Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dirty Tricks at the green ministry

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The true Conservative green logo: Replace the tree with a belching exhaust pipe.Pic:courtesy auto.howstuffworks.com

Six weeks ago I  had a particularly critical look at the antics used by David Cameron and Boris Johnson to delay tough new air pollution rules to avoid the Mayor having to pay out £300m in fines to the European Union. (see http://bit.ly/f2wB4j)

Now word via Whitehall has come to me  that a recent government initiative to curb ” red tape” to help business is about to be used as a further battering ram by the coalition to undermine  the so called commitment by both parties to a greener Britain.

My old Guardian colleague Allegra Stratton has already exposed the government’s move to incorporate all 278 environmental laws into the review (http://bit.ly/j6eVY6) . And it has  alarmed environmentalists.

Whitehall sources are telling me that the way civil servants in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been instructed to review the laws is extremely detrimental to green campaigners.

Effectively they have been told to concentrate on the BURDEN green legislation and regulations place on business and ignore the BENEFITS it brings to general health and well-being.

And this is from two ministries, business and energy and climate change , headed by two of  the Liberal Democrats in the Cabinet, Vince Cable and Chris Huhne.

Given the review cover issues like climate change, national parks, wild life protection, waste regulations, to name but a few areas, the only people  thrilled by this will be  libertarian think tanks like the Adam Smith Institute and the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party.

If we pursue this line of argument we would never have bothered with energy conservation, banned lead in petrol ( they  all cost money to business in the short-term) and been quite happy to keep landfill going and see animals and plants become extinct. Luckily some of this stuff – like phasing out landfill , clean beaches and air pollution, depend on  directives from the EU, so even the most brown nosed civil servant in Defra is going to have difficulty telling his political bosses it is OK to forget the benefit to the environment.

And the government seem to have forgotten that not all business will be pleased if it is successful. There are 880,000 jobs in the environment industry dependent on existing regulation.

 As Adrian Wilkes, chairman of the Environmental Industries Commission, points out: “This is a potentially major threat to the UK’s environmental industry, which lives and dies by the regulatory framework. Government intervention is a vital ingredient in the creation of the environmental markets of the future.”

So once again, just like the row over privatising the rest of the forests defeated by the campaigning group 38 degrees, the coalition has put its foot in it. Unless that is, they never really believed in the green agenda in the first place.

Why I’m going to vote NO to AV

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Putting a No Vote into the ballot box

I support progressive electoral reform. The present system does need changing. It normally delivers firm government but does not  necessarily represent the collective views of the country. The present system normally allows one party with the largest minority of votes  to implement its manifesto, but at least we have a good idea what this means when they are elected.

If we are going to move to proportional representation it will mean that we will have to trade the clarity of a manifesto for a compromise. But I am only willing to do this if the voting system – as to a large extent it does in Scotland and Wales – genuinely reflects the view of the electorate. In other words a serious dose of proportional representation.

 AV leaves us with the chance of  a botched government elected by a botched electoral system. Rather than taking into account  the votes of all the people and topping up Parliament to reflect this, it allows a small minority of people to exercise their choice twice at the expense of the majority of people who will only be able to use their first preference. In many places it won’t apply at all.

In my own seat, Herts South West, for example, Tory David Gauke, was returned with 54.9 per cent of the vote, so AV will be irrelevant here. And if it was just below 50 per cent, it would be second preferences of an independent, BNP and UKIP candidate in that order, that would have been redistributed.

In East Ham it is more pronounced with ex Labour minister Stephen Timms being returned with 70 per cent of the vote –  a majority of 27,826-the largest in the country. No AV there and 30 per cent of the  electorate ignored. Similarly  foreign secretary William Hague had 62 per cent of the vote in Richmond, Yorkshire and Gordon Brown would be unaffected in Kirkcaldy with 64.5 per cent of the vote. And also for that matter David Cameron, Dominic Grieve and John Hayes (all 58-61 per cent).

It would have made a difference in Watford (Tory gain from Labour) and won with only 34.9 per cent of the vote because all three main parties were close (the Lib Dems came second) and the bottom three shared only 5.6 per cent of the vote. But why should  your second preference  count in Watford but be barred in next door Herts South West?

Supporters of AV say it is a step in the right direction towards full PR but I wonder whether it could make matters worse. And I am afraid that the performance of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable in government does matter. They got elected on a manifesto that they stood on its head as part of the negotiations to get power, particularly in the grotesque way they pledged to abolish student tuition fees but instead tripled them.

I think they are unaware of how damaging this has been to politics-confirming the view that people will cynically promise anything to get elected  but can’t be trusted in government. No doubt at the next election they will pledge to defend the NHS and then proceed to abolish it once they are in power. Clegg has actually left people believing he is a serial liar ( reports on the doorsteps in Dacorum include people saying they will never vote Liberal Democrat again ).

They also failed in negotiations with the Tories to use a referendum to offer the public a full choice for electoral reform. So the choice is only first past the post versus  bastarised PR – AV. We are not even given a chance to vote on the system used by Scotland or Wales.

 I have been disenfranchised by these shenanigans so I will stick to the present system and wait for a government to be elected that will offer real choice for electoral reform.

London firefighter firm recruiting Brits for UAE military support

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A UAE Hawk jet -part of Assetco's training programme. Pic courtesy http://www.militaryimages.com

The company that owns  and maintains London’s fire engines  is  recruiting British firefighter instructors to train the military in the United Arab Emirates.

They are offering tax-free salaries of £46,812 a year  for  British recruits just as Abu Dhabi has joined the Saudis to help Bahrain’s  rulers  put down dissent among pro democracy demonstrators in Bahrain in the most brutal way. Reports have included torture of nurses, removal of people from intensive care units so they can be left to die and intimidation and possible murder of hospital surgeons. See this Sunday Telegraph report  http://bit.ly/fNNvug

 UAE jet fighters are  also preparing to join the coalition of the willing against Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. They are planning to send 12 fighters and are blaming their civil unrest on the Iranians.

AssetCo, the  troubled fire privatisation company, is hoping to get £40m out of a £120m deal with the  Gulf State’s armed forces to boost its profitability. It has been facing severe problems in Britain, including having to raise £26m from investors and through a  share placing. Revenue and Customs has issued a winding up order against AssetCo seeking at least £4m and they have to pay off a debt to the state-owned Lloyds TSB.

The deal was one of the last negotiated by former chief executive, John Shannon, before he resigned after a huge row  with the rest of directors over the share placing.

 Now they are  desperate to recruit  trained staff so they can fulfill it. The advertisement promises a company car, free medical cover and flights home to Britain. See here. http://bit.ly/ftpdZi

The Telegraph report on Bahrain atrocities, the AssetCo contract and job advertisement can be seen together here. http://bitly.com/i4yYFk 

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, has written to David Cameron, to protest about the deal.

He said: ” The clampdown in Bahrain has resulted in a significant number of protestors being killed. The clampdown, including martial law, is supported by armed forces from Saudi Arabia and from the UAE.
… I hope you will make it clear that it is not acceptable for them to take British public money, and also to assist the armed forces of the UAE … I hope you will insist that any company which takes on such work in future, does not also undertake work for military clients involved in the suppression of democracy.
May I remind you that, in 1963, fire hoses were turned on school age civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham Alabama. Ever since that deeply alarming moment, fire services have sought to maintain an independent role as a result of their humanitarian responsibilities. We now have a UK firm providing an essential aspect of our emergency service which has close commercial links to a brutal and anti-democratic military. All the talk from politicians about support for democracy in the Arab world is so much hypocrisy if they allow UK public services to operate in this manner. AssetCo and its directors clearly have no regard for the humanitarian role of our service, and are only in it for profit.   ”

It seems extraordinary to me that a  foundering British company is poised to make millions out of Middle East  misery and recruit desperate British people to do it.

Revealed: The £400,000 debts of Barnet’s blogger banning private security firm

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MetPro's fine lads: Owed £20,000 in unpaid wages

Documents filed by Mike Solomon, the liquidator of MetPro Rapid Response, the private security company accused of covertly filming and monitoring the borough’s bloggers, reveal that it went belly up owing over £400,000 ten days ago.

The biggest creditor is Revenue and Customs who are owed a cool £245,611.57, for unpaid tax, national insurance contributions, corporation tax and VAT.

 The company which took over £275,000 from the council taxpayers of the Tory borough to provide security and was used by the  council leader, Lynne Hillan,  to enforce a ban on bloggers filming or reporting the council’s big cuts meeting, could have been involved in tax avoidance.

The break down of the figures show that over £139,000 owed  is in PAYE and national insurance contributions and another £99,000 is VAT.

Employees are also owed over £21,000 in unpaid wages – and are top of the list to receive £8800 in payments if any money can be raised.

 The two directors of the company Kevin Sharkey and Luigi Mansi have put themselves down as creditors – saying they are owed £92,500 for loans they gave to the company. Other unpaid debts include £3400 to  their accountants, Bond Partners, the address where the company was last registered and a £4972 credit card debt to Barclaycard.

Total debts are over £400,000 while assets are just three motorcycles valued at £11,850; computer and office equipment worth £475 and security uniforms worth £1400. As a job lot Mr Solomon estimates he could sell them for £6000 plus a goodwill sum of £13,500 for anybody wanting the business.

The scale of the scandal raises questions about the due diligence employed by Barnet Council in appointing them in the first place, particularly as records show that voluntary liquidation involving the same directors has happened before. There could be a case for an investigation if a complaint was made to the district auditor about how the council tendering procedures handled their original appointment.

Since Barnet have been unable to answer a lot of questions from the public about this whole unhappy saga – may be they will feel they have to co-operate with auditors. Or may be not.

Millionaire donors bankruptcy threat to Labour attracts record interest

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Just a short note to thank readers who took this website to record levels this week. Not only did it contribute to a  new  high of 3604 in one day, but the  Labour woes story attracted 3848 hits.

Altogether there were over 6500 hits on the website – the majority about the financial killing by Tony Blair’s millionaire donors  who are still lending the party almost £9m. Particular thanks to Paul Staines whose Guido Fawkes website led to 3100 of the 3848 hits ( and two comments from his nibs on the story )and to those who posted a link on the BBC’s Nick Robinson blog and the Political Betting websites, which attracted nearly another 300 hits. Some 17 also came from the Westminster blog on the  Financial Times which commented on the tale.

The second largest hit was on the story revealing three  directors of AssetCo – the private fire fighting company with contracts in London and the Middle East  were quitting their jobs in the wake of the financial crisis that is hitting the firm. Nearly 1700 people read the piece with a large number of hits referred from the Fire Brigades Union, which is fighting the privatisation of fire services, and 91 from Interactive Investor, the website discussion board for anxious shareholders of the company who have seen their shares drop from nearly 70p to 16p at the last count.

Lowest interest is in the plight of the Lib  Dems –  a piece attracted 96 viewers- a rating comparable to their present polling performance.

Could seven millionaire donors bankrupt Labour?

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In denial: Harriet Harman Pic-courtesy http//:thisislondon.co.uk

The Labour Party is sitting on a financial time bomb which could go off at the next general election in 2015.

Tony Blair  made great play when Lord

In the money: Chai Patel pic courtesy:BBC

Levy managed to recruit millionaire donors to the party to end its dominance by union money. The whole thing ended in tears after the ” cash for peerages” scandal. Even though there was not a single prosecution  this brought unwelcome publicity for all concerned.

The result was that some got their money back and the rest agreed to keep their money there to prevent Labour going bust. Everybody thought that the loans were interest free and they were.

But from August 1 last year the seven remaining millionaires started getting an inflation busting 6.5 per cent  on the £8.9m they had lent the party. Not only was this far better than the C0-op Bank’s modest 3.5 per cent charged on a £2m credit facility to the party but nobody anywhere else could get like it from a bank or building society.

The seven remaining millionaires are Sir Richard  Caring, owner of The Ivy restaurant, Soho House and Annabels night club,£2m ;Sir David Garrard, retired City property developer, £2m after he converted £300,000 into a donation; Dr Chai Patel,  former owner of The Priory rehabilitation centre and now running a private equity company, £1.5 m; Rod Aldridge, former founder of outsourcing firm Capita and now running a trust, £1m; Nigel Morris, founder of Capital One, a loans and savings bank £1m; stockbroker, Barry Townsley, £1m and Sir Derek Tulloch, financier and executive chair of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, £400,000.

Two donors –Nigel Morris and Barry Townsley – according to an Electoral Commission document have upped their interest rate to 6.75 per cent.

One of the outstanding donors, Sir Richard Caring, is now a supporter of David Cameron and has donated some £140,000 in gifts and prizes to party events.

Most of the others now seem to have retired from business and are running trusts and in Rod Aldridge’s case, two academy schools with two more in the pipeline.

Labour’s attitude so far has been ostrich like. Harriet Harman, the deputy party chair, when questioned at the Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch this month  by me about this said this: ” Don’t believe what you read or for that matter what you write.”

Well, Harriet I do believe that Labour’s returns to the Electoral Commission are honest and above-board and that is what they say, for better or worse.  Make up you own mind, see them here.http://registers.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/labpartyloans.cfm.

The horror about this situation is that I calculate that the rolled up interest could add almost another £2m to a party that doesn’t have a lot of cash. It can only be paid back by relying on party members or union donations and is all due plus interest on 30 September 2015.

It also lays the party open to serious repercussions. If I were a particularly mischievous official at Conservative Central Office I might whisper into the ear of my new supporter, Sir Richard Caring, and suggest he might just demand his money back  as Labour is fighting an election.

Labour’s NEC  needs to start planning now how they are going to handle this. Otherwise the People’s Party has put itself at the mercy of some very rich and powerful people with the potential to bankrupt them.

AssetCo crisis: Shares in doldrums as investors lose faith

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John Shannon - forced to stand down. Pic courtesy Belfast Telegraph

 Assetco, the badly bruised owner of London and Lincolnshire’s fire engines, is still in trouble despite seeing off winding up petitions from Revenue and Customs and law firm, Nabarros, for millions of pounds.

Shareholders hoping to make a quick buck on a rebound have instead seen their investments fall below 10p a share despite attempts by stockbrokers to recommend the company as a strong buy. Shares have fallen to just 8.20p – the lowest so far.

One commented today:

” I remember posting only a few weeks ago that IMO 8.5p would be a fair price for these shares, but now I’m not so sure. Although I am sure that all the lackies at AssetCo will be posting on hear(Sic) to give all sorts of reasons why this is just another temporary blip and that soon the price will rocket on up! When will this day come? Never in my opinion”

However there are other disturbing signs in the wind – offshore investors like Bermuda Bank have been buying in – and Verdes Management, a company turn round specialist, are demanding a more ruthless management team.

 Recently Rock Nominess Ltd- a company formerly owned by Lord Ashcroft- but now owned by City stockbrokers, Sir Charles Stanley, has increased  its shareholding. The company’s  chair is Sir David Howard, former Mayor of the City of London, obviously hoping for a long term gain.

 Previous updates:

March 25: John Shannon, chief executive of AssetCo, has resigned after being defeated by other directors over the massive dilution of its shares  caused by the  placing to pay off debts and a huge Revenue tax bill. He still has a subsantial shareholding.

This followed two days of high drama with Shannon derailing the company’s meeting by refusing to vote for the extra cash, approaching Arcapita a Bahrain bank to invest, and then being forced by a court injunction brought by other directors  to let the £26m bail out through a share placing go through.

Shareholders are divided about this. Discussion on two investment sites can be shows this  and the man in charge of Assetco’s industrial relations is offering advice to investors, showing how nervous they are . See http://bit.ly/g6Qiqq and http://bit.ly/f2YTY7

March 18: Desperate AssetCo has had to raise another £10m -making £26m in all- from shareholders in a rush to pay creditors demanding their money in case it goes bust. Shareholders worried- London fire brigade should be.  Earlier update:since writing this it is reported that creditors will face delays in payments because of the debt crisis hitting the firm. See http://bit.ly/hxmAUh

The extraordinary crisis surrounding AssetCo, the private company which owns and maintains London and Lincolnshire’s fire engines, has taken a dramatic new turn with the decision of its three main directors to quit their posts.

John Shannon, the company’s founder and chief executive; Tim Wighton, chairman, and Australian Scott Brown, the recently appointed chief financial officer, are all standing down as part of a desperate move to regain public confidence in the company.

 The company has been forced to raise £16m from the stock market to reschedule its debts and fight a winding up order from Revenue and Customs after failing to pay a £4m-£8m demand for tax.

The company’s stockbrokers, Arden Partners, are confident that they will raise the cash – but it seems to have come at the price of  John Shannon losing complete control of the company that he founded. Only weeks ago he and his top directors were thinking they could become multi-millionaires by selling off the firm on the back of the London fire dispute and fire minister Bob Neill’s promotion of private companies to take over  the ownership and maintennace of fire engines across England.

Cadogan PR ,who handle the company’s financial press, confirmed the directors were going. They pointed out that Tim Wightman, the chairman, would have stood down at the annual meeting but was leaving early. John Shannon, who has a huge stake in the company will keep his big shareholding, guarantee the company’s multi-million pound overdraft, and probably stay as a  director. They did not know what Mr Brown intended to do. All are likely to be replaced by outsiders.

Shareholders , hoping to make a fast buck from privatisation contracts, are now seeing a massive dilution in their holdings and are speculating on the Interactive Investor website whether they are going to have to pay out lots of cash to the outgoing directors. They have now seen an amazing 80 per cent drop in the company’s share price and have no chance of it going back to its original high because of the massive dilution of shares.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said today:
“This has the feel of a company in meltdown.  But this is not any old company suffering from the economic climate.  Because of the contracts it has obtained from the London and Lincolnshire fire authorities, every person in London and in Lincolnshire depends for their safety on the health of this company.  If AssetCo goes down, the banks own all our fire engines.  Even if the fire authorities manage to buy the fire engines back, there will be no one to maintain them.
“All this unnecessary danger stems from a bit of political dogma which says that there is nothing the public sector can do which the private sector cannot do better.  We had no concerns about the maintenance of the fire engines while the fire authorities did the job themselves.”

He called for fire authorities to take back the maintenance of the engines. London Fire Brigade are unlikely to do this and Brian Coleman, the Tory chair, must be very upset to see John Shannon stand down.  No more wining and dining from him in Westminster or free £350 Harvey Nicks Christmas hampers.

Record Interest in blog banning Barnet and AssetCo’s fire sale

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Last week’s blogs on Tory controlled Barnet’s defiance of Eric Pickles on banning bloggers and the woes facing Assetco, the London strike breaking private fire company, produced record hits for my modest site.

Altogether there were 3293 hits in seven days – with two record hit days of 1,375 and 1021. There were 1324 hits on the Barnet story and 1128 on  the revelation that AssetCo were facing a winding up petition from Revenue and Customs.

Barnet’s refusal to allow bloggers or filmmakers to record their big cuts package was much boosted by decisions by Guido Fawkes and Conservative Home to mention it on their websites. Guido Fawkes led to 1001 visits while Conservative Home attracted 55 visitors.

 The AssetCo story was boosted by being mentioned by the FBU – some 100 referrers – but a lot of the interest appeared to come directly. Mentions by the London Evening Standard and The Mirror produced  20 and 6 hits respectively, suggesting that the traditional media is losing ground to blogosphere sites. They were nearly equalled by hits from Liberal Conspiracy, Broken Barnet,VicKim57 and Left Foot Forward.

Interest in both stories revived hits on an older but updated blog on Brian Coleman, who features in both Barnet and the London Fire Authority. Hits have now reached 2285, with  massive interest in his council allowances,free gifts and expense claims.

So thank you. This week there will be new revelations about Barnet and the plight of AssetCo. So keep watching.

Death and rebirth? of Liberal Democrat England

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Nick Clegg - not quite 100 per cent bad news

Today’s humiliating result for the Liberal Democrats -coming sixth with just 8.25 per cent of the vote in Barnsley,Central is a harbinger of a deeper change facing British politics.

Anybody keeping abreast of local  council election results in Labour strongholds will not have been at all surprised to see this collapse of a party  that has broken many of its election promises and got in bed with Labour’s traditional enemy -the Tories.

All that has happened is the Parliamentary lobby has caught up with a dramatic collapse of Liberal Democrats in working class towns and urban areas.

Less than a month ago a Liberal Democrat decided to stand in Worksop for Bassetlaw council and came bottom of the poll with 28 votes. Labour gained the seat from the Tories with 1174 votes. Other pathetic Liberal Democrat showings in the last six months include 67 votes in Bromsgrove, 45 votes in Wednesbury,98 votes in Swindon  and an incredible 10 votes in Rossendale in Lancashire.

 Labour should be pleased because in some of these pathetic showings it is enabling them to take seats from the Conservatives including coming back in Camborne, Cornwall. In other places like Warrington and Liverpool where they are taking seats directly off the Lib Dems they are being returned  with thumping majorities.

But before everybody gets carried away  with the total destruction of the Lib Dems  there is another story going on  in many (not all) Conservative rural areas. Here slowly but surely the Lib Dems are making GAINS against incumbent Tories in their heartland seats.

Examples  this year include two gains from the Tories -in rural Shropshire and Conwy in Wales. While at the end of last year the Lib Dems took a seat on Fareham council from the Tories with a swing of nearly 30 per cent since the May general election.

 Another surprising gain was in rural Newdigate in Surrey where the Lib Dems took a seat from the Conservatives in their Mole Valley heartland. And they beat the Tories to gain a seat on Bodmin Town Council when an independent stood down.

Of course not every result fits in this pattern, the Tories did gain a seat in South Lakeland from the Lib Dems (where Labour got a pathetic 32 votes) and the Lib Dems did take one seat from Labour in Truro in the same period.

But there does seem to be a bit of a pattern from these scattering of results which will be really tested in May. The scenario appears to be that the Lib Dems will be massacred in major cities by Labour and their collapse in other urban areas will probably cost the Tories control.

But in rural areas it looks like the Lib Dems could hold their own and even, if well organised, make gains from the Tories.

 Nick Clegg’s  and David Law’s realignment of the Liberal Democrats as a right of centre libertarian party appears to be giving confidence to Tory voters to trust them in their traditional heartlands while making Labour the only left of centre show in town. That could make a seismic shift in British politics.

Do Londoners want firefighting on the whim of bankers and hampers from Harvey Nicks?

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a london PFI fire engine equipped with tax debt pic courtesy http://www.freefoto.com

April 20 will be a day of reckoning for AssetCo, the company that owns London’s and Lincolnshire’s  fire engines  and was used by the London Fire Brigade to try to break striking firefighters. It has until April 20 to answer in the Companies Court following  a winding up petition from Revenue and Customs  which could lead to the company and its subsidiaries being put into administration.

On that day it will have to answer  a petition from Revenue and Customs to repay anything between £5m and £8m ( we don’t know exact sum – winding up petitions are secret documents) in overdue tax or go into administration. And a banker will move in to own London’s  fire engines.

This scandal would have never seen the light of day if the directors of AssetCo, led by chief executiveJohn Shannon, had not been hoping to pull off a big coup and make a small fortune by allowing their company to be taken over in the wake of the publicity over the London fire dispute.

Whatever company examined their books – we don’t know the name – obviously did not like what it saw  and suddenly talks were over and shares plummeted. They have not recovered and were trading at 17.5 p yesterday rather than 70p at their height. Within days the company admitted it had to repay some £50.6m of debt and find £8.5m working capital including plus a £3.5m urgent overdraft from the bank. Seven days later it announced that it wanted the same shareholders who had seen their investment plummet to give them another £8m.

It stated: “The Directors believe that with the cooperation of the Company’s creditors and banks, the current financial strain on the Company will be temporary, and the additional funding resources referred to above will ensure that a more appropriate capital structure will be in place to support the future growth of the business. ”

What it did not tell anybody was that two days after the announcement it was in front of the Companies Court in The Strand in London pleading for a delay against a petition  from Revenue and Customs to wind up some nine of its companies because of long overdue tax.

I am told that  Revenue and Customs never issue winding up petitions unless a lot of money is owed and there has been a prolonged period when tax due was never paid.

The company now says it has a £120m new contract from the United Arab Emirates and it has hived off London from the any forced administration so no-one should worry.The London Fire Brigade officially appear unflustered. A spokesman  said: “We plan for all events that could affect the fire and rescue service we provide and do not anticipate an impact on London’s fire engines.”

I understand London Fire Brigade are expecting if AssetCo goes belly up that a bank will take over ownership of London’s fire engines. Then either negotiations will start about the brigade taking back ownership of the engines or another bidder – and the rumour is it might be Babcock who already have  firefighter training centres and run Firebuy’s emergency vehicles – could take over.

No wonder Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, is demanding assurances from Bob Neill, the fire minister.

As he put it: “The safety of Londoners, and of London’s firefighters, is in the hands of a company which could be wound up in six weeks time because of tax debts.  At the least, this will mean that there is no one to maintain London’s fire engines.  At the worst, it could mean that London forfeits its fire engines to pay AssetCo’s debts.
We have all known for some time that AssetCo was suffering from financial problems, though it is only now that I have discovered they are so serious as to put its future in doubt.  I do not know how long Councillor Brian Coleman, chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, who is close to AssetCo’s senior management, has known the situation. ”

To me it is very simple. If this was publicly owned none of this would have happened. And what happens with AssetCo now could be harbinger of what is going to happen on a massive scale when everything else is sold off across the country.

Do we really want something as precious as saving lives dependent on whims of bankers and companies? The owners appear to have built up tax debts while their directors pay themselves huge salaries and get huge sums in dividends?

Londoner’s lives are more important than receiving a £350 Christmas hamper from Harvey Nicks  (as Brian Coleman has) from grateful businessmen busy making profits out of public services.

Update March 3: AssetCo is seeking to place £16m of shares at a knock down price of 10p a share – nearly a 30 per cent discount – onits closing price of 13.8 p a share last night – to urgently raise funds to payu debts ands tax bills. The offer is being underwitten by its own brokers and adviser, Arden Partners, with a promise from chief executive,John Shannon, to guarantee its overdraft. Other directors are subscribing for £116,000 worth pof the £16m shares.

The statement warns: “If the Placing does not proceed, the Directors believe that the Company will not be able to continue in its cutrrent form”.A spokesman for the company yesterday claimed it was already oversubscribed. Meanwhile the shares had fallen a further 1.5p to 12.50p