THE NATIONAL Audit Office has revealed that taxpayers were short-changed to the tune of £1.5B from the sale of our railways. That's the equivalent of 30 new hospitals or a penny off income tax.
Even the Tory Chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee admitted that the Tories short-changed us all to the tune of £1.5B and even went on to say that this is a cautious estimate. What he failed to say was that the rail rip-off was just one example of a catalogue of short-changed privatisations totalling £10B. For example the sale of Property Services Agency for £4.7m cost the taxpayer £300m because of fees and redundancies.
It is clear that in pursuit of dogma the Tories were even prepared to rip-off the British public and squander money that could have been spent on our schools and hospitals.
F Crompton
Kennet Close, Westhoughton
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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