JonnyDBrit
Member
You know what gets me the most? And the thing that never (or at least rarely) gets brought up about this? That this was state money, TAXPAYERS money that built the utility industry, water, gas, electricity, strategic fuel pipeline, British Rail, forestry commission, Eurostar, Royal Mail etc etc AD FUCKING NAUSEUM.
It wasn't the government's to sell off. These all belonged to the people and in many cases should have remained so.
I don't know what more politicians (left and right) don't say this. This was not yours to sell. It was ours and you had no right.
For the Tories, it's pretty obvious - a lot of these sell offs have been to friends, party donors, or otherwise people of the same broad social standing. Plus since they tend to be the ones behind such things, they have to remain committed to those choices otherwise what was the point?
With the likes of Labour, I imagine in part the fear has long been backlash about the likely level of expenditure they would have to make in order to things re-nationalised. Yes, the decision would almost certainly be in the national interest, make most sense in the long run, and is fundamentally the moral choice given the nature of such services, but they'll get crap about big government interfering with the market and being fiscally irresponsible, with the Tories threatening to undo any effort they make if and when they back into power. So why even bother? Or so they think.