White Paper is a manifesto to break up our public services, says TUC

Commenting ahead of the Open Public Services White Paper published later today (Monday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

"This is nothing less than a manifesto to break up our public services, smuggled out while all attention is focussed on the misdeeds of News International.
"Yet on the day Southern Cross' failure underlines just how dangerous introducing the profit motive into public service can be, people should be very afraid at what these proposals could mean.
"Of course they are skilfully wrapped up in warm words, but when the Prime Minister talks of charities and voluntary groups, he means parcelling up public services for private companies; when he talks of ending top-down control, he really means introducing a postcode lottery with few winning tickets; and when he talks of fairness he means new opportunities for the sharp-elbowed middle classes to push others aside."