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Who Really Runs Britain?

The Private Companies Taking Control of Benefits, Prisons, Asylum, Deportation, Security, Social Care and the NHS

Published by Oneworld Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

‘Outsourcing’ ­– when will the horror stories stop coming?

Every year the government gives private companies like G4S, Serco, Capita and ATOS £80 billion of taxpayers’ money to handle some of our most sensitive and important services – but where is their transparency?

Immigration is perhaps the most challenging and divisive issue of our time ­– so why has our government abdicated responsibility?

As privatisation looms over an NHS in crisis, how do we hold these companies to account?

Now, White speaks to campaigners, Whitehall insiders – and the companies themselves.

Who Really Runs Britain? is a shocking compendium of what happens when outsourcing goes wrong – and what we do now.

About The Author

Product Details

  • Publisher: Oneworld Publications (July 6, 2017)
  • Length: 320 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781786072351

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Raves and Reviews

‘[A] powerful account of the impact of the privatisation of public services…provides a timely and important analysis of this often overlooked feature of public life.’

– Evening Standard

‘This is a must read…It punctures the myth that the private sector is better at delivering public service.’

– Dame Margaret Hodge MP

‘The takeover of government activity by a cartel of unaccountable corporations is a major shift in the way Britain works. Alan White shines a light into this murky world. Everyone is affected by the shadow state. Everyone should read Shadow State.’

– Andy Slaughter MP, Shadow Minister for Human Rights

‘In February 2014 the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee published a devastating report on the way in which public services were contracted out to the private sector... Alan White’s well-researched book Shadow State, provides many examples that prove the Committee’s case, and will, I hope, act as an urgently needed call for action, particularly to improve the standard of contracting throughout Whitehall.’

– Lord Ramsbotham, former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales

‘Readable and well ordered.’

– Literary Review

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