Privatisation

[B0ycey]

Missing the point,most don't want or need a landline,internet is going to fibre.

Whatever the optics, the point is you need a line to connect to the Internet. There is a reason BT is an Internet provider and another reason you are actually provided a phone number when your broadband is set up.

[cromwell]

Depends whether you want the Internet or not Cromwell.

Missing the point,most don't want or need a landline,internet is going to fibre.

[B0ycey]

Who wants a phone line these days?

Depends whether you want the Internet or not Cromwell.

[cromwell]

Yes & No.

Who's told to wait months for a phone line these days...?

Who wants a phone line these days?

[cromwell]

Were gas and electric still in public ownership would there still be the problems we face now?........yes but nowhere near as bad.

The outrageous standing charges in order to pay for the companies that went down and ran off with the cash,the surviving companies that regard your direct debit and money as theirs to plunder for running costs.....still need to keep the shareholders happy,add in what I call short termism and the total lack of forward planning and investment when times were good.

If I had a chance to tell Sid now it might make his ears burn.

[Barry]

Water has not been affected in the same way as energy. With water we cannot switch supplier for a better deal.

However with energy, we can, and until recently Uswitch and other companies have made a rake-off every time someone used them to switch.
The problem was, new companies sprung up like weeds with inadequate business models. Prices increased and they went to the wall.

The larger companies took on the new customers and they could not cope with the pressure, degrading their customer services.
Now even the big companies are under pressure because of price increases, whilst most users are reverting to a standard rate because we don't have crystal balls.

Unfortunately, many of these companies are in foreign hands, which makes renationalisation difficult.
My own plan would be to have a National gas company, a national electricity company with no profit and no loss. Underwritten by government. Every domestic consumer to pay the same price. No VAT on fuel as it is a necessity like food.

[B0ycey]

Yes & No.

The answer of course is no. Once you bring in a profit motive on a vital service you instantly increase the cost for the consumer by a large factor. You doubt that I wonder? Perhaps ask the US about their health and education costs.

[srb7677]

Who's told to wait months for a phone line these days...?

Telecoms is not a uitlity like gas, electricity or water. And competition works effectively with telecoms in a way that it never has with gas, electricity and water.

[srb7677]

Does anybody still think the utilities going private was a good idea?

No one with any sense can surely think that.

And yet no one in Westminster with any chance of power is anymore advocating doing anything to correct it.

Even though between two thirds and three quarters of the electorate support bringing the utilities back into public ownership.

Rising energy costs leading to massive profits because markets make this possible rather than simply charging what they need to and no more is surely increasing the attractiveness of nationalisation still further.

But the thatcherite establishment view this as "far left" and Labour as well as Lib Dems and Tories are now thoroughly in the grip of these establishmentarians. We thus look set to be run by supporters of the establishmentarian elites rather than champions of the masses, whatever the outcome of the next election.

Little wonder that so many Scots are voting SNP. I'd be doing the same if I lived in Perth, Glasgow, or Aberdeen, instead of Plymouth.

[T00ts]

Surely the utilities have never operated properly. 

[patman post]

Does anybody still think the utilities going private was a good idea?

Yes & No.

Who's told to wait months for a phone line these days...?

[B0ycey]

Does anybody still think the utilities going private was a good idea?

With a forum full of Tory "hug a Johnson" Libertarians, it should be everyone. That is why we don't trust Labour isn't it guys? The dirty Socialists would re nationalise everything.

FYI, 'Road to Selfdom' was one of Thatchers favourite books.

[cromwell]

Does anybody still think the utilities going private was a good idea?