UK political parties

PFI before New Labour:

Mussolini resorted to subterfuge to pay contractors without increasing his budget. He would make a contract with a private firm to build certain roads or buildings. He would..sign an agreement to pay for the work on a yearly installment plan. No money was paid out by the government And hence nothing showed up in the budget.

-- from John T Flynn, in Private Eye, 16-29 May, quoting Twelve Years of Fascist Finance.

And the Conservatives are in hock to Ashcroft. 'What connects the deputy-chairman of the Conservative Party with Hugo Chávez', asks The Economist A $10m mystery

Berlusconi eat your entrails out.

[P.S. 20 May George Monbiot thinks that New Labour has destroyed hope.]