The Maybot looking slightly less than ‘strong & stable’ today while being interviewed against the backdrop of an NHS IT shutdown.
They aren’t going to buy them back, they are just going to not renew franchises.
East coast trains did rather well for the nation’s coffers in the short time it was renationalised, although the current owners have promised to return a bigger profit …eventually, possibly, maybe one day in the distant future with plenty of government subsidy,
That’s the train companies. Royal Mail, and I assume the power companies, have shareholders, who will expect to be compensated.
Compulsory purchase? At a greatly reduced market value. Works on home owners 
That, or just give em what they paid which was basically fuck all
That’s how I assumed it would work, but the purchase will still run into billions, and will need to be financed with borrowing. I’m interested if it makes financial sense.
It makes more sense than tax cuts for the wealthy
Take the opportunity to push Labour to the left for another generation and relegate them to a sideline in British politics. This makes way for a center party to come to the fore and push through proportional representation thus relegating the far right to history for generations to come. Don’t vote tactically, just vote for who best represents your views.
The thinking goes like this:
They are going to lose anyway so might as well let the Tories take the rap for Brexit.
Once thy have lost they either keep JC or elect another authoritarian left wing leader using their disastrous leadership electoral system.
Once embedded on the left their vote shrinks. Labour supporters want the former anyway, the latter is just an inevitable consequence.
New centrist party fills the gap in five to ten years.
Without that kind of movement in British politics we are fucked to a Tory hegemony which, de facto, is self perpetuating as the Scottish Nationalists retain left and center votes in Scotland.
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They don’t normally open emails saying “your invoice” so why the fuck did they do it this time?
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Tru dat
No, I think it has to be market value.
I did some work on Chinese projects (these were $100m+ projects), and the Chinese government mandated a clause whereby they could sequester the asset, with no compensation payment. My client, the company looking to provide the asset, could eventually get comfortable with this, with the reasoning that if the government exercised this clause, nobody would invest in the country for years. A government has to behave reasonably, or nobody will do business with it.
There are other interesting ways to deal with renationalision though. Set up an energy company that doesn’t have to pay shareholders; eventually everyone will switch to it, surely? Don’t renew rail franchises, although you still need to buy the trains back.
One other project I worked on was Manchester Waste PFI. In that, the Authority has recently (last week) decided to cancel the deal; this will involve paying a fuck-ton of compensation to the Contractor, although this could be mitigated in some ways. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.
It wasn’t the case for the Olympics,
Paid compensation was at a value 5-10 years out of date
There was a lot of stuff regarding the Olympics that was fucked up, due to the timescales. Doesn’t excuse it, mind.
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A bit of fun.
Some vintage Mark Steel ranting there.
Another piece of 1970s extreme communism is the proposal to reserve 4,000 homes across Britain for the homeless. Only a Marxist from the 1970s would wish to exercise state control like that, taking a small businessman, who’s created wealth by placing a polystyrene cup next to his blanket and the chicken nuggets he’s taken from a bin, and forcing him against his will to give up his dream and be warm.
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Brilliant, she tore him apart, although to be fair he’s not much of a challenge.
Tories are the party for fox longevity… 