A policy that hits social solidarity - Privatisation of bus services

PRIVATISATION is one of those red-rag-to-a-bull ideas permanently associated with union-breaking Thatcherism and it is immediately divisive. Those who believe in the God-given virtue and efficiency of market economies imagine the process as a way to rescue a business or a service from the dead hand of the State.

Those opposed believe it is a race to the bottom, where workers’ expectations are trampled in an unrelenting race for profit and the concentration of wealth. They see it as the dominance of business over the kind of social contract we all depend on one way or another.

This week, a process that is not directly related to privatisation — public sector pay talks — resumes. The outcome may push the idea of privatisation up or down the political agenda. If, from a Government point of view, the talks are successful and a moderate agreement is reached then the impetus for privatisation diminishes. Ironically, a deal that does not fulfil workers’ expectations may lead to the kind of intransigence that may be the catalyst for privatisation.