By Frances McKie

The Post Office Scandal has surely cast terrible doubt on the UK Justice System. Without open, determined,  legal action against the lies, persecutions, blackmail and silencing of the victims, it will be very hard to restore public trust.

Furthermore, before the public inquiry  into the lethal consequences of the Fujitsu Horizon  contract  comes to an end, it is vital that  Gordon Brown , Tony Blair,  Hilary Armstrong and  all those associated with the imposition of  PFI  contracts on vital public services throughout the UK are required to give an account of their responsibility, under oath .

This is because the  Post Office  disaster is only one example of  the truly frightening  history  of PFI  contracts which have  entrapped hospitals,  schools,  railways and other vital  public services in a web of cynical profiteering-  and  lethal  failures-  on the back of public taxation.  “Entrapped”  – even as we hear that some of  its victims committed suicide-  still shockingly  applies to the Post Office contract with Fujitsu: according to Westminster  legislation which originally enabled such contracts,  despite the horror of the last 20 years,   Fujitsu will continue to  administer the Horizon system; it  is still, quite incredibly,  being awarded more PFI contracts by the UK Government.

Promoted  and viciously imposed  throughout the UK by the Blair /Brown Labour Westminster Government in the late 1990s, these so-called ” Private Finance Initiatives ” have caused one  disaster after another: from unsafe  Glasgow Schools to the Edinburgh Royal infirmary to the chaos in the  Passport Office,  to the failures  and extortionate costs of  Rail Track, the Channel Tunnel, National Benefits and Pensions as well as many other  hospitals and schools throughout  England. 

Each time, the tax payer -at national and local government level-has been forced to pay for the incompetence and failures of the private companies involved.  That same  Labour Government actually changed the law to protect these private companies, to make it possible for local government to sign these terrible PFI contracts  with them and to indemnify the private companies against risk and failure. 

It is no wonder, 25 years later, when that history is examined, that Health Authorities like Lothian are short of money: they are being forced to hand over more and more money to the PFI group who grabbed the contract for the ERI. It is no wonder that local authorities throughout the UK are warning they are facing bankruptcy: their original  contracts are now being sold on  to anonymous, even more ruthless profiteers.  It is no wonder that,  when Sam Galbraith, a highly respected Glasgow Labour MP,  first heard about his government’s intention to impose such contracts on national and local government projects, he condemned them as financial “deceit”. 

 In 2024, as this level of corruption and desperation  unravels throughout Westminster, it raises the  horrible spectre of Fannie Mae , Freddie Mac and all that followed on from them. 

It is not enough, therefore, now that the Post Office is found out, to attempt to compensate the victims. Handing back a CBE does nothing to clean out the rotten core  at Westminster which lies behind the current mess. .  The PFI history demonstrates absolutely that this is a decayed, decadent, bankrupt, desperate and obsolete system of misgovernment which offers no real democratic choice: Labour and Tories are up to their necks in the same horrible mess .  

It is therefore surely vital  that the current  inquiry demands answers under oath so those responsible for these disasters are, at least on this occasion, made accountable to  all the subsequent  victims of destroyed public services. 

The message for Scotland,  is, yet again, brutally  clear: we cannot afford to be part of this failed state.