Concern mounts that northeast Wales patients will suffer if Chester hospital shuts under a planned reorganisation of health services. “Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru's North Wales AM, said: ‘The health service in England is in huge financial difficulties, with the Mersey and Cheshire NHS facing a £1bn deficit amid growing privatisation and cuts. Partly because of that, a super-hospital at Ellesmere Port has been mooted that would lead to the closure of hospitals such as the Countess of Chester and Arrowe Park. My constituents use both and I am deeply concerned by any plans that would take services further away from our communities.”

Leading up to the recent election, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza proposed privatizing the water supply to close the city’s budget gap. Privatizing water is an attractive proposal for urban areas facing budget crises, but it has tremendous risks.

Several years ago, the Geneva office in charge of public buildings in the Canton took the decision to contract out the cleaning work in the buildings to private companies. This has resulted in a huge loss for the workers, and they are campaigning for the cleaning to return to the public sector. PSI affiliate in Switzerland, SSP, has sent a petition with more than 2,500 signatures to the Grand Council of Geneva, asking them to reintegrate the cleaning staff into the public service. They have published a video comparing the working conditions faced by cleaning staff in the public and private sectors.