[Verse 1]
November, ninety-two, Norman Lamont cuts the ribbon strings,
Says the Treasury's too thin to pay for all these shiny things,
So he calls in private builders, lets them finance, lets them own,
Government rents it back for decades — a mortgage dressed as loan.
[Chorus]
Paga depois, constrói agora, that's the private finance way,
Fora do balanço — out of sight, where the liabilities stay,
Sessenta bilhões de libras built it, cento e noventa e nove's what we owe,
O futuro paga a conta — the bill keeps growing as the decades go.
[Verse 2]
Ninety-seven, Labour's in, and they don't slow the scheme,
Hospitals and schools and motorways all financed by the dream,
Seven hundred deals get signed before the ink can even dry,
Sixty billion built the bricks, two hundred billion's asking why.
[Chorus]
Paga depois, constrói agora, that's the private finance way,
Fora do balanço — hidden debt that's here to stay,
Sessenta bilhões started it, cento e noventa e nove to go,
O futuro paga a conta — forty years and still we owe.
[Verse 3]
ESA ninety-five's the rulebook, keeps the debt off the page,
Risk transfer's the magic word, the legerdemain of the age —
A conjurer's trick of paperwork that moves the weight away,
The Public Sector Comparator was meant to make it pay its way.
[Verse 4]
Carillion folded in January, twenty-eighteen, no warning bell,
Liverpool Royal and Midland Met stood half-built, stalled, unwell,
In Edinburgh a schoolyard wall came tumbling in the rain,
Oxgangs taught the nation what cheap mortar can explain.
Philip Hammond shut it down that autumn, closed the final door,
Said the private finance model wasn't worth the Treasury's war.
[Verse 5]
NHS trusts drowning, paying millions every single year,
Just to service debt on buildings that should have been built clear,
Nurses' wages frozen while the contracts auto-renew,
Hospital wards keep crumbling while the shareholders get their due,
A school in Bristol paid nine thousand pounds to swap a lock,
That's the hidden cost of borrowing — the small print in the stock.
[Bridge]
Back to eighteen-forty, when the railways got a guarantee,
Investors took no risk at all, the Crown paid the warranty,
It's the same old game repainted — deferred payment, dressed up new,
Victoria's tracks, Lamont's hospitals — history keeps rhyming through.
[Chorus]
Paga depois, constrói agora, that's the private finance way,
Fora do balanço — out of sight, where the liabilities stay,
Sessenta bilhões built it, cento e noventa e nove's the debt,
O futuro paga a conta — essa é a lição, não esqueça ainda.
[Outro]
Dívida escondida, não se esconde pra sempre, não,
Sixty built the buildings, two hundred's the obligation,
Pague depois, constrói agora — till twenty-forty's horizon,
O futuro paga a conta — remember well this lesson.