Vocal Voices

Have heard that the government is trying to sell the Fire Service to private companies without publishing details of the proposals. It will be another shambles like the NHS.
You can protest by going to the following link: http://secure.38degrees.org.uk/fire-service-sell-off

Privatising is one thing, mutualisation is another, that is the way Cleveland wants to go. It would be interesting to see it in operation as a pilot scheme to gauge how it fares, but it would have to be done objectively and without political spin.

I have two ex brothers-in-law who were firemen and they do not have strong feelings about it one way or the other.

The Fire Service is big news here in the West Country at the moment

The probelm with 'amalgamating' services in such huge, sparsely populated areas is the sheer time it will take for crews to attend Lives are bound to be lost.................

cruiser2 wrote: You can protest by going to the following link: http://secure.38degrees.org.uk/fire-service-sell-off

I have. There has been far too much privatisation, in my opinion. Essential services like water, fuel, emergencies, policing,
transport, etc., should be in the public sector.

Aggers wrote:There has been far too much privatisation, in my opinion. Essential services like water, fuel, emergencies, policing,
transport, etc., should be in the public sector.

Actually you could say that backwards. Essential services have always been private until the Labour government after WWII. It has been private enterprise which brought us the railways, roads, water piped to our homes, sewage, energy such as coal and town gas, before north sea gas.

Remember the Fire Brigade (not service), used to be volunteer (and there are still a lot of them in the Pomipiers in Fance).

The Police, Yes, the Army, Yes. Everything else? My personal take is that Government regulation of private business does more for us than Nationalisation and stagnation as seen in the UK since WWII.

The Russians had 70 years of not having enough food to feed themselves under communism. Why do one second more work than needed when you get nothing for it, was the motto. Since Communism fell and privatisation, Russia has become one of the largest exporters of food in the modern world and has more food and luxuries in it's shops for the common people than ever seen before.

It is not privatisation which does not work, it is government ownership and the lethargy it brings to the services it provides. There are some exceptions to this and I believe the postal service is one of them. Then again it was the Royal Mail not the Government Mail......