The saga surrounding the Olympics and G4S may have placed the spotlight firmly on the use of private companies to protect the public, worried MI5, embarrassed the Home Office, and pleased and angered the armed forces in equal measure.
It is unlikely to persuade governments to back away from relying increasingly on the private sector to provide public services, even those directly responsible for the safety of its citizens and to fight on their behalf. Far from it. More and more tasks will be "outsourced" as the rather euphemistic Whitehall phrase has it.
G4S, with an annual turnover of more than £7bn and worldwide contracts including in Iraq and Afghanistan, operates in what has been described by a Seymour Pierce analyst as "a golden age in outsourcing". Central and local government are spending £80bn on contracts with private companies a figure predicted to rise to £140bn in 2015.Of course these numbers are nothing compared to what's happening in The States. What's your opinion? Is this a necessary expense or just a scam to pour taxpayer dollars into the pockets of a few?
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