TWO recent events suggest that the present system just doesn’t cut it any more: the Southern Cross care home fiasco, and the huge hike in gas and electricity prices from, can you believe, a Spanish company.

Three thousand workers and many vulnerable elderly people will undoubtedly suffer as the result of the care homes struggling financially.

And another old public outfit, Scottish Power, plans to introduce big price hikes.

Please don’t think these issues won’t affect the residents of Oxfordshire, as this is a national problem.

Surely, even the most avid supporter of capitalism can see the irony as old people face losing their homes and care workers lose their jobs, while the greedy bosses make off with millions of pounds.

Southern Cross has, on its board, Baroness Sally Morgan, who joined in 2006. So is she culpable in some way?

Now Tory Michael Gove has rewarded her and appointed her chairman of Ofsted, saying she was “hugely talented”.

Southern Cross made the great business decision to sell off and lease back its care homes, giving landlords a guaranteed rent rise each year. This is the same type of PFI system we see in our schools and our NHS.

Incidentally, Morgan was Tony Blair’s director of government relations and minister for women.

John Major’s Conservative government and New Labour started the PFI schemes, wasting millions. But as Southern Cross workers struggle on low and frozen wages, top executives trouser massive salaries.

How can anyone put a price on health, education and elderly care? And how can anyone willingly support this system?

We were all told ,when we sold our family silver in the form of the utilities being privatised, they would be more efficient and a lot cheaper. Only this letter writer didn’t fall for it.

TIM SIRET Millmoor Crescent Eynsham