The Latest PFI Defence Special from Private Eye

Private Eye, in this week's PFI Defence Special have this to say about the funding of PFIs:

Confirming £2bn of public funding for the ailing, er, private finance initiative the Treasury announced a number of urgent infrastructure type schemes that would qualify for the money, including road widening, waste treatment, schools and hospitals.

All very "new deal" and just the sort of thing Roosevelt might have done in 1930s America. But there was no mention of the more than ailing £12bn PFI scheme under which military training is supposed to be privatized (Eyes passim). A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman confirmed that the deal was indeed eligible, though there are "no plans" to use the public money at the moment.

Two years ago the then defence secretary Des Browne admitted that private funding for defence training "allowed us the opportunity to make captital investment that, I candidly admit, we could not otherwise make". That's right: when the economy was buoyant, the Government couldn't afford up-front investment; now that everything's gone down the toilet, it apparently can.

It follows with an article that reports on the popularity of the deal with some Welsh MPs (most notably John Smith):

Never mind the job losses elsewhere in the country when almost all training is moved to South Wales: what matters is that Smith has a majority of less that 2,000 and regularly boasts locally of his success in winning the contract. He even tried recently to present a £1bn cost hike as an extra investment (see Eye 1217), and failure to get the deal signed by the next election could cost him his seat.

This might explain why Smith became very hot under the collar at objections by Tory MP Mark Pritchard (see last Eye) whose Wrekin constituency includes Cosford and will lose out if the deal ever goes ahead.

The full version of the Defence Special can be found here.