Enterprise & the public sector

  On Saturday I went to see the play "War Horse". It is a totally stunning piece of theatre. a large cast, needs a big stage and it was packed, it was a Saturday evening the people next to me had booked in May and this was the first day, 6 months later, that they could get 4 seats in a row. The puppetry of the horses was brilliant and the goose was brilliant, how can you get so much expression into a flapping piece of wood. All of this to tell a moving story about the tragedy of war.

  By now you might be wondering what has this got to do with enterprise and the public sector. The play began life in the National Theatre, a national subsidised enterprise. If one believes those of the right it cannot produce anything new and exciting, only the prrivate sector can do that. This is such clear ly rubbish that wonders why so many people keep repeating it as if it were true.

  One of the key arguments for austerity is that if the public sector has a large share of the GDP then this will stifle innovation and new developments. The argument is invented by the rich to justify keeping rich and has very little justification. As I have argued before and will probably argue again two of the most revultionar developments in the last 25 years have been the internet and the web, neither of which had anything to do with the private sector.