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Originally Posted by Damien
Some industries are much better privatised. Especially telecoms. That said I don't think all of them are and it's become something of pushing the ideology at all costs no matter what. You need to take it as a case-by-case issue rather than privatisation = good, nationalisation = bad.
Rail I don't think it makes sense to privatise as there is only one track and thus competition is meaningless. Once they have the franchise then they don't have long to turn a profit. This is why state investment has only increased since it was 'privatised' as there is no incentive for the private companies to invest. Remember that awful tender that FirstGroup put up where they claimed they would pay more and have cheaper tickets? Never made any sense and thankfully Virgin took it to court at which point the Government 'saw some mistakes' and pulled the tender.
Britain is rare in having a privatised runway. France and Germany do not. Even America, home of capitalism and competition, don't have it.
Royal Mail I am not sure of either but we'll wait and see how that turns out. I worry about the uneconomical deliveries. How long before villages get a few deliveries a week?
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State investment has increased since privatisation because prior to that, there had been 50-odd years of chronic underinvestment and certain parts of the network were becoming dangerous. Signing contracts with 3rd parties to run services creates obligations around the quality of the infrastructure. Companies like Virgin and First don't appreciate the reputational damage caused by faulty tracks and signals killing their customers.
Once upon a time, Britain was rare in having a railway at all. Being prepared to do things differently to our competitors used to be considered one of our great strengths.