| How to buy defence on tick 09:06 - Oct 30 with 473 views | AnotherJohn | The rumoured answer is that the Government will revive the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) model utilised in the Blair/Brown era. And indeed it is rumoured that Gordon Brown is behind the idea to apply it to defence spending. We are in dire straits and it could be argued that there aren't many alternatives, However, some of us will remember what a disaster PFI was the first time around. Chat GPT says: "The best estimate is that the Blair/Brown-era expansion of PFI brought in approximately £50–55 billion of private capital, but the total contractual payments associated with the PFI programme were projected to reach approximately £310 billion". If this goes ahead let us hope the Government knows how to do things better now. I wouldn't be too confident. P.S. We should not forget that the Tories too used this model for public infrastructure projects, and that even the devolved Scottish and Welsh Governments have dabbled with something similar. [Post edited 30 Oct 9:11]
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| How to buy defence on tick on 09:57 - Oct 30 with 415 views | JACKMANANDBOY | Not more borrowing? |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 10:55 - Oct 30 with 389 views | AnotherJohn |
| How to buy defence on tick on 09:57 - Oct 30 by JACKMANANDBOY | Not more borrowing? |
Borrowing under another name! Off the books, as they say. |  | |  |
| How to buy defence on tick on 11:10 - Oct 30 with 377 views | Wingstandwood | I watched a Channel 4 Dispatches programme about PFI years ago and it taught me what an absolute obscenity PFI is. PFI is a scandal! |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 12:28 - Oct 30 with 333 views | JACKMANANDBOY |
| How to buy defence on tick on 11:10 - Oct 30 by Wingstandwood | I watched a Channel 4 Dispatches programme about PFI years ago and it taught me what an absolute obscenity PFI is. PFI is a scandal! |
John Major started the initiative, Blair and Brown went mad on it. The contracts and terms were exploitative, nobody in Government picked up on them. This Government will get stitched up if it goes down the PFI route. |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 14:07 - Oct 30 with 290 views | Wingstandwood |
| How to buy defence on tick on 12:28 - Oct 30 by JACKMANANDBOY | John Major started the initiative, Blair and Brown went mad on it. The contracts and terms were exploitative, nobody in Government picked up on them. This Government will get stitched up if it goes down the PFI route. |
Seen a meme today that sums it up, it said.... “At some point we gotta stop asking to pay more taxes, and start focusing on where the heck all of our money is going”. That says it all perfectly to me, because there are economically illiterate politicians in Westminster/Cardiff Bay who have zero appreciation of the value of money and zero experience of the real world outside of their own political bubble. |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 14:55 - Oct 30 with 245 views | union_jack | Serious questions here: Do we stop funding Ukraine in their bid to fend off Russia once and for all? Is it costing too much? By not doing so would Russia easily take Ukraine and other eastern bloc countries? |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 15:53 - Oct 30 with 226 views | JACKMANANDBOY |
| How to buy defence on tick on 14:55 - Oct 30 by union_jack | Serious questions here: Do we stop funding Ukraine in their bid to fend off Russia once and for all? Is it costing too much? By not doing so would Russia easily take Ukraine and other eastern bloc countries? |
A few countries want to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine. |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 16:26 - Oct 30 with 208 views | union_jack |
| How to buy defence on tick on 15:53 - Oct 30 by JACKMANANDBOY | A few countries want to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine. |
That’s fine but should we be paying our tax £s to help them? |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 17:22 - Oct 30 with 173 views | JACKMANANDBOY |
| How to buy defence on tick on 16:26 - Oct 30 by union_jack | That’s fine but should we be paying our tax £s to help them? |
I think it's a case of if not Ukraine then it will be the next ex Soviet country. As to the wider question of the West funding wars, that's a hornet's nest. |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 17:29 - Oct 30 with 160 views | SullutaCreturned | PFI in any of it's guises usedin this country should be considered a national scandal and should be investigated because some people made a boatload of money from it. If the OP is right and 310 billion was paid out on infrastructure that cost less than 60 billion, we should ask who got the profit and were there any private links to government, it's even worse than the PPE scandal from covid. The Welsh government has blown billions of our money on their version of PFI, the heads of the valleys road, Velindre cancer centre, they will cost us a lot more than the actual building value. |  | |  |
| How to buy defence on tick on 18:31 - Oct 30 with 132 views | JACKMANANDBOY |
| How to buy defence on tick on 17:29 - Oct 30 by SullutaCreturned | PFI in any of it's guises usedin this country should be considered a national scandal and should be investigated because some people made a boatload of money from it. If the OP is right and 310 billion was paid out on infrastructure that cost less than 60 billion, we should ask who got the profit and were there any private links to government, it's even worse than the PPE scandal from covid. The Welsh government has blown billions of our money on their version of PFI, the heads of the valleys road, Velindre cancer centre, they will cost us a lot more than the actual building value. |
Correct, as was Gordon Browns gift of 100s of millions to the banks with no recourse. We have incompetents making awful decisions. |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 19:06 - Oct 30 with 107 views | max936 |
| How to buy defence on tick on 18:31 - Oct 30 by JACKMANANDBOY | Correct, as was Gordon Browns gift of 100s of millions to the banks with no recourse. We have incompetents making awful decisions. |
This 100% This labour government couldn't find their arses with both hands the most incompetent government in decades. |  | |  |
| How to buy defence on tick on 20:05 - Oct 30 with 78 views | JJBomber |
| How to buy defence on tick on 14:55 - Oct 30 by union_jack | Serious questions here: Do we stop funding Ukraine in their bid to fend off Russia once and for all? Is it costing too much? By not doing so would Russia easily take Ukraine and other eastern bloc countries? |
Yes, yes, no. Do we really believe that without us Ukraine would fall? |  | |  |
| How to buy defence on tick on 21:30 - Oct 30 with 47 views | ReslovenSwan1 |
| How to buy defence on tick on 17:29 - Oct 30 by SullutaCreturned | PFI in any of it's guises usedin this country should be considered a national scandal and should be investigated because some people made a boatload of money from it. If the OP is right and 310 billion was paid out on infrastructure that cost less than 60 billion, we should ask who got the profit and were there any private links to government, it's even worse than the PPE scandal from covid. The Welsh government has blown billions of our money on their version of PFI, the heads of the valleys road, Velindre cancer centre, they will cost us a lot more than the actual building value. |
So if you borrow £60 billion in 2000 at 7% how much is owed in 2026. It works out at £360. billion. It's compound interest.7% interest sees double growth every 10 years . Borrowing is always expensive if it is not paid off. The banker got paid bonuses the banks could not afford and the taxpatvailed them out and in effect paid the banker bonuses with taxpayer money. A London banker f pocketing a cool £500k ( off the taxpayer) would invest it in a new house car and jewelry and holidays. It is therefore not soaking the rich in taxes to bring in a mansion tax. It is simply revolving money back for the taxpayer that was shafted. |  |
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| How to buy defence on tick on 22:10 - Oct 30 with 29 views | JACKMANANDBOY |
| How to buy defence on tick on 21:30 - Oct 30 by ReslovenSwan1 | So if you borrow £60 billion in 2000 at 7% how much is owed in 2026. It works out at £360. billion. It's compound interest.7% interest sees double growth every 10 years . Borrowing is always expensive if it is not paid off. The banker got paid bonuses the banks could not afford and the taxpatvailed them out and in effect paid the banker bonuses with taxpayer money. A London banker f pocketing a cool £500k ( off the taxpayer) would invest it in a new house car and jewelry and holidays. It is therefore not soaking the rich in taxes to bring in a mansion tax. It is simply revolving money back for the taxpayer that was shafted. |
You use only one example and don't forget that the idiot Gordon Brown bailed out the banks to the tune of 100s of millions of taxpayer pounds without any repayment terms whatsoever. You need to think about the person who builds a business to employ 500 people and that business generates £20 million as year in tax revenue. Do you want to encourage that person or take their wealth off them? |  |
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