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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2014 :: RMTnews
28
This is an excellent and readable
book about the Public Private
Partnership on London
Underground, the PPP. Its
author Janine Booth is a well-
known RMT activist who was
actually there and has got the t-
shirt!
The PPP was a diabolical rip
off and a disaster. One of the
reasons that it collapsed after
only a few years was that RMT
members and others fought
against it, exposing it for what
it was from start to finish.
As well as being a good read,
it will doubtless be referred to
by transport experts and trade
unionists for years to come.
The PPP was introduced by
the Labour government of the
late 90s; it was a further
development of Tory rail
nationalisation. By privatising
the Tube infrastructure, the
Labour government was
effectively spitting in the face of
unions and rail workers
discarding all their previous
claims to be against rail
privatisation.
Most Londoners opposed PPP
but Tony Blair, Gordon Brown,
John Prescott and the rest of the
New Labour leadership didn’t
give a hoot. They even blatantly
rigged the selection process for
Labour’s candidate to be Mayor
of London to carve out anti-PPP
Ken Livingstone.
Livingstone stood as an
independent with opposition to
the PPP as his main policy,
comfortably beating Labour,
Tories and Lib Dems, only for
PLUNDERING
LONDON
UNDERGROUND
Oliver New reviews a new book by
Janine Booth Plundering London
Underground: New Labour, private capital
and public service 1997-2010 which tells
the story of the disaster of Tube
privatisation