Sometime in the latter half of last year (2002), a Government minister
(can't remember who - think they were female) said in a speech against
the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) that it was a bad concept - "you
wouldn't buy your house on your Visa card" (or something along those
lines).  I need her comment in full and her identity, and to whom she
made the speech.  It was widely reported in newspapers.

Hello businessbaron

Thanks for your question. 

"You don't pay the bill for your semi-detached on your Barclaycard.
It's the same for schools and hospitals. It's time we had a choice.
It's time we didn't have to PFI because we all know what it really
stands for - Pay for It Indefinitely." Louisa Wass, delegate from
Bolsover, in the PFI debate."

Louisa Wass was a delegate to the Labour Party's autumn conference in
Blackpool.

Benedict Brogan: Snapshots (Filed: 01/10/2002) 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/10/01/nlab501.xml



She was also quoted in the Guardian but with her name spelt
differently:

"Louisa Was of the Bolsover constituency backed a review. "Of course,
we all want new hospitals. But you don't pay the bill for your
semi-detached on your Barclaycard. It's the same for schools and
hospitals", she said."

"Leadership defeated on private cash"   Kevin Maguire   October 1
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2002/story/0,12294,802279,00.html



I was interested to find that this thought had been expressed earlier
in the year at a conference on the health service organised by UNISON:

Robin Moss, a trade union official, said:
"Building new hospitals with the PFI process is a bit like paying for
your mortgage with your Barclaycard. Hands up all those in this room
who pay for their mortgage with their Barclaycard? Nobody!"

Worker's Daily February 11 2002
http://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wdie-02/d02-28.htm


There were one or two attributions to other speakers in the Blackpool
conference debate but none were women or ministers and the general
consensus seems to be that it was Louisa Wass who said it.


additional links:

Privately Financed Revolution  Charlotte Denny  October 3
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,803367,00.html

BBC conference report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2287512.stm

UNISON report 01/10/02
http://www.unison.org.uk/positivelypublic/ppnews_view.asp?did=411.


Hope this helps.  Please feel free to use the 'request clarification'
option if anything needs further explanation.

Regards - Leli



search:

tried various approaches but found this the best:

pfi barclaycard
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pfi+barclaycard&hl=en&lr=&cr=countryUK|countryGB&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

---

Clarification of Answer by leli-ga on 14 Jan 2003 03:08 PST

Thanks for the rating. I'm glad to have been able to help.

Gave more results than were required - added value!

Funny because that's waht we actually do when we purchase house
through bank mortgage.  Somebody paid for the construction and the
bank laon us the many to purchase and we pay the bank the monthly
loan.

PFI is bascially the same (IMO), private sector pays for the
construction and public sector pays the lease for the facility -