I set out to a meeting organised by OUCA how in the 1970 s nationalised industries sacked many employees, put up prices and delivered poor service to customers, and cost taxpayers a fortune in losses, subsidies and investment spending.
I went on to highlight the same bad patterns in our current nationalised industries.
The Post Office sacking and imprisoning good honest employees
HS2 costing us a fortune and failing to deliver any rail journeys on time or to budget
Steel absorbing large sums to pay losses,probably ending in job losses and compensation to the Chinese.
It’s more a case of nationalised industries owning us and plundering our bank accounts, rather than us owning and benefitting from the nationalised industries. We used to own something called public dividend share in some of them but instead of paying us dividends they usually sent us big bills to pay their losses.
https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fdrive%2Ffolders%2F1bubP0hkT3IGIgXvLMrQAVl4wIzIpWetH%3Fusp%3Dsharing
May 25, 2026
So with any new Nationalised projects we need to learn from past mistakes and create industries which are not ruled by any other than British , thereby ensuring permanence on British soil.
If as you prefer, private companies take over,then a clause written into contracts that their business ( note ,not our business) must remain in GB .
I am not for giving power away to others ,for example in the NHS ,which has more or less ruined it.
May 25, 2026
The problem was, all nationalised industries were run by the unions which were dominated by communists. We see the behaviour on the London Underground and the Teachers Unions.
Their mission is to cause chaos and disruption putting the customers and taxpayers a very distant last.
We are approaching the same circumstances with this government which is dominated by union sponsored MPs.
God help us if Rayner gets to be PM with Milibrain pulling her strings. Nothing short of a revolution can save us and I fear that’s not far off.
May 25, 2026
“The problem was, all nationalised industries were run by the unions”. The further problems of course is that the Labour parties and many politicians are also largely under the control of some unions.
May 25, 2026
MBJ: The notion of NEEDING to learn from past mistakes lacks professionalism. Many mistakes are foreseeable and can be prevented or avoided by sensible management.
It’s much easier to plan, assess and steer a path beforehand than allow a disastrous outcome like that of HS2 to occur to realise only after the event what would have been better at the outset.
May 25, 2026
Nearly all government errors have been entirely predicable the Net Zero Hoax, the ERM, Blair’s wars, the banking crash, Blair’s botched devolution, HS2, the sick Joke AirCraft Carriers, most defence contracts, the Covid vaccines and lockdown disasters, the dire NHS structures, border controls, the loan for largely worthless degrees, the blood collected from US prisoner contamination scandal… most sensible and rational people could see and predict these JR himself predicted most of them.
May 26, 2026
Before Blair’s Devolution muddle, MPs represented their constituencies at Westminster. They were free to vote on their local issues in any cluster that suited them.
What Blair caused is another needless layer of government with all its bureaucracy, overlap, conflict and waste.
Possibly the only sensible thing Blair did was to restrict smoking to improve the nation’s health.
May 28, 2026
The whole concept of need , change and evolution is how life works.
We have a limited time on earth and different people with different ideas bring change.
May 25, 2026
@MBJ – 100% correct, and the UK Parliament still doesn’t get it. Taxpayer money is still feeding these monsters, which for the most part is taxpayer money is being exported to regimes that would never allow similar to happen to them.
The problem is the UK Parliament, the Establishment see themselves in those that they hand our industries too, monolithic taxpayer junkies that don’t like competition or having to justify themselves.
May 25, 2026
Any business is a commercial activity operating in a market, but if you apply socialist principles to the business or the market then failure is inevitable.
Here’s a fun fact, China’s government expenditure as a percentage of GDP is LOWER than the UK; 33% v 44%. according to the IMF Which is the socialist country?https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/exp@FPP/USA/FRA/JPN/GBR/SWE/ESP/ITA/ZAF/IND
May 25, 2026
Indeed and in the UK we have the worse of all. A huge government spending a large percentage of GDP very inefficiently and often doing huge net harms £600 billion on net harm Covid Vaccines and lockdowns, £1 trillion + on net harm Net Zero, bat tunnels, fish discos, HS2… then we have over regulation, mad employments laws, over restrictive planning – which misdirects both the private sector and the state sector wasting further £billions.
May 25, 2026
@Lifelogic – its amusing all those that want to replace 2TK all have one thing in common, new and more taxation. What’s it for? To support the blundering state hooked on giving other peoples money with no regards to the where and how of its productive outcome
May 25, 2026
Indeed all the contenders have the same mad policies open door low skilled immigration, rip off net zero energy, over regulation, no deterrent criminal justice, woke lunacy, duff defence systems, anti free speech and vast levels of taxes and bloated government. Much not just wasted but actually spent doing vast harm.
May 26, 2026
theguardian.com 25/05/2026 ‘UK’s higher-earning immigrants may be driven out by tougher rules, report suggests‘.
gov.uk 12/05/2026 ‘Who stays, who leaves? Evidence from administrative records on the Skilled Worker route’, Migration Advisory Committee report.
One of the main findings of that report is that ‘migrants with the highest salaries (£125,000+ per year in our sample (of 900,000 immigrants between 2014-2024) appear to have lower stay rates than average particularly over the longer term (beyond five years)’.
May 26, 2026
By “tougher rules” I presume you are including the higher taxation changes on higher earners and their businesses over the last few years
May 25, 2026
Current average prices of electricity are approximately:United Kingdom: $ 0.40 per kWh, USA $0.15 per kWh China: $0.09 per kWh.
How much does our mad government spend and regulate to give us this outcome.
How much do the spend resisting freedom of information request for health statistics broken down by Covid Vaccines status? They clearly know the truth so how long will this deception last? As long as Hillsborough, the Blood Contamination scandals, the absurd 15 convictions and refused rights to appeal of Lucy Letby and thousands of other scandals.
Yet so few prosecution for malfeasance in public office, a very high bar as an ex DPP lawyer described it on World at one on Friday, It certainly must be either a high bar or more likely endless cover ups by the blob.
May 25, 2026
@Lifelogic – yet the UK Parliament will support giving UK Taxpayer money to China. Scunthorpe Steel supported by the UK taxpayer paying tax in China. Yet no UK business would be permitted to buy a Chinese Company in China on a similar footing. China has protected market place.
That is not ‘free trade’!
May 25, 2026
+1
May 25, 2026
Preparations are ongoing to place the UK under the direct control and authority of the EUs totalitarian Commission.
The mechanism to bring that state of affairs about is failure of government by design.
The most amazing feature of Keir Starmer’s ongoing presence, is how he seems completely unaffected by his abject failure and almost universal rejection even by his own party, yet he continues to deliver his failures with the same monotonous incompetence as if his rejection by the nation is of no consequence to him?
He is clearly supported by what he considers a more significant authority and it certainly is not the voters in our increasingly thread bare democracy.
Some say he is gaining his strength from the Fabian society members that he is part of, others suggest it’s the Chinese support.
I am sure there is some merit in that but I am ever more certain he is being maintained in office by the EU and its agents who continue to drive for a totally unified Europe no matter the social cost. I am convinced the destruction of the £pound as an independent exchange currency is part of the master plan of the EU. Once the £pound is lost the rescue mechanism will be a forced abandonment and adoption of the Euro, along with permanent membership of the EU under rescue status conditions.
Total subservience to the EU Commission and its absolute inflexible rules.
I am now sure that is what Starmer is engaged in promoting. Nationalisation is simply another indication of the totalitarian government objective he is focused on delivering…for the Greater EU.
May 25, 2026
@Rod Evans – ideology is above common sense and is supported by the UK Parliament and its Establishment from someone the ‘hates’ the UK with a passion.
Self determination, freedom and democracy being banished because the UK Parliament has made it possible
May 25, 2026
To take just one example:
You make many justiiable criticisms of past nationalised industry. But look at privatised water, it’s been a disaster.
Pollution pumped into the rivers and sea with alarming regularity. Never enough water reserves for a hot Summer. Busted pipes pumping water into the roads for weeks on end. The cost of domestic water going through the roof. All the while exectuvies, CEO’s, Chairmen picking up huge salaries and bonuses.
You surely don’t consider this a success of privatisation.
Learn from the past, re-nationalise English water and appoint a government minister/body to oversee it’s actions.
Reply I was against how they privatised water. I agree it is almost as bad as the nationalised water industry was, which tipped loads of sewage into rivers and onto beaches without even monitoring or telling us what it was doing. The main win from water privatisation was taking their cap ex out of public spending and taxing.
May 25, 2026
Taking their Cap Ex out of public spending and taxation. Loading the bill payers instead. Thames Water is a classic example of the ( bad conduct ed) in the Water Industry. Bought by Maquarrie,Bank fom Australia asset stripped and loaded with debt and now bankrupt. This disgrace should never have been allowed but when Ofwat is full of ( people not getting a grip? dd)what do you expect.
As with Ofcom which spends most of it’s time chasing GB news while letting the BBC mark its own homework, oversight of demand nationalised industries is a joke.
May 25, 2026
Privatisation done badly. I remember how in Portsmouth the water board pumped raw sewage out to sea on the tide. What would it be like today with a nationalised industry? Unions calling their members out on strike every year, holding the country to ransom with the government caving in to their every demand.
The solution should have been to have given the privatised shares to the customers, with the proviso they couldn’t sell them but surrender them when they moved out of the area, with new customers getting shares automatically.
As it is, the answer is better regulation, with running costs, necessary maintenance and service development taking priority over debt interest payments in law.
May 25, 2026
Indeed the state is appalling at running things but equally appalling at privatising things and regulating things.
Water, trains, the banks, equitable life, energy, the police, social services, schools, universities, the justice system…
May 25, 2026
The talk was excellent in content and beautifully delivered based on experience at the key times. This was rich in valuable educational content for its direct audience and way beyond.
Those who were born when personal mobile phones were the norm will have been shocked at the awkward way Post Office Telecommunications restricted the market and delayed access in those dark days. Even large numbers of public phones were vandalised beyond use, further endangering those needing emergeny services.
May 25, 2026
@Bloke – unfortunately there is a bit of a contradiction there, now called BT and they still dictate the market pricing structure. While they are the suppliers to their competition they demand, get and ensure everyone increases prices by the same margin at the same time each year.
Reply BT has lost my broadband and mobile account to competitors
May 25, 2026
@Reply – BT’s push to what they want to call ‘Digital Voice'(which I understand the reasoning), pushed me away. Their operative wanted to ‘argue’ that really did it. It is simply VOIP for phone calls, digitat voice is meaningless. The BT guy was insistent that I had to pay for BT Broadband to have VOIP, i.e. pay for the same twice. Needless to say I like many just moved. It is weird, the bit I am trying to get used to, I can be in the USA and still make and receive calls with the same number as if I am in Wokingham.
May 25, 2026
The current crop of Labour MPs are too young to remember how bad nationalised industries were. Note how last week a minister was posing proudly in front of a train with the new livery of Great British Rail. They seem to think just the fact it is nationalised will somehow make it better. I doubt they’ll be happy to pose for photos when it turns out the nationalised service is equally as unreliable, unpunctual, expensive, and strike-hit as it was before, literally all that will change is the paintwork.
Reply Yes a train designed,built and ordered by private sector compAnies
May 25, 2026
My observation; there are some high profile privatisation ‘attempts’ that still suck in the taxpayers money seemingly as a ‘right’. That is not privatisation, that is still State Control, as it is the State that is responsible for the spend of taxpayer money no one else
I get and believe that the State should not run or own (because it doesn’t know how to) businesses. Steel, the PO, Rail, the BBC and others actually demand that the taxpayer funds them. Then the kicker the Government supports the handing over of other peoples hard earned money.
It becomes more galling when this taxpayer money is going to outfits that are protected in their ‘home market’ and pay the tax in those markets.
Privatisation should and only work as intended when those companies compete in the market place, and their existence is dictated by the customer/consumer having choice.
This also were what we refer to as the ‘free market’ collapses. It exposes how weak, infective and inexperienced the UK Parliament and what we call the State is generally. The first principle of a free market is the ‘level playing field’ and the reciprocity of the trading. The UK Parliament allows the UK to get stamped on, gets excited about one sided deals, the UK gives and those that distort trade take. The UK Parliament would sooner give a protected regime hard earned taxpayer money than seek an open and fair trading market.
Privatisation can be seen to have failed, because the UK Parliament has failed. The UK Parliament fails when it has to pay and pay with other peoples money to keep things off the States books. The UK Parliament and the Establishment don’t and have never served the customer, it is demonstrated daily it doesn’t have the business acumen or understanding too even manage themselves.
Privatisation, perfect in concept just badly implemented in the UK
There is more to this failure than that, but a bank holiday and a bit of brevity
May 25, 2026
231 ‘illegal immigrants’ invaded the UK yesterday 24th May 2026 …
May 25, 2026
The met-office will today record the hottest day of May, ever recorded, as measured from the tailpipe of a 747 aeroplane as it takes off from a concrete runway surrounded by large brick building …..that if the measuring device is working or actually there, and not an estimate …..be care out there
May 25, 2026
What are the links at the bottom of your post – they do not seem to work?
May 25, 2026
If I enter the link from the second “https” I get:
“The shared Google Drive folder is currently private and requires updated sharing permissions to allow access [1]. Please adjust the settings to “Anyone with the link can view” to allow for processing of the files [1].”
May 25, 2026
We need to privatise (de-nationalise) the NHS and education/schools as the only way to remove the control held by the Fabian Marxists who are deliberately destroying both institutions. Robert Conquest’s 2nd and 3rd laws of politics are quite evident. As a start it should become the moral duty for anyone who can afford it to use private medicine or education so as to leave the state system for those who cannot.
May 25, 2026
@Original Richard – when looked at objectively the NHS is the easiest and simplest of all organisations to privatise. There is a great deal of independence between the service providers, Doctors etc once qualified tend to be self-employed contractors. Its Political Ideology that is the block and the fact that one party in Parliament is there from the fact money they get is from the Unions involved in securing the ideology. The UK Parliament is in fear of its-self
May 26, 2026
The NHS is described as free at the point of use, but all its costs are added to the next tax and NI bill people pay soon after. Private medicine is free at the point of use until the bill arrives.
GPs operate private businesses. The NHS buys medicine, goods, services, equipment and buildings produced by private businesses, and could not exist without them.
If people had an annual allowance to spend on what medical care suited them and paid the government for the excess, much of the extreme waste would be eliminated.
May 25, 2026
“The Post Office sacking and imprisoning good honest employees”
How is it that we have such an appalling justice system that so many innocent people post office workers and other can be wrongly convicted? How is it that Lucy Letby can be clearly unsafely convicted (BEYOND reasonable doubt they claim) of 15 offences when it is far from clearly that any murders or attempted murders were committed at all by anyone let alone Lucy Letby. How is it that six learned appeal court judges in two applications will not even give her the right to an appeal – not even on any one of 15 clearly unsafe convictions.
May 25, 2026
@Lifelogic – then reflect the Post Office Minister, the one in charge and managing the operation on behalf of the electorate and taxpayer at the time, which to date has cost the taxpayer £1.1billion expected to exceed £2billion. These costs to be found from the Taxpayer, the PO Minister went on to receive a Knighthood for services to the public?
Then when we believe the UK Parliament has lost the plot, they confirm it.
May 25, 2026
Isn’t the Government the ultimate nationalised industry? Once elected for five years, we have no control over bad decisions, decisions which cost lots of taxpayers’ money, decisions which go against voters’ wishes, decisions which are against democracy? Who voted for Net Zero? Who voted for HS2? Who voted for closer ties with the EU? Who voted to freeze income tax thresholds? Who voted to constantly borrow money?
Why do MPs lose any sense of financial reality when they are elected?
In this day and age when referendums are easy to organise, Government should have to seek permission for major expenditure. Equally we need a recall system for MPs so they can’t ignore us for five years. Please don’t tell me they get permission through their election manifesto, because that is a joke!
May 25, 2026
Why do MPs lose any sense of financial reality when they are elected? Not their money so they care not!
May 25, 2026
Much is made of the cost of energy in the UK; we know that this high price comes from a convoluted regime of taxpayer funded tariffs and subsidies. Then factor in that the industry is predominantly foreign state owned.
This means that not only is the UK is hostage to the political whims of other Nations and that the UK taxpayer is supporting propping up Foreign Governments. A loose, loose for the UK
Sort of a contradictory version of privatisation, the UK Taxpayer still pays but it is this time a foreign Government to support their own Nationalised Industry. Yet the UK Parliament shrugs its shoulders and wants more of the same.
May 25, 2026
Our local BT ‘High Speed’ Broadband is so slow that I cannot be confident that I heard the whole of your talk, but what I did hear was most impressive in the clarity of its message. Why do we not hear the same message of condemnation of Nationalisation so clearly from anyone else in the current Conservative Party?
May 25, 2026
The Norwegian Government Fund (used for pensions etc) financed by its license fees from the production of oil and gas in the North Sea, has grown to be the World’s Largest such fund – £1.2trillion. This week it was shown this investment fund now has holdings equivalent to 1.5% of every public quoted company in the ‘World’. What has the UK Parliament got to show from its same income source?
It’s a bit like the Marshal Plan, the money to rebuild and restructure after WW2 was generously made available by the US Taxpayer. Germany and the UK on their knees. Germany used it to create/invest in a future, a strong resilient future that is still achieving and moving forward today. The UK, the UK Parliament effectively as they say in some quarters ‘pissed it up the wall’ chucked it at socialist ideology to preen personal ‘ego’ and today they have nothing to show for it, a bit like the massive licence fees from Oil & Gas – results none existent.
The UK Parliament is comfortable with Nationalised Industries, comfortable giving UK taxpayer money to foreign protected and or nationalised industries. As it reflects how they see the World, with large, institutions like themselves running and controlling the World. The only problem, they don’t have the expertise, experience and the wherewithal so everyone else gets to run rings around them, they get to lose other peoples money hand over fist on the same well-worn mistakes.
The UK Parliaments record Auto Industry, Energy, Ship Building, Air-planes, Coal, Steel and many more all could be run better in a competitive World by the UK Parliament according to them. How has that turned out? Jobs and money down the drain
May 25, 2026
The money from the British oil and gas was spent on tax reductions, stabilising the public finances.
A longer story can be found in ‘Thatcher’s North Sea: The return of cheap oil and the ‘neo-liberalisation’ of European energy’, Contemp.Eur.History, 33,1, Cambridge U.Press, 09/12/2022.
Very worth reading the full article, particularly for those here who call the EU ‘communists’…. If it’s too long for you you might want to read only the conclusion ‘The dark side of cheap carbon’.
May 26, 2026
Fuelling the enormous lift in British living standards and productivity which created the wealth we have lived off for some time.
Trust you to prefer a government stashing assets away for itself rather than recognising that the Sovereigns, the People, should benefit and prosper from the commodities and assets of their own land.
If this is too complicated for you try this instead:
‘Thatcher thought the windfall belonged to the people and not the government.’
May 26, 2026
@hefner – someone else’s opinion and not your own as always
May 25, 2026
John
The Murrell outcome raises a difficulty etc
Reply The items he bought with SNP funds are appearing in the papers. His wife has made clear she had a good salary and her own bank account. She believed his purchases were out of his own good income. The £400,000 was stolen over more than 10 years.
May 28, 2026
When you have time, listen to David Attenborough on U tube “what happens if you become immortal.”