1.7.09

Fair Use Expiry Notificiation #1

THIS IS A NOTIFICATION THAT THE FAIR USE OF THE FOLLOWING TERM UTILISED BY THE LEFT AND OUR POLITICAL MASTERS HAS NOW EXPIRED; YOU HAVE ABUSED IT TO BREAKING POINT AND IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR THE CITIZENRY AND USERS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IT IS BEING REMOVED FROM YOUR USE: FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT DOING SO WILL BE CORRECTED BY YOUR BETTERS BY THE FOLLOWING NEW WORD OR PHRASE CAREFULLY SELECTED TO DESCRIBE THE ACTUAL CONCEPT YOU ARE TRYING TO EXPLAIN.

WORD #1:  Privatisation: Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector (government) to the private sector (business). In a broader sense, privatization refers to transfer of any government function to the private sector including governmental functions like revenue collection and law enforcement (wiki article here).

EXAMPLE OF COMMON MISUSE: Most common misuse today is to describe the actions of our government with regard to the rail network, e.g. here. The problem being that this is by no means a service that is run privately, i.e.  with complete autonomy over the running of there business, their routes and their fees, all of which are set by political diktat with little wiggle room. This concept is best exemplified by a fruit seller who is told he may only sell one particular type of fruit, at one particular price, irrespective of the cost or desire of the customer. This program is largely administered by corporate groups who know full well that without full control over the running of their business they are destined to fail - to this end they can continually rely on government support to keep them ashore - the benefit to the politico is they can blame "capitalist greed" for the failure of such a service; the "capitalist" themselves just keep taking the millions - the taxpayer just gets screwed.

Other examples of its misuse has been identified when describing (either fearfully or fervently depending on the group you are talking to) what is happening to the NHS or any of our social or welfare services under a Bory government. 

ALTERNATIVE WORD/TERM FOR IMMEADIATE REPLACEMENT: As this is, effectively, a means of politicos keeping control of something but diverting the vitriol of the public onto "private" business this will require a term rather than outright work - the recommendation for immeadiate correction of the misuse of the term PRIVATISATION is:

POLITICAL-FAILURE-MITIGATION

Users of the term "PRIVATISATION" are reminded that, with regards to the fair use of the English language, they will now be expected to use the new term to describe, accurately, what they mean when they describe what is happening to the railway network and, more extensively, what is happening to public transport in general in this country.An example of a private system used to great effect in many countries (and which has raised living standards in the developing world especially) is the "share-taxi" system. Any concept related to this, where the emphasis is on results and require minimal state intervention, may be described under the rules of fair use as privatisation.

tomorrow: Regulation.

Cross-posted here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ah yes, but don't you remember how wonderful and efficient the railways were when fully nationalised. The trains were all clean and on time and the friendly drivers distributed free toys to all.

At least that's how I understand things from reading the Metro the other day.