Though Cowards Flinch

Just saw this press release through the Unison website, explaining how Mark Fox of the BSA (an organisation representing private sector firms that bid for public sector contracts) has emailed local authorities, informing them of provisions on budget policy to be announced in the upcoming emergency budget.

It’s nice to know that the government feels the need to brief people such as Mr Fox (who happens to be a former Private Secretary to William Hauge when he was leader of the Opposition), before they feel the need to brief the House of Commons, showing blatant disregard for Constitutional procedure.

I think it’s a nice first example of just how we should expect this government to function, a revolving door relationship with the business elite, many of whom just happen to be Conservative party supporters too. This shouldnt be a big surprise, these are the people the Conservative party exist to represent, they are simply doing what they have always done.

The real problem here is not just that Mark Fox has been privy to this information, but that he has seemingly been involved in discussions that have produced a policy which financially benefits the firms he represents, at the expense of the low paid workers they employ.

This is just another case of private enterprise influencing government decisions to protect their own narrow interests, in this instance to reduce costs of pension provision for the already low paid. Sadly I think this will be quite common throughout the reign of the ConDem government.