Major and Blair – the men responsible for Scotland’s seemingly endless PFI debt.
What!? £600m in one year ‘repaying private firms?’ Surely the headline should tell us who is to blame for this massive mistake?
Let’s look.
Paragraph 1? Nothing. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 – nothing.
Ah, there it is in paragraph 10. We’ll hear more of those parties now!
Well, no, that’s it. 22 paragraphs but no repeating of of ‘Conservative’ or ‘Labour.’
In total for all the PFI scheme building under the Conservative Government of John Major and the Labour Government of Tony Blair how much will Scotland have to pay before the debt is cleared?
Looking at the whole lifespan of these PFI deals:
- Scotland had already paid roughly £14.2 billion in unitary charges by 2022-23. https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-20-02-2025?iob=138946&meeting=16263&utm_source=chatgpt.com
- The remaining PFI liability was estimated at about £13.9 billion from 2024-25 onwards. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/foi-eir-release/2025/06/foi-202500455809/documents/foi-202500455809—information-released—annex/foi-202500455809—information-released—annex/govscot%3Adocument/FOI%2B202500455809%2B-%2BInformation%2Breleased%2B-%2BAnnex.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
That implies that the total amount paid for Scotland’s PFI contracts will end up at around £28 billion over their full lifetime, although the exact figure can change because many contracts are partly linked to inflation. https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/finance-and-public-administration-committee/correspondence/2023/budget_dfmtoconvener_23feb23.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
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Talking-up Scotland 
Basically, our grandchildren will still be paying for the construction of buildings that need to be replaced before they are even paid off.
Some plan, london.
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Major and Blair , yes , but don’t forget the contribution of Brown ! The Chancellor for all of Blair’s tenure , then in the hot seat himself but did not admit the folly of such a scheme !
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Yes, Bodger Broon was an avid PFI promoter.
In the early years of PFI, the Chair of our School Board was a Conservative and a chartered accountant. He was vocally hostile to the whole concept of PFI and pointed out then what the Herald is reporting more than 20 years later.
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PFI costing us billions is a real scandal. Covid Track and Trace and lucrative fast track contracts to Westminster minister’s pals costing billions is another real scandal. HS2 costing billions and not delivering the hype is also a real scandal.
But unionists are obsessed by Peter Murrel’s petty pilfering. They demand two parliamentary enquiries on top of a 4 year police investigation. That’s another scandal.
I’m all scandalled out.
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Just a quick look, not a lot to find because of bias, but from 2007 to 2018 the SG refurbished or replaced 751 schools for a total of £1.8 billion, £665 million of which came from local authorities. The point, 1) why couldn’t Labour have done this, 2) just imagine what could have been done with £13 Billion if the liblabtory pack had told London to get lost. We’ve still got £14 Billion to pay off and we won’t own one stick or stone.
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When blaming Lab and the tories lets not forget this in Scotland
The Scottish Liberal Democrats were in government with Scottish Labour for exactly eight years. The coalition formed a “Partnership Executive” after the first devolved elections and lasted from May 14, 1999, until the Scottish Parliament election on May 16, 2007..
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