TruePublica Editor: The company
which once supplied fire engines to more than 100 London Fire and Rescue
Service stations, had to be bailed out in 2011 before selling its UK
business for just £2 to save it. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC)
has attacked the bosses of the firm that used to lease London’s fire
engines, over an accounting scandal dating back to 2009. Accountancy
giant Grant Thornton was fined £2.3m for its role. This is what happens
in the private sector. Gambling with private money is one thing,
privatising critical public services and then gambling in life or death
situations is something quite different and the government needs to be
held to account for its irresponsible and reckless privatisation
decisions that is destroying public trust in the institutions that
support society, whilst threatening the lives of the public.
By David Wibberly for the Fire Brigades Union Magazine: It
would be unacceptable and emotive for any politician to announce in
public plans to privatise the UK fire service. Politicians accept that,
despite the sustained government sponsored attacks on firefighters in
the media, FBU members are still held in very high regard by the public
for the work they do protecting their communities.
