The examination of Mr Buckles, head of G4S, by a House of Commons committee is currently being broadcast. Such processes are tantamount to public humiliation, being put in the stocks, virtually of course. When someone was, say, accused of stealing, they were held in the stocks to keep them in place, exposed to ridicule and pelted with varied fare. The problems go much further though as with Murdoch.
What is not being mentioned is that this is one of three organisations recently given the contract for accommodation and transport of asylum seekers for seven years. They have been consistently criticised for their management of this work and for other areas in which they are involved.
It is remarkable that the company has managed to mess up to such a scale. I thought that Mr Buckles was recently on Radio 4 (a month or so ago) where he was part of a panel discussing employment contracts. The presenter pussy-footed around him (if it was him!) on that show and Mr Buckles sounded like a liar during that programme, trying to make out that G4S had such good employment processes and not using short term contracts etc. It would seem he is being hoist by his own petard.
Yes, here is the program, it was him, funny in retrospect.
I just hope that these events allow for the way asylum and refugee case are treated to be reviewed. Unfortunately what is at stake is not the nature of what is done by such enterprises as G4S but whether it is done well, efficiently, on time and not the very nature of such security management.