Although there is potentially a cash benefit (profits available to re invest in public services etc), There is a potentially much darker side to the "Big Government"

With Labours grand plan to take all of the major utilities back into state ownership, in terms of Union power and any future threat of strike action, what risk is there of a return to the 1970's with national strikes.
There is no doubt that the Unions would actually be the people in charge with the ability to stop the country in it's tracks at the first sign of discord.

The whole Labour plan is for the unions to rise in importance - they want collective bargaining run by the unions, McDonald has also said secondary picketing will be back on under Labour.

Those of us who lived through the seventies know what happens when you give the unions carte blanche - the NUM brought the country to a near standstill and a three day week. It reached it zenith under Callaghan.

The problem with public ownership you can't simply close down the entity so if the unions go on strike how do you stop it? In private ownership you can do an Ineos which pushed McClusky back in his 5 star hotel. I remember as a youngster in Bradford Baird had a huge factory in the city. Pat Wall was the union boss at the factory and he was going to bring Baird's to heel - sadly for the workers Baird's simply said up yours and 2/3,000 people lost their jobs. Wall was OK though he went on to be the local MP.

Be careful what you wish for.

Complete rubbish, nationalised industry is common throughout Europe and the rest of the World. It makes complete sense when the industry is a monopoly as is the case with Electricity, Gas, Water, Healthcare, Education and the Railways. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.inde ... html%3famp

Complete rubbish, nationalised industry is common throughout Europe and the rest of the World. It makes complete sense when the industry is a monopoly as is the case with Electricity, Gas, Water, Healthcare, Education and the Railways. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.inde ... html%3famp

I was associated with one of the privatised water companies throughout one of the 5 year Amp periods.

Total farce,

The water company made 10% profit
The water company solutions consultant made 10% profit
Each of the 3 delivery design consultants made 10% profit.
Each of the 3 delivery contractors made 10% profit.

Folk were told in briefings not to admit to the water company of the profit levels being trousered.

That was just in the Capital Delivery side of things, not including operations and maintenance outsourcing.

And a lot of the equipment installed was crap, from preferred suppliers, with automated systems never working and switched to hand controls, all to reduce manpower and jobs.

And a lot of this cash leaving the country.

So multiply that up by the number of privatised utilities, shafted isn’t the word.

Add natural government inefficiency and all you so called profits will disappear - its really simple and there is a host of evidence to back up the additional costs by public ownership.

Are you saying the private sector is more efficient than the public? From what I've seen that is debatable in lots of organisations, particularly those like the big utilities where they aren't operating in genuinely competitive markets. Operations like the NHS and the old British Rail are/were profoundly lean setups squeezing a lot out of inadequate budgets.

NHS, lean?

You need a doctor, the NHS is massively financed, and incredibly wasteful.

I know it's fashionable to dismiss your arguments but go on then, give us detail and examples, metrics of outcomes vs spend and levels of overhead vs front line activity in public vs private healthcare to support one of your typically simplistic statements. I won't hold my breath.

And there is the nub of the nationalisation question.
Can the utilities be run as efficiently (or more so) under public ownership than they are in the private sector.
There is no doubt that these "monopolies" were sold off on the cheap to generate one off sums of cash for government coffers and there is equally no doubt than, many of the companies now running the "utilities" are making good money on the back of this, which should be pretty straightforward when they have a virtual monopoly.
I believe that the consumer would be the winner her as they would be protected from some of the swingeing increases in energy costs that we have all suffered in recent years and it's equally clear that "the market" hasn't helped keep prices down but, the big question is whether the Utilities would generate the same level of profit/cash surplus under government ownership and whether it's really worth the cost to find out.
Personally, I dont think there would be any massive benefit apart from possibly on rail and possibly royal mail.

I'm minded to agree, these aren't really priorities from my perspective but I can see the appeal ideologically if you are of the left.

The railways are moderately easy, just let the franchises expire and the government assumes control like happened on East Coast when the private sector demonstrated their incompetence.

What I am saying is if a private company runs out of cash it goes under - that is not the same for the public sector. Absence from work is significantly higher in the public sector. Add to that the influence of the unions - Labour want to give 5% increases - and these operations will soon be into a negative.

The idea that the NHS is a lean organisation is surely a joke - it does a good job but its far from being lean or anywhere close.

wow, you managed to read a whole sentence. The NHS is not lean, but keep kidding yourself.

Show us the evidence, I don’t believe there is any because it’s not true.

The NHS (public ownership) spend £2,892 per person, with everyone entitled to free healthcare.

In the USA (private ownership) they spend £7,617 per person, despite millions been entitled to no healthcare and left to die if they become sick.

Great post thanks for sharing your experience.
This just highlights how terrible privatising our utilities has been, they are a monopoly privatising them was only ever going to make us worse off, we can’t afford not to nationalise them.