November Nihilism

Blue skies and bare branches - a model for corporate tax evasion

 Commissioner policing - a single strand of democracy

Dying public services swallowed up by sphagnum outsourcing   

November is my least favourite month as the light fades, the leaves fall and the dreich damp days get even shorter. This autumn it seems that representative democracy is also dying. In recent weeks we have watched large corporations, which have cheated governments of taxes for years become global pariahs in the eyes of an increasingly energised electorate. The same electorate that has chosen not to exercise its right to vote for police commissioners or for the government for that matter, the Tories received votes from only 30% of the electorate in the last election.  

Elsewhere there are multiple stirrings of employees and customers demonstrating their opposition to the government contracting out services to global companies who reward executives and exploit workers in an exhibition of corporate greed. They bring along a rope of professionals who feed on the ever more lucrative processes of outsourcing and procurement. The time is ripe for a mass outbreak of nihilism against both corporate and political governance. Don't expect any outcomes!

It is hard to find a newspaper or a senior politician that is not appalled at the level and extent of corporate tax evasion. The same newspapers that have carried adverts to invest offshore, and the same politicians of all parties who have refused or turned a blind eye to the long-running scam of tax dodging. Amazon, Starbucks and Google may be getting the headlines for tax evasion but there is much evidence that the majority of FTSE 100 companies have engaged in the same ploys to reduce corporate taxes. Although the generally recognised ethical businesses like John Lewis, the Coop and even some of the big companies like BP have a more honourable track record. In the latter case profits, and with them go taxes, are needed if they are to pay dividends to sustain our pensions.

Despite attempts by several newspapers to expose the scale of the problem, it is difficult to unravel what is the level of the unpaid tax. In total it is generally reckoned to be of the order of £125bn per annum.  More than enough to refire the economy and protect many public services which are being devastated in all sorts of ways that are not yet understood. It would help if the Inland Revenue would cooperate to make the scale of the evasion (legal or not) more transparent so that there could be greater scrutiny by the army of investigative citizen sleuths. One thing is becoming quite clear, the public is seething and wants to use their wallets and their credit to punish the miscreants. Even the Chancellor seems to realise that the public has knocked down the door of corporate tax evasion and he would be foolish not to seize the day and rattle the cages of the global corporate offenders.

I watched the first Police Commissioner being interviewed after his election by the rag, tag and bobtail of electors that had bothered to turn out. "I will do everything possible to reduce crime", he said, "but it is not just a job for the Police, we must involve local councils and the public". Exactly, which is why the local police were established by and responsible to the municipalities in the first place. As they merged they became Joint Boards and the chairs became puppets of the Chief Constables whose ever-increasing operational responsibilities disallowed any interference from elected representatives. In the top-down budgeting regime of Cameron's Britain, it is asking too much of lone commissioners to understand let alone challenge massive police forces. They have become more insular to protect their budgets instead of collaborating with other services that are equally important in the drive to reduce crime.  The danger is that the commissioners will soon be house trained to voice the demands of Chief Constables.  

If success is measured in crime rates and clear-up rates then it is the smaller more localised police forces that are the most successful. They usually work closely with the local council at a community level. The Metropolitan Police is hardly a model for the rest of the country with a track record of institutional corruption and racism that is well documented and unenvied by the rest of the Police authorities. I have worked with well-governed police forces where informed and knowledgeable councillors encourage corporate working, community involvement and accountability in ways which the police commissioners will have great difficulty replicating. Perhaps the electorate intuitively felt this and refused to be conned by politicians who failed to make any case for this new form of autocratic governance.

The third strand of nihilism concerns the increasing scepticism of the benefits of outsourcing public services. The well-documented failures of G4S during the Olympics highlighted this but there are similar examples across a multitude of services from care homes to rail franchise operators. The police, NHS, further education and local government are being forced to transfer services to scavenging outsourcing companies, it is usually accompanied by rising costs and loss of local ownership. Localism is being sacrificed on the altar of mythical efficiencies. The sense of indignation by communities and their local representatives of all political parties is an anger that will not be easily assuaged. They did not want this but it was imposed by successive governments who have been too easily swayed by the vast array of lobbyists and professional service companies who have sponsored their way into the inner sanctums of central government. A central government that lacks any procurement savvy but also believes that their big-ticket procurement failures are endemic across all other public services. This is not usually the case with localised and competitive procurement, although there are some exceptions.

At the local level, local companies have lost business to national or global providers who are better equipped to play the complex procurement games invented by some of their numbers who have been seconded to the government and devise the rules of engagement. This is despite the fact that local companies usually have good relations with public services, they are likely to go the extra mile to deliver services in their own patch and unlikely to demand additional payments for unspecified activities. But this is the root of the issue, governments of all persuasions have hocked themselves to the outsourcing companies rather than trusting in localism with its values of community, trust and respect. The outcome is not just the loss of small local businesses with altruistic motives and good customer care,  but ultimately the long term cost of the service. To paraphrase Mrs T, this government is not for learning.