The Narratives – Mohamed Miah

How Privatisation, Not Immigration, Bankrupted the Country

By Mohamed Miah | The Narratives

For decades, Britain’s leaders have told a familiar story: public services are failing, prisons are overcrowded, the NHS is overstretched, and the welfare system is unsustainable. The blame, we are told, lies with immigration, an ageing population, and so-called “welfare dependency”. But this narrative is a smokescreen.

The truth is that Britain has been systematically stripped for profit. It is not migrants, pensioners, or the unemployed draining the system. It is corporate greed, facilitated by successive governments who have sold off national assets, outsourced essential services, and funnelled billions of pounds of public money into private hands. Britain is not failing—it is being looted.

A Country Sold for Parts

Once, Britain owned and controlled its prisons, hospitals, schools, care homes, and public infrastructure. Today, these services are increasingly managed by private corporations, whose primary focus is not public welfare but profit maximisation. The result is a country where:

• Prisons are run as businesses, where keeping more people incarcerated means higher revenues for private security firms.

• Children’s care homes operate like investment portfolios, where vulnerable young people are shuffled between placements at extortionate costs to local councils.

• Elderly care has become a money-making scheme, with private firms reducing staff and cutting corners while charging families thousands per month.

• The NHS is quietly being dismantled, with services outsourced to private companies that deliver substandard care at inflated prices.

The pattern is the same across the board. Costs are cut to boost profits, services deteriorate, and when public frustration boils over, the government shifts the blame onto immigrants, pensioners, or benefit claimants—anyone except the real culprits.

The Shadowy Forces Behind the Sell-Off

Behind the privatisation agenda lies a well-funded network of lobbyists, think tanks, and corporate donors. Groups like the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Policy Exchange, and the Adam Smith Institute have spent years advocating for the outsourcing of public services, the weakening of unions, and the dismantling of state protections. They claim privatisation leads to efficiency, yet the evidence overwhelmingly suggests otherwise.

The same firms benefiting from these policies are also deeply embedded in the political system. Companies like Serco, Capita, G4S, and Sopra Steria secure lucrative government contracts despite repeated failures. Scandals involving overcharging, fraud, and mistreatment of vulnerable people have done little to dent their influence. Each time a contract is lost, another is gained elsewhere.

Adding to the problem is the role of hedge funds and private equity firms, which now control large segments of the care sector, housing, and even parts of the NHS. These firms operate with a single goal: extract maximum profit before selling off their stakes. The result is a public sector filled with short-term profiteering and long-term decline.

A Media Landscape Built to Distract

The corporate capture of Britain would be far harder to maintain without a media industry complicit in its cover-up. Instead of scrutinising the companies responsible for deteriorating public services, mainstream outlets repeatedly redirect public anger towards the most vulnerable.

The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Telegraph, and even sections of the BBC have pushed the idea that immigrants are the cause of NHS delays, benefit claimants are draining the economy, and crime is a result of social decay rather than economic failure. This narrative serves a purpose. By dividing the working class along racial and social lines, it prevents collective resistance to the privatisation agenda.

When, for instance, the NHS faces yet another winter crisis, the headlines do not ask why billions have been siphoned off through outsourcing. Instead, they focus on “health tourism”, even though evidence shows that migrants contribute far more to the NHS than they take. When crime rises, the discussion is about “soft policing”, rather than the reality that private prisons and probation services have created a revolving-door system where rehabilitation is discouraged because repeat offenders are more profitable.

Legal Protections for the Corrupt

If corruption at this scale were happening in a developing country, Britain’s politicians would be the first to condemn it. Yet, at home, the system is designed to protect those profiting from failure.

Regulators such as Ofgem (energy), Ofwat (water), and the CQC (care homes) routinely issue reports detailing failures and mismanagement, yet rarely impose serious penalties. The same firms responsible for overcharging councils, neglecting the elderly, and cutting prison staff continue to win government contracts.

Attempts to expose wrongdoing are often met with legal threats and gagging orders. Whistleblowers from the NHS, social care, and the justice system who reveal the extent of corporate negligence face job losses and blacklisting. The Post Office Horizon scandal, in which hundreds of postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted due to a flawed private IT system, is just one example of how the establishment protects corporations over ordinary people.

A Global Playbook for Corporate Control

The systematic privatisation of Britain’s public services is not an isolated event. It mirrors what has happened across the United States and much of the Global South. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have long pressured developing nations to privatise public assets, often leaving them indebted and dependent on Western corporations.

Now, similar strategies are being applied at home. The US healthcare model—where essential services are fragmented, unaffordable, and designed to benefit insurers rather than patients—is gradually being replicated in Britain. Big Tech firms like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are moving into public service contracts, controlling everything from health records to border security. The more data and infrastructure they control, the harder it becomes to reclaim public ownership.

The Real Crisis is Corporate Greed, Not Immigration

Britain’s economy has not collapsed because of migrants, pensioners, or public sector workers. It has collapsed because it has been deliberately asset-stripped by corporations, aided by politicians who claim there is no alternative.

Every time the government insists “we can’t afford” something, the question should not be whether we can afford it, but rather why the wealthiest companies and individuals are not paying their share.

• If the NHS is unsustainable, why are private healthcare firms making billions from outsourcing contracts?

• If pensions are unaffordable, why are CEOs receiving seven-figure bonuses?

• If immigration is supposedly overwhelming the system, why is the government increasing work visa allocations while cutting public funding?

• If crime is out of control, why are private prisons profiting while rehabilitation services are underfunded?

The truth is simple. The same people telling us the country is failing are the ones who sold it off. Until the public recognises the real cause of Britain’s decline, the cycle will continue.

Because in Britain today, crime does pay—just not for the people inside the cells.