Letter

Anti-PFI: on principle or in practice?

Dear healthmatters — Lee Adams complains about my lack of principles and attributes them to the Socialist Health Association; however, my book reviews are my own, and should not be taken to represent the views of any of my employers.

I do not see that there is any socialist principle which establishes that people employed by the state should have better terms and conditions of employment than others. Nor is it a self-evident principle that public services should be delivered by people employed by the state. After all most GPs, pharmacists and opticians are not employed by the state.

My complaint about PFI is not based on principle. It appears that in practice PFI schemes have involved contractors making a profit by reducing the terms and conditions of the lower paid staff, and I think that is in practice a bad thing for the health and well being of those people.

I found Dexter Whitfield’s book lacking in ideology because he does not explain how his proposed remedies are to be brought about. He asserts that powerful forces are conspiring to bring about the downfall of the welfare state but he does not explain how they are to be resisted. He explains how he drew up a strategy 20 years ago which by his own account has been very unsuccessful and can only urge that his followers continue without offering any explanation for its lack of success up to now.