This isn't Privatisation George

Stirring stuff from George Monbiot today:

"...it is the outright privatisation of primary healthcare." 

Unfortunately, as he himself notes the paragraph before, it isn't:

"Primary care is already in private hands - GPs run their own practices."

So whatever is happening isn't privatisation, for you can't privatise something which is already a private business.

What he actually means is corporatisation of a business sector. The swallowing up of small businesses by a vertically integrated corporation. This might actually be of benefit, might not be, it depends really on the business sector itself. It's a great deal less likely to be effective in the services sector than manufacturing. Even more so when the service is something offered to consumers on an individual basis rather than, say to corpoations.

I'm as little in favour of it as George himself is but then I'm not mistakenly calling it privatisation. Rather, what it is, the destruction of another business where the independent professional holds sway in favour of the centralising tendencies of this government.

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