PIP Breast Implants - Privatised Profit and Socialised Loss, Again

UK Health Secretary Andrew Lansley was on the Andrew Marr Show this morning (BBC TV Sunday 15/01/12), talking about these dodgy PIP breast implants.

I'll have to paraphrase here; I don't see the exact quote on the internet yet. However, Marr asked him if he'd "force" the private companies who injected silicone breast implants, made from medically substandard mattress filler, instead of proper surgical breast implants, to do something about the concerned women's health worries. Lansley effectively said that he couldn't force private companies to do anything.

Then a bit later, Ed Miliband, the UK 'opposition' leader, was on the same show. However, he didn't do much to restore my faith in the democratic process. His response to the subject was that he would try to get some consensus "to see if there's any way to force these companies to face up to their responsibilities".

So there you have it folks. That's the reality of democracy today. We vote these people into power to legislate on our behalf, someone profits by pumping bedding into our bodies, and refuses to make reparations, yet the politicos can do nothing about it.

Admittedly, "see(ing) if there's any way" is slightly more promising than, 'can't'. Then I thought it’s easy for Miliband to say that. For even in the unlikely chance that he'll be in power in 2015 (judging by his current poll ratings) there's very little evidence that New Labour are any less biased against the people who pay their wages these days - (as opposed to those who finance their electioneering costs, amongst other things).

Well then, I thought, I bet it would be a different story if the nurses at these hospitals wanted to go on strike in the face of deteriorating working conditions. The Houses of Parliament would go into legislative overdrive. We'd all get the usual hype from the mainstream media (including the BBC) about how these nasty red commie nurses were trying to overthrow democracy etc. The police would be out in the streets looking like ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ again and despite the constraint of economic cutbacks, attending to at least 1% of their duties with the utmost urgency - whilst Ed's party would no doubt get a backhander that would once again render his party solvent.

Anyway, now, it seems not only the banksters are too big to fail. If you set up a company, and pump bedding into people - then, it seems, that when things go t*ts up, all you have to do is threaten to bankrupt your company.

Of course, I don't doubt that these private hospitals are limited companies, which means that the individuals who run them don't lose a penny of their private wealth - as I understand current business law. For limited, in this context (as I understand it) means limited liability (as opposed to limited compunction perhaps). On the other hand, when the majority of us try to set up in business - even with the diminishing likelihood that we do get support from the banks (plus interest, of course) - when our blood sweat and tears and life-savings go t*ts up, we take the full hit. It’s hardly an incentive.

So, bankruptcy means different things to different people. And the troubling thing about the debt-based economy is that the failure of the debtor is the success of the creditor, regardless of how the debt is incurred - whether by our own free will or by the complicity of those whom we pay to protect us from harm.

Yet it still hasn't escaped my notice that less than 1% of the population in this World are presently hoarding about 3 trillion dollars, and refusing to release it back into circulation, fully aware I bet - that it would help enormously towards kick-starting the World economy and eliminating poverty. They're also no doubt aware, however, that another crunch-type event is imminent. I suspect that they know that very well - in the same way that those with a propensity for dumping on others, are fully aware of what they’re about to do, knowing that their victims are largely, blissfully unaware.

Furthermore, I can't help wondering how aware of that little gem our democratic champions are. I wonder too, why that aspect never seems to enter mainstream discussion - not least on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. Is no one interested in finding out where all the money went - and still is?

So what's new? We privatise the profit and we nationalise the debt. We know that; that’s not new. However, now we privatise the profit from breast implants made from bedding material and nationalise the costs of replacing them with proper medically approved ones. There must be something wrong with me these days, for I’m not at all surprised at that piece of news - regardless how absurd it seems.

Oh! Didn't I mention - that the NHS (the National Health Service, UK) is to pick up the bill when the private companies default? There's no way that, a decent, responsible society (excepting those who believe “there’s no such thing as society”) should leave anyone medically bereft. On the other hand making the taxpayer pick up the tab for this sort of chicanery is unlikely, "to force these companies to face up to their responsibilities".