The perils of privatisation

[DMB]

It is somewhat paradoxical that the Labour Government, which has now been in power in Britain for nearly 12 years, seems at least as keen on privatisation as the Thatcher one.

I didn't really know until I read about it in Private Eye that they are privatising defence training. It now appears from this news article (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5871263.ece)that they have privatised defence of Army barracks.

Armed security guards employed to protect the military base in Northern Ireland where two soldiers were shot dead did not open fire on the terrorists, even when they stood over the injured men and fired further shots.

Two soldiers and two deliverymen were also injured in Saturday’s attack, for which the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility. The Army and police confirmed that no shots were fired in retaliation. The Real IRA described the Domino’s Pizza deliverymen as “collaborators of British rule in Ireland”.

[RBH]

Armed security guards employed to protect the military base in Northern Ireland where two soldiers were shot dead did not open fire on the terrorists, even when they stood over the injured men and fired further shots.Reading that in concert with the gun control thread yields some very weird thoughts. WTF were those "armed security guards," presumably trained to use their weapons, doing with those weapons?