Another week, another scandal exposing big business and its corrupt links with government. Only, this time, it is the Olympics contractors who are under the spotlight, rather than City bankers.
So, 2 weeks before the Games' opening, it emerged that G4S, one of the world's largest employers (over 650,000 employees in 125 countries!) had only managed to recruit 4,000 out of the 10,000 security guards it was meant to line up for the Games. Not only that, but many of these recruits turned out to have no proper training, no idea of when or where they were meant to work, and to be paid on the minimum wage - far less than they had been promised. So now, G4S' failure will have to be made up for, by bringing in thousands more soldiers, on top of the 13,500 already drafted in for various duties.
And yet, "security" is supposed to be one of this government's top priorities. Isn't the "terrorist threat" against the Olympics considered so serious, that it has justified the risk to life of those living in housing estates nearby, by the installation of missile launchers on their rooftops?
Business for the boys
But, apparently, security wasn't a serious enough issue for the government to handle it directly. On the grounds that the private sector is always "more efficient", they chose to subcontract the work, just as in so many areas of public services. Although, of course, the real reason has nothing to do with "efficiency", but everything to do with increasing the share of public funds going to the profiteers.
The result, in the case of G4S, is just another example of what happens when the profiteers take over. Profits and shareholders' dividends come first, with the actual job they are supposed to do coming last, regardless of the consequences.
In the case of the Olympics, the chaos created by private profiteering may not be life threatening. After all, the army can take over for the duration of the Games, which last only a few weeks.
But what about areas of public services where far more elaborate skills are required permanently? What about health, care for the elderly, education, transport, etc..?
In the NHS, for instance, the contracting out of public investment has turned hospitals into money-spinners for private companies, degrading care and causing wards or whole departments to be closed down, because debt repayments to the private sharks must come first. Too bad if this wreaks havoc with health provision and reduces the access of the population to vital medical treatment!
Meanwhile, a parasitic galaxy of private sharks of all sizes, including giant ones like G4S, has been able to grow extremely fat out of milking public funds, at the expense of the whole working population which uses these services.
The rule of big business
The G4S scandal - and more generally, the on-going scandal of the subcontracting of public services - have something in common with the latest "rate-rigging" scandal concerning Barclays Bank: they all involve government officials at the highest level.
The fact that every government, whether under Labour or the ConDems, has been subcontracting public services for decades, is not a matter of ideology. It merely reflects the demands made by the capitalist class on the state - at a time when it wants more public funds to boost its profits - and it shows the ability of this class to get the politicians to do its bidding.
Likewise with the Barclays scandal. As it turns out, bank regulators knew about Barclays' dealings, and probably encouraged them - instead of stopping them. These regulators just did what they were told by the big British banks.
And how would it be otherwise? Who really runs the state? The "elected" House of Commons? Hardly. Its real powers are limited to issues on which the government "grants" MPs a vote - remember the invasion of Iraq?
By contrast, unelected representatives of big business are present everywhere in government. For instance, one member of the House of Lords out of six is in the pay of big finance, and many of those, sit on committees which are supposed to put "morals" into banking! Another survey showed that dozens of "experts" are seconded "for free" by the big financial consultancy firms to ministries and even to each of the three main parties - but, "for free" doesn't mean that the big firms in question don't expect something in return, of course!
Yes, this is a state run by the capitalists for the capitalists. And it will remain so, as long as the working class does not exercise, collectively, its direct control over all aspects of social and economic life, at every level.