public services and housing back into public ownership?

[Osem]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

me too
we as a nation are being fleeced by greedy share holders and bosses who reep huge bonus payments for doing nothing,
and while were at it re nationalise the railways there completely over the top with pricing .

Let's not forget that these shareholders include (to a very great extent) pension funds, life insurance providers etc. who, in return for the investment they make, receive the dividend income with which to pay us out.

[BBKing]

Blair and Brown between them took a functioning, broadly working class party, but one that was also strongly middle class, and reduced it to a shell. They closed down all the channels by which working class people could express themselves, through their unions and their local parties. If they hadn’t closed down the Labour party in that way, they might not have made the catastrophic mistake in carrying on Thatcher’s ban on council house building, And they’re now surprised that working class people are angry? What fuels the anger of those working class voters is that their kids have got nowhere to live.

Not naming the author here, you can work it out.

[m419]

Privatisation can be reversed very easily, the goverment can introduce a new act making it a requirement where the goverment has to own around 50% of the business, that will wipe the smile off there faces as there is nothing in it for them!

It is very easy to re-nationalise the following:

BT
Cable and Wireless
National Grid Gas (Formerly Transco and was the original British Gas supply arm)
Local electricity distribution firms such as EDF,Western Power,CE power ect...
Train operating companies
50% privately owned share in London underground limited
Privately run parts of the NHS
The Post Office
Water boards

And quite a few more.

Network Rail which physically owns Britains railways NOT the trains and retail arm is a not-for-profit company which I believe is publicly owned unlike Railtrack.

However, it will prove difficult bringing these into public ownership:

Cable companies such as Virgin Media and Smallworld
Mobile phone network operators
Private and independent TV Broadcasters such as Virgin Media TV,Channel 4,BskyB

The reason why it will be difficult,is because they are commercially run and where built out of there own investment.

The way to bring them back under public ownership is to increase regulation,removing trading licences and basically changing regulation.

But there is also a way of chasing out those mobile phone firms too, if BT was publicly owned, they could increase the cost to the mobile companies for using BT's network to the point where the could not afford, once that has been achieved, the mobile networks could be all merged together bring perfect 100% 3G quality.

The whole point of privatising was to create a free market and to leave off monopolies and duopolies, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Take a look at this:

Someone living in London using EDF Energy for electricity switiches to Npower, but hold on,EDF Energy are also the distributors for that area too! So you can't get away from them! I think that it is wrong for a distributor to also have a retail arm within the same coverage area.

Another example is the water utility companies, your stuck with the same company unless you move to another area.

Choice of services seems to be drying up again and its the same old companies floating around for business.