outsourcing sovereignity

OUTSOURCING SOVEREIGNTY: WHY PRIVATIZATION OF GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS ...
By Webmaster(Webmaster)
A third structural reform involves a requirement for national service and the creation of a training academy for civil servants equivalent to the military academies. "This idea reflects a commitment to public service that would overcome ...
Law and Politics Book Review - http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/reviews/

QinetiQ CUTS 400 UK Jobs so how many will they bring to Athan???

The MODs 'Defence Training Rationalisation' programme is one of the biggest privatisations ever and is set to privatise military training! QinetiQ has become one of Britain’s most blatant war profiteers. They will be expected to help other parts of government in a cost-cutting drive and to cut training facilities drastically. Watch out for the new privatised UK McMilitary, objective to expand business and profits so goodbye defence, hello offence and more war! Welsh MPs Smith and Bryant are grovelling to the consortium Metix (includes Qinetiq and arms dealers Raytheon which has been blacklisted by Norway and Belgium) to bring all training for army, navy and airforce to St Athan, Wales promising mythical thousands of jobs despite half of the deal, package 2 being abandoned as Derek Twigg told MPs, there were too few areas where costs could be cut and qinetiq cutting jobs.

qinetiq rewards mount with rise in dividend

Guardian Unlimited, There was further controversy yesterday at qinetiq, where directors made more than £100m out of its flotation last year, after they further rewarded ...As far as we are concerned, we are doing the job, which is delivering value for shareholders," said Love, who admitted that the axe would fall on 400 of the 8,000 staff employed around Britain......

....The job cuts inside a company that employs 13,500 worldwide will increase the frustration of those former civil service staff who witnessed a small handful of the top management make vast sums of money out of the privatisation of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.

QinetiQ, which still employs the vast bulk of its staff in Britain at 38 different locations including Bristol, Plymouth and Rosyth in Scotland, is poised to help other parts of government in a cost-cutting drive.????

The company is the preferred bidder on the first part of the MoD's Defence Training Rationalisation programme which could be worth £16bn over the next 30 years. The winner of the contract will be expected to reduce the current size of the training facilities from 30 sites to 10. ..(Defence Training Rationalisation means privatising military training at St Athan and working with arms dealers Raytheon..in the Metrix consortium)

See also Union Welcomes MoD U-Turn On Training Privatisation

Is the tide turning on Defence Training Review

UK MoD reconsidering award of second training contract to QinetiQ-led consortium

Ten senior managers pocketed millions from privatisation of ...
Ten senior managers pocketed millions from the privatisation of defence technology business QinetiQ – leaving the public purse short changed, it has emerged. A.
PersonnelToday.com - Employment law news - http://www.personneltoday.com/

.......The other major beneficiary of the privatisation had been the private equity firm Carlyle Group, which had seen the rate of return on its investment increase by 112%.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) were shocked by the report's findings.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "It is scandalous that a small number of senior managers and private companies should be making so much money out of an organisation that was built by public servants with public money. It is unacceptable that returns of 20,000% can be made at the expense of the taxpayer."

The MoD said it will respond in full to the NAO report "in due course", and welcomes the Public Accounts Committee decision to take evidence on this report.

qinetiq to cut 400 despite profit jump
Times Online -
qinetiq, the defence research business in which the chairman and chief executive made more than £35 million on the flotation of the business, will eliminate ...
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Qinetiq war profiteer

Taxpayer may have to pay £170bn for PFI schemes
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 26 Nov 2007
The huge cost to the taxpayer of Labour's commitment to the private finance initiative since it came to power a decade ago is revealed by the Treasury in a ...

Tues 27 Nov

Treasury: Tendering and benchmarking in PFI (63rd), HC 754

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Write to your MP, AM www.WriteToThem.com

Land Securities Trillium slammed

Land Securities Trillium slammed for insurance failure at PFI school
23/11/2007

Pupils at a private finance initiative school were nearly left without a place to play sport or sit exams, after the contractor failed to adequately insure a sports hall that burned down.

Land Securities Trillium said its contract did not require it to provide alternative accommodation while the hall was being rebuilt at Woodside High in Haringey, north London.

But media pressure has forced the local council to provide some portacabins in the meantime.

"Generally PFI insurance does not cover for the provision of alternative accommodation,” a Trillium spokeswoman said, “because schools would end up paying more for that cover and the public sector does not deem this to be value for money."

Head teacher Joan McVittie replied that the existing insurance cover was “completely inappropriate for the needs of a school".

©Copyright 2007, Centaur Media PLC. All rights reserved

How George bush ended up owning part of the British Secret Service

News from the blogs!!!
Selling the family silver

how George Bush ended up owning part of the British civil service.
By Dr Grumble(Dr Grumble)
At about the same time he spoke to a very senior civil servant within DSTL about what QinetiQ might be worth. Dr Grumble wondered how a top civil servant who knew nothing about the private world could know what QinetiQ might be worth. ...
Dr Grumble - http://drgrumble.blogspot.com/

uk government accused of reclassifying cluster bomb to beat weapon ban!

Agencies accuse UK government of reclassifying cluster bomb in order to beat the weapon’s ban

18 September 2007 | Oxfam, Amnesty International UK, Human Rights Watch, Saferworld | Related document

Just noticed this ...

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The UK, the world’s third largest user of lethal cluster bombs over the last ten years, has renamed one of its two remaining cluster munitions in an effort to beat an expected worldwide ban next year said humanitarian organisations Oxfam, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action today.

The move would mean that the Hydra CRV-7 rocket system, which can deliver 171 “M73” bomblets from a helicopter-mounted rocket pod, would remain part of British arsenals.

As recently as 23 November 2006, the government listed the CRV-7 as a cluster munition. But on 16 July this year, just months after it said it would back a worldwide cluster bomb ban, the Government said the CRV-7 was no longer a cluster bomb.

“Ten years after it championed a treaty banning landmines the UK has a chance to do the same with cluster bombs – but instead it is spinning a cluster bomb con,” said Simon Conway, Director of Landmine Action. “This is a deeply cynical move. The UK Government needs to announce an immediate end to the use of these indiscriminate killers.”

US forces used the rocket-delivered M73 ‘bomblets’ in Iraq in 2003. Human Rights Watch reported contamination of unexploded M73 bomblets left behind after the strikes.

Cluster bomblets are notoriously unreliable and many fail to explode on impact, remaining a lethal hazard to civilians months after the initial attack. Even in test conditions, around 6% of these bombs malfunction, cluster bomb reliability rates are consistently found to be lower in combat conditions than in tests.

"A technical solution is doomed to failure,” said the London Director of Human Rights Watch, Tom Porteous. “Human Rights Watch's investigations in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon have all shown that cluster munitions, no matter how sophisticated, do not work as advertised, and instead get used in ways that violate international humanitarian law."

In February 2007 the UK joined 46 other nations in calling for a world wide ban on cluster bombs. This initiative, called the Oslo process, is expected to lead to a treaty banning cluster bombs next year.

But campaigners say the UK needs to get its own house in order first.

“Current UK policy on cluster bombs makes no sense. They say they want an international treaty - but they also want to keep using cluster bombs well known to kill and injure civilians,” said Anna MacDonald, Head of Arms Control for Oxfam.

Britain also insists on keeping its artillery delivered M85 cluster bomblets because they are supposed to self-destruct if they do not explode on impact. Last year in Lebanon, these same weapons failed in large numbers, killing and injuring civilians. A recent Foreign Affairs Select Committee report estimated a failure rate of up to 10%, a figure far in excess of government claims.

“Despite being the third biggest user of cluster bombs in the world over the last ten years, the Government hasn’t made any efforts to asses the harm these weapons cause to civilians. Ministers are prepared to stand in Parliament and claim that careful assessments have been done – but where is the evidence? Their policies simply aren’t based on reality,” said Oliver Sprague, Programme Director, Military, Security and Police for Amnesty International UK.

In July 2007 an opinion poll showed 82% of the British public are in favour of a cluster bomb ban. In December last year Hillary Benn, the then Secretary of State for International Development, said that cluster munitions “represent a threat to aid-workers, peace-keepers, medical services, internally-displaced persons” after the cessation of hostilities.

Landmine Action, Oxfam, Amnesty International UK, Saferworld and Human Rights Watch UK are calling on the UK Government to announce an immediate end to the use of all cluster munitions.

-ends-

Notes for editors

Martin Bell, former BBC correspondent and long standing supporter of the campaign to ban cluster bombs will be supporting calls for the UK Government to introduce an immediate ban on the use of cluster bombs at a photo-call on Tuesday 18 September 2007 at 09.30hrs on the South East side of Lambeth Bridge, London SE1.

Tuesday 18 September 2007 marks the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.

The next meeting of states in the Oslo Process will take place from 5-7 December 2007 in Vienna, Austria (see UK/Oslo Update and Declaration Text documents for additional information)

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) coordinates a membership of over 200 non-governmental organisations worldwide including Landmine Action and Human Rights Watch.

For more information or to arrange interviews contact:

Therese Lyras, Campaigns Manager, Landmine Action
+44 (0)20 7820 0222/+(0)7894 512 852, tlyras@landmineaction.org