Re: UK election June 8
 

Yep, I'll admit to being devastated at the news

Re: UK election June 8
 

I remember when my mum and dad bought their council house for 9 grand under Thatcher. My old man was always labour through and through, but being offered a step onto the housing market at a rock bottom price was too good to pass up. The trouble with principles is they always have a price, he'd have been an idiot to pass that up. Ironically the estate I grew up on is now largely private, and it's a total shit hole, I have fond memories growing up there. I'm over the moon that we didn't need a council house, if we did I may well have been cursing my Dad

Re: UK election June 8
 

Snob.. Our south London council flat wasn't so bad... and yet my father always voted conservative..

I remember violently arguing with work colleagues about privatisations. I disagreed with selling assets to those that could afford it and taking them away from those who by virtue of citizenship owned part but couldn't afford to profit from the sale.

Re: UK election June 8
 

haha. Our house was very well built it has to be said, strange enough my best mate and his wife bought it when parents decided to move to a more rural location. All the back allies are security fenced now cos of al the smackheads. I think the whole privatisation campagne was a total disaster from start to finish, balancing the books for the short term by selling our future. The railway especially is run with profit in mind rather than safety and reliability, as a direct result of privatisation. Privatising the NHS is well on the cards now, and when my Dad tells me 'best thing you did was getting out' I finding it harder to disagree.

Re: UK election June 8
 

Privatisation is a prime example of why I view the political class as a bunch of self serving thieves.

Let's consider the case of British Telecom (BT), privatised in 1984. As a UK citizen, the government on my behalf owned the company and as such I considered that I owned a part of it. This is much the same as the the purchase of RBS and the fact that UK taxpayers will need to help fund the interest payments on the bond sales that saved the bank shows where shareholder responsibility lies.

So what does the Thatcher government do. Does it say 'As part owner we will give you back your share so that you may sell it at your leisure'?

Or does it say 'We know you own part of it, but we're taking that away from you and giving you the chance to buy it back, and as as a sweetener we'll be selling your bit cheap so if you want you can buy the bit that some other poor soul can't afford and you'll be rich'? And guess who got first bite at the cherry?

Got it in one, what with Thatcher on the one hand and Blair on the other I can understand the attraction of Corbyn, but he has the likes of Abbot waiting to stab him in the back the moment he succeeds.

As for the Beast of Bolsover, I admire his grit and outward honesty but these days I'm afraid he's an amusing irrelevence.

Re: UK election June 8
 

Had you been given "your slice" of BT, would you have donated "your" full sale proceeds to the NHS or perhaps you would have built some schools or infrastructure with it?

Re: UK election June 8
 

Thatcher shouldn't have stolen and sold it in the first place. The issue is one of theft. If the government needed more cash than be up front about it and raise taxes or borrow it, don't steal it. But of course raising taxes is politically incorrect, much easier to grab it..

And No, I wouldn't have donated any proceeds to the NHS. I would expect my government to fund it with the National Insurance and taxes I paid.

Re: UK election June 8
 

Good grief.

So what about the proceeds, I don't see any complaints about those funds. Perhaps, by your reckoning, you should be getting your cheque book out and returning your share of the 'ill gotten' gains.

Re: UK election June 8
 

As was I, (death of John Smith) though I have never voted Labour in my life.

Re: UK election June 8
 

What exactly did happen with the proceeds? It's an honest question

Re: UK election June 8
 

It went into general revenue and was spent upon whatever the government of the day decided to spend it on.

Re: UK election June 8
 

Tax cuts for the rich :nod:

Re: UK election June 8
 

Which, as I am sure you are aware, actually raised more revenue for the government.

Re: UK election June 8
 

As I recall they also abolished exchange controls so that the beneficiaries were able to take their ill gotten gains out of the country to the detriment of the country.

Re: UK election June 8
 

Why were they ill gotten?

I accept that she did things that people didn't like, but she was able to do so as sufficient numbers of voters voted for her.