The case for public ownership | New Internationalist

Come election time and politicians’ promises fly thick as clouds of swifts. Imagine if a candidate aiming for high office were to promise at the hustings – after the usual guff about government not interfering with ordinary people’s lives, of course – that their party also intended to keep its distance from providing public services and would strip those that remained to the bone. Political suicide, one might think.

Yet after decades of an ideological war on the public sphere, when tirades against ‘big government’ are shorthand for the privatization and marketization of the vital goods and services that governments would normally be expected to provide, such a claim would not be far from the truth.

One of the conclusions of the year-long Australian People’s Inquiry Into Privatization was that ‘there is more, not less, demand for government services – but increasing reluctance from governments to provide them. Communities did not agree to accept less coverage or less quality from government, but that is increasingly their experience.’

Recently British Prime Minister Theresa May admitted in a speech at her party’s spring conference that voters had ‘doubts’ over the Conservatives’ handling of public services, especially the National Health Service (NHS). She then made this curious statement that was also tweeted by the Conservatives’ account: ‘Brilliant Conservative councils keep taxes low so people can keep more of the money they earn and deliver high-quality services for those who rely on them.’

It is one of those utterances that overflows with signification. But the main promise is that the state will keep its hands off individuals’ hard-earned cash by not making them pay too much of that nasty tax, while still magically delivering on the services that tax could be paying for. (May is no stranger to ‘have your cake and eat it’ thinking on other fronts, too.)