As tens of thousands return to the streets for the first national Palestine march of 2026, this movement refuses to be sidelined or silenced, says PETER LEARY
The Barnet activists battling Capita
OUTSOURCING public services has time and again been shown to deliver poor quality at significantly greater expense, yet local authorities — particularly Tory ones — continue to contract out services, with predictable results.
Barnet residents have been fighting the Conservative-run council’s decision to outsource huge swathes of its public services to Capita for almost a decade — and are finally starting to see some results.
Barnet Council farmed out departments including highways, human resources and funerals to the notorious outsourcing giant under a decade-long contract worth around £32 million a year beginning in August 2013, despite huge public opposition.
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