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The battlelines are drawn. As the Guardian has noted, James Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News International in Europe and Asia, yesterday fired the first shot in the general election campaign, with his fierce attack on the BBC.
One of the defining issues in the months leading up to the next general election will be the relationship between public and private: "Our public spaces, our public services, the very idea of the public, have all been appropriated by the languages and practices of profit and the private sector," says the Guardian.
The debate will be intense and will be both ideological and financial. We have already seen an attack from the other side of the Atlantic on the fundamental principles of the NHS. We can expect more attacks, not just from Americans, but from those within this country that have a vested interest in the state divesting itself of what have, until now, been regarded as public services.
The attacks will, there is no doubt, be brutal. Expect an intensification of "pension-envy", as private suppliers face a steep rise in the cost of providing final salary pensions. A recent report from actuaries Aon Consulting says the final bill for private employers could be more than £1tn.
Adrian Ringrose, the new chair of the CBI's public services strategy board and chief executive of services company Interserve, which receives three quarters of its turnover from running outsourced UK public services, says the cost of pension benefits is "right at the front of our minds".
The CBI has a long standing issue about the way public sector pensions are calculated and want "reform" of the system of transferring pension costs from public to private sector, when employees move over as part of outsourcing deals. It says the present way of calculating costs prevents "fair competition". Ringrose says private companies are happy to compete with voluntary and public sector bodies - but only if everyone competes on the same basis.
There will be much more of this kind of debate as companies jostle for influence and stake their claims for business with whichever party leads the next government. The practical need to cut the cost of public services is all too clear.
But the background of the economic downturn makes for some interesting arguments and positions. Who would have expected, for instance, the Financial Times, that bastion of private enterprise, to support greater regulation? Yet today, the FT unequivocally agrees with Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, that it would be unacceptable for the City to return to the status quo ante. "The sector must realise, as Lord Turner has, that real reform is essential," says the FT.
So on the one hand, we can expect a major onslaught on the divide between public and private; but on the other there may also be some unexpected allies arguing for the cause of social good.
From Bubb's Blog
From Flip Chart Fairy Tales
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