The Great Debate UK
Why I have to sleep with the enemy
A week or two ago, I posted a blog bemoaning the size of Britain’s public sector and expressing the fervent hope that the ill wind of the financial crisis would blow much of it away, leaving room for private industry to expand in its place.
In response, I received a number of mildly wounding (but fair) comments pointing to the fact that, as I myself work in the public sector, I was perhaps in a false position.
Now I could offer a defence along the lines that, when I started work, the City was a club which was closed to youngsters without money or contacts, that I have spent a few years in the private sector, albeit some years back, and that even now my main occupation involves teaching students, mostly from East or South Asia, who are almost without exception paying their own fees, which makes me a one-man export industry. I also keep the wolf from the door with the help of a little freelance consultancy and some book royalties.
