Brendan Barber’s last speech as General Secretary to the annual TUC Congress in Brighton made a salient point about what politicians can learn about the private sector from the G4S debacle. Ministers may well dismiss the majority of Barber’s comments about cuts and labour market reform without poring through the transcript, but there was one attack that he made that will ring true for those on the right as well as the trade union officials sitting in the conference hall. Using the Olympics as his grand theme, Barber said:
‘Private is always better than public, they argue. Not true, as we saw all too clearly when it came to Olympic security.’
He added:
‘Congress, it’s right to celebrate the Olympics, but it’s even more important to learn from them.
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