By Daniel Durkan

Conservative idea, founded in 1992. MPs became lazy and so decided to give their work out to private firms at the future tax-payer’s expense.

They didn’t want the burden of designing,

building and maintaining the many different projects our government embarks upon throughout the year, on top of their already tight schedules consisting of implementing policies and claiming expenses.

Highlands school

M4 bus lane

University College Hospital

Everything was left up to contractors – private firms with the ability to fund and sustain these ventures.

They would:DesignBuildAnd support these projects over a prolonged

period of time. Profits then made will be given to this firm in charge of it all, while the government reaps the benefits .

Taxpayers would then repay these firms over a period of time, with interest of course.

Hospitals simply could not sustain themselves.

The “PFI happy” Labour government encouraged their accountants to write off

many of the costs that their hospitals would face.Private firms then got involved, and once

the hospitals had been built it was too late for them to do anything about it.

Hospitals could not afford to pay back contractors.Debt mounted, and to this day is still rising.

2007, agreed upon a £500million contract, despite hospital being worth only £330million.

Four months after opening borrowed £10million from authorities to cover overspending, i.e. high demand in A&E.

February this year borrowed £46million from the government to “cover running costs.”

The trust funding this hospital soon found that proposers had hidden £44million worth of costs in an effort to convince them to take on the contract.

They, like many other hospitals and trusts, find themselves to be in serious debt and seriously

struggling to stay open. We, the future taxpayers of this nation, are going to bear the

brunt of the pain.

Here are some comparably bad ideas

1. What does PFI stand for?2. Which political party should we blame

for miss-use of our future earnings in relation to the case study?

3. Which local school was built as a result of PFI?

4. What’s your favourite colour?5. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being good and 1

being catastrophic, how bad do you think PFI hospitals are?

1. Private finance initiative2. Labour Party3. Highlands school4. Blue or Red accepted, Green is half a

mark5. Only “1” gets you the mark.