That's another fine mess, Gordon

[Doggy Styles]

This bloody annoys me.

Public Finance Initiative schemes will cost every household nearly £400 next year

PFI deals were invented in 1992 by the Conservative government led by Sir John Major, but became widespread under Labour after 1997.

The price tag for repaying PFI firms will reach £8.6 billion next year alone, with the taxpayer owing a total of £121.4 billion on public projects which are worth only £52.9 billion.

Many PFI deals also tie local authorities into expensive catering, cleaning and maintenance contracts, meaning the total bill to the taxpayer is £229 billion. In one case, a school was charged £320 for a plug socket.

Repayments are made over a long time scale, usually between 25 and 30 years but occasionally as long as 60 years, but at a high rate of interest. That meant that large debts were stored up for future taxpayers – which now have to be repaid.

Under a Treasury slight of hand, PFI debts do not form part of the deficit balance sheet.
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Was Gordon Brown the biggest disaster ever to hit the UK economy? All the evidence suggests that he didn't understand proper financial control at all.

[DimPrawn]

Gold is at a record price. We could simply sell some of the country's gold reserves off and pay it all off....oh wait a minute.......

[MrMark]

Gideon seems to have become a convert to PFI too. Wonder why politicians are quickly persuaded by these big money schemes?

George Osborne backs 61 PFI projects despite earlier doubts over costing | Politics | The Guardian

George Osborne, the chancellor, is pressing ahead with private finance initiative (PFI) projects on a multibillion-pound scale despite having dismissed the infrastructure funding mechanism as "discredited" when he was in opposition, research has revealed.

A report on Channel 4 News shows 61 PFI projects, worth a total of £6.9bn, have been taken forward since the general election. This is despite claims that private sector borrowing costs currently make PFI particularly poor value for money.

Of the 61 projects being negotiated, 39 are due to be signed off this year, against 32 in 2008 and 38 in 2009, when Gordon Brown was prime minister.

Still, at least it means that local hospital gets built.

[lilelvis2000]

Could it be popular because of above said books trick and kick-backs?

Some PFI schemes are using tax-havens to avoid paying any tax on their profits from this. Blackburn hospital PFI cash into

As usual a win win for large corporations and banks.

[Ignis Fatuus]

PFI deals were invented in 1992 by the Conservative government led by Sir John Major
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Was Gordon Brown the biggest disaster ever to hit the UK economy?

I've boiled down your argument so that the full logicality of the connections it makes is made clear. HTH.

[AtW]

I've boiled down your argument so that the full logicality of the connections it makes is made clear. HTH.

Major may have invented a poison, but it was Liebor who administered it en masse.

[Doggy Styles]

I've boiled down your argument so that the full logicality of the connections it makes is made clear. HTH.

Nope, not logical. My argument is about misuse.

Are the Wright Brothers to blame for the London Blitz?

[OwlHoot]

PFI deals were invented in 1992 by the Conservative government led by Sir John Major
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Was Gordon Brown the biggest disaster ever to hit the UK economy?

I've boiled down your argument so that the full logicality of the connections it makes is made clear. HTH.

So if one chef puts a pinch of curry powder in a dish, and some idiot follows suit but tips the whole jar in, by your reasoning the first is to blame for the second's mess?

Same applies to selling school playing fields - The Tories sold a couple of dozen and then Labour, not to be outdone, sold thousands!

[centurian]

Also the Tories never actually did any PFI's under Major

The first ever PFI was signed under Blair