Carillion Collapse: A Government Disaster

This tottering Tory government is now under continuous bombardment from disasters of which it is the author. Brexit is in a mess in whichever direction you look; even Boris and Farage are beginning to have doubts disguised as flag waving for a cause fraudulently presented to voters as a proposition of opportunity, which in the event the massed ranks of Brexiteers are unable to explain or deliver.

The NHS and Social Care are in crisis, driven by a toxic combination of chronic underfunding, byzantine management structures and a forest of supervising quangos. The prisons are in a dreadful state and education is begging cash from parents to keep standards in schools at an acceptable level. Railways are overcrowded and main highways choked at peak times. Government ministers make aspirational speeches high on rhetoric but with outcomes never delivered.

To an ever growing list of issues, now explodes the bombshell of Carillion. A total collapse of the government’s pet contractor. Responsible for construction and maintenance right across the public sector  from railways to prisons, hospitals and schools. Awarded more contracts in spite of warnings about its financial position. Owing nearly a billion pounds to its banks. Now it is bankrupt. As is the Tory ideology which promises prosperity through austerity and efficiency through outsourcing services to the private sector, which grows fat on public money.

Three massive issues are now converging on the beleaguered political Noddy Land which Downing Street has become. Brexit, Carillion and the NHS. It is going to be a very big bang.