A Delicate Truth - John Le Carré

John Le Carré always manages to stay up to date in his exploring of the shady side of the states that govern us.  This book could be seen as his response to the Iraqi invasion, or the drone missile attacks, where the death of family members and bystanders is just seen as collateral damage.  He also looks at the dangers of handing over national security to private industry, and replacing national armed forces with contract security firms.  Intelligence will be manufactured, operations will go ahead in dubious circumstances - after all, there is money to be made, and it only happens when services are delivered, needed or not, justified or not.

On a larger scale, governments are such suckers for private sector exploitation - you see that in any kind of contract situation, from countries to cities to school boards.  You can say public service is wasteful and inefficient but I'm not sure it's any more expensive than being ripped off by shady public/private contract deals.  And with the public service, at least the wealth is spread around instead of just further adding to the wealth of the 1%, or even the 10%.

Yet again, I am reminded of a quote I read years ago that went something like, "When private business begins to use the public purse as a cash cow, democracy is finished."