So politicians - Labour, Tory and other - with their appointed developers, planners and builders, for a whole 30-year period from the 1950s to the 1980s built cheap and nasty public buildings which would only last for 30 years. Why should anybody be surprised about that? Short termism is the name of this system’s game. If it wasn’t, schools wouldn’t be crumbling and, for that matter, there wouldn’t be a climate crisis either, would there?
Anyway, this means that today, the kids who’re unlucky enough to be told they can’t attend school classes because the roof might fall in, can read about the three little pigs and discuss online how it’s best to build a solid house... Yes, one made out of strong bricks, which won’t crumble or melt like a chocolate aero. And they will be aware, too, that this story is a metaphor for all aspects of real life...
That said, the instigators of building, not just schools, but hospitals and thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of homes using crumbly blocks, knew exactly what they were doing. Never mind that they themselves would have had a chance to read all about the three little pigs and their building projects in a proper classroom, several decades ago...
What’s a little surprising, however, is that this well-known “problem” was only revealed to head teachers in affected schools a matter of days before the schools were due to open again after the summer break.
In fact Sunak’s government seems to have set itself up in order to be shot down - and just at the start of its own parliamentary term, too... Did Sunak feel he had nothing left to lose? What’s more, the media is now going for Sunak’s and former education minister, Michael Gove’s jugular, since it was Gove who (“gleefully”) cancelled Labour’s “building schools for the future plan”, while Sunak himself stopped the rebuilding of the 13 schools now revealed as directly affected by this scandal.
Feeding the capitalist pigs...
When it comes to government construction contracts, however, it’s never been a matter of “only the best will do”. The main aim was for the invariably dubious contracts to put plenty of cash into the pockets of private profiteers... Thus grew a huge number of billionaire enterprises, bolstered almost entirely by taxpayers.
Today the list the government’s so-called “Strategic Suppliers” includes 40 super-rich companies in sectors right across the whole economy, in construction, telecoms, defence, IT, consultancy and so-called “facilities management”. Names like Balfour Beatty, Amey, Laing O’Rourke, Babcock, BAE Systems, Serco, Mitie, ISS, Capita, G4S... Many workers will recognise the names of their employers in this list...
In the 12 months to September 2021, Strategic Suppliers earned £19bn from the government contracts, representing 11% of its overall spending. Their revenue increased by 24%! Three of these companies were of course, “heavily involved in the COVID-19 response”...
So without a doubt it will be these “usual suspects” (and their well-connected mates) who’ll be given yet more millions (or billions) to reconstruct the public buildings currently at risk of falling down.
And there’s some risk, apparently... imagine that hospital staff have been told that they need plans in place for “emergency evacuation” and hospital cleaners are being trained to recognise signs of imminent danger, like cracks and weird creaking sounds... You could not make this up, if you tried...
...workers will have to help themselves
So here we are again: the jokers in Westminster are pouring zillions into the pockets of their Strategic Suppliers - including those (like G4S), currently licenced to jail refugees in facilities which can only be described as dire...
These suppliers will be re-awarded new lucrative contracts to rebuild the badly-constructed schools, hospitals, homes and law courts. Not only because of previous use of spongy RAAC, but due to the poor quality construction under Private Finance Initiatives and Public Private Partnerships, starting in the late 1990s under Tony Blair’s Labour...
This, while the bosses and government ministers continue to tell those who do all the vital work in society that there is no money “available” to give them the decent pay increase they need in the face of today’s unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. A crisis not felt by the rich employers nor the well-paid politicians in Westminster, of course.
But clearly, it’s not just low pay which is at issue, for the working class, but worsening social deterioration, whether it be broken infrastructure, an utterly crippled NHS, unaffordable housing and transport, (added to by the extended ULEZ in London) or - and this is the tip of an iceberg when it comes to local government - the bankruptcy of Birmingham City Council, which has been screwing its workforce and depriving its residents for years...
The working class has a huge account to settle with the bosses, the politicians, whether local or in Westminster, and their whole rotten system - and the sooner it organises itself collectively to do so, the better.