 from Tianjin to Beijing. The craziness of the UK's privatisation policy allowing the companies who own the bus and train operations have made billions, and those companies have been able to spread across the world with the profits they make here supplying cheap public transport to other countries. Maybe 'We Own It' might like to use that in their campaigning.
Marion Garner-Patel replied on Permalink
The privatisation of amenities has proved disastrous. it serves not the ordinary citizen but the elite and rich. it also means that the power for change is more difficult as one has to deal with loads of small private companies instead of the public ones for change. Water and energy are examples. They do not improve services. Electric sub stations are now neglected with falling fences. I could continue. It is all about a wrong ideology and as someone has pointed out, NO majority mandate.
Trevor Sykes replied on Permalink
Privatisation in & of itself is not necessarily wrong but the way in which it has been enforced in a compliant U.K. is completely against the interests of anyone who has to rely on such services. It is vital that some voice is given to those who have been robbed by successive oligarchies masquerading as democratic governments.
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