Prize our public services, but don’t make privatisation a dirty word | Simon Jenkins

For all the concern about PFI, the truth is that we will always need a mix of state and market

What do Oxfam, Carillion and the East Coast mainline have in common? The answer is that we all own them, or we run them, or at least we pay for them to be run. They are agents of government, subcontractors, proxy servants of the state. The government has responsibility for the money they spend and picks up the pieces when they fail. They form a grey, soggy, unaccountable no man’s land somewhere betwe...