There may be no national policy of renationalising the railways, but that's where we're headed; by this year around 40% of passenger rail-KMs were being managed by the state.
This would be so much better if it were a clear & well managed policy, not the political result of fire-fighting as subsidy-hungry operators still fail to provide an acceptable service.
Like other privatisations, its time to conclude there are some 'natural monopolies' that should be state-run!
This is the classic scam. Privatise an essential service. Load it with masses of debt, while investing the minimum it can get away with. Pay shareholders as much as it can get away with. When it collapses, walk away so the state has to pick up the pieces until it becomes viable again. Rinse and repeat.
Great news for NHS privatisers this morning. The Tories' policy is working.
"That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital"
Noam Chomsky
A brand new Oxford University analysis has debunked #NHS privatisation.
Oxford researchers looked at studies of healthcare #privatisation and found they agreed on one thing: privatisation leads to poorer quality care for patients.
Here's a podcast on New Books Network where I talk about (surprise surprise) my new book, 'Visions of a Digital Nation', and why Margaret Thatcher's 1984 #privatisation of British Telecom was a pivotal moment for both #neoliberalism and #digitalisation.
@jacobward@histodons@sts One of the shocks was the consequences of the industrial action. When the engineers walked out the union expected the system would stop after a few weeks. In fact the reverse happened with the number of faults reduced by 30%. Following years lead to a push to improve quality of work and reductions in the workforce. Now modern technology has changed and some buildings have become redundant.