Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

Time to go back and un-privatise all those departments that were privatised. Doesn't work, won't work and never will work! All privatisation has brought is huge hypes in prices. They are pricing themselves out the door!

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

Well, as I'm wearing my cynical head, I would say there isn't real competition. I believe they price fix between themselves and prices rarely come down and, on the odd occasion they do, it's never at the speed they went up.

I remember the Office of Fair Trading was supposed to be looking into why Britain was being charged almost double for CDs and DVDs than any other country - as far as I'm aware, nothing came of that. It's also cheaper to buy cars anywhere other than Britain; there was a case a few years ago where an Irish reporter bought a car from an Irish supplier for £x then an English reporter from the same company rang the same dealer and was given a higher price. The problem is also the existence of multi-nationals who end up with a monopoly and you can't fight against that sometimes.

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

Hang on! that is what we are told in Australia can't be true in both places.

In fact the family car, Holden Commodore VFs exported to the USA and sold as Chevrolet SS are cheaper there than here. Work that one out.

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

If only I could Bruce - it would appear that it has been decided that some markets will tolerate higher prices than others; more fool us eh ...

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

People, you all say that privatisation hasn't worked and that the utilities should be put back into public ownership - yes I agree, but who amongst you back in 1979 and through the 1980s voted for Thatcher???

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

Efficient at making profit for shareholders ! If they were publically owned no profit would need to be made and we could invest in new power stations.

Mind I am glad they weren't in public hands during the labour fiasco-imagine the green taxes they would have levied given a chance like that !!

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

I don't have a gripe with Thatcher in particular but I believe many people were delighted to be able to buy their council home that they'd lived in for years and gave them a leg up onto the property ladder - one they may not have had had their council home not been sold to them. Labour have sold utilities - you'd think, given their anti-Tory stance, that they'd learned that lesson but apparently, it must be paying dividends for the country to do exactly that yet they still sold Thames Water to the Australians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemble_Water_Limited. Water is the one commodity that should definitely not be privatised as people have no other choice but to pay whatever is charged and as fresh water starts to dwindle around the world - will fresh water be sent to the countries that can afford to pay the most for it? It appears that is exactly what has started to happen http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...d-s-water.html.

I won't even start about half-witted Brown (the so-called talented economist) who sold of the UKs gold reserves when gold was at an all-time low and he completely ignored the BofE advice not to see it - but he did. Labour are no better; they are just as bad.

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

Aren't all the utillity companies in foreign ownership, how could they now be re-nationalized?.

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

Mine isn't Paul , I understand OVO is UK based with private finance. They were Top Energy Provider in the Which? Switch consumer survey 2011.

Re: Should Essential Services Be Government Owned?

Private enterprise watches the bottom line while a government-run utility's practices and budget are open to scrutiny. I worry about quality of services and safety of the employees being compromised in a competitive situation. (Maybe that's just me.)