Who are the real 'vested interests' in health, education and welfare?‏

“We are being radical; we are taking on vested interests in areas like health and education and welfare” said Prime Minister David Cameron in a pre-Conference interview with historian Simon Schama in this weekend’s FT magazine: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c09c43d6-cb72-11df-95c0-00144feab49a.html

For sure Cameron’s Tory Party, and its donors hungry for contracts in those same areas, know all about vested interests ..…

Health
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243579/Andrew-Lansley-embroiled-cash-influence-row-accepting-21-000-donation-Care-UK-chairman-John-Nash.html

Education
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6897181.ece

Welfare
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/10/chris-grayling-defends-plan-credit-rating-agencies-benefits

Cameron’s notion of ‘vested interests’ is drawn from the neo liberal manual for public sector reform. It was deployed by the pro-privatisation Tony Blair in his infamous ‘scars on my back’ speech in 1999 to a Venture Capital conference: : http://tinyurl.com/32a3qrq

The paradox of Cameron’s statement is that vested interests are driving Con Dem policy on public services and they are not the workforce, unions or democratically accountable service providers.

The real vested interests are those companies and individuals who funded New Labour, the Tory Party and the right wing think tanks who articulated the case for creating the £79 billion market so well documented in the UNISON 2008 publication on ‘the rise of the public service industry’: http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/PP8917.pdf