Could public services realistically be fully renationalised again?

[hilts]

Like BT, British Gas, British Airways, the Railways, the water companies, electricity? All shining examples of brilliant customer service allied to giving the best deals to their customer base? Or circle, the private company that took over an NHS hospital and bailed out once it realised how difficult it was.
I suppose you could point to the banking industry as an example of the private sector doing a brilliant job and never relying on government handouts.

You would have to show me that exact part of my post that said all private companies do a brilliant job. Only then can we explore your simplistic views.

 

[malg]

Unions.

No.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

No because once you change the employees from private to public, from management down, their whole attitude changes.

I don’t necessarily agree with this. I deal with many people in local government who display many laudable qualities, including delivering a good and efficient service to the end user.

 

[hilts]

I don’t necessarily agree with this. I deal with many people in local government who display many laudable qualities, including delivering a good and efficient service to the end user.

My post was more to do with financials rather than in person contact. It's two separate cultures each with their unique positives and negatives.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

My post was more to do with financials rather than in person contact. It's two separate cultures each with their unique positives and negatives.

I completely accept that, and there can be no doubt that organisations that are in state hands tend to stifle innovation and creativity. My rule of thumb is where people have a genuine choice, private companies are the preferred type of organisation to deliver the best product to the end user; where they do not have any meaningful choice, they should usually be owned and operated by the state at the core, with provision for privately owned support services at the periphery. For that reason, I believe the railways and utilities should be state owned.

 

[Fame Monster]

The private sector should be nowhere near a lot of these services and it’s a national disgrace that some of these companies are avoiding corporations tax, taking vast sums of money out of the country and paying chief execs ludicrous amounts of money that should be going back into public services, thereby reducing the burden on service-users and UK taxpayers. It’s not radical to renationalise services where people have pretty much no choice but to use, and these companies have almost no ability to innovate; it’s just common sense. There are obviously things to be wary about, including trade unions taking the piss etc, but that’s an easy fix when you consider the country loses billions every year with many of these contracts.

 

[hilts]

I completely accept that, and there can be no doubt that organisations that are in state hands tend to stifle innovation and creativity. My rule of thumb is where people have a genuine choice, private companies are the preferred type of organisation to deliver the best product to the end user; where they do not have any meaningful choice, they should usually be owned and operated by the state at the core, with provision for privately owned support services at the periphery. For that reason, I believe the railways and utilities should be state owned.

Agreed it might help if we had decent ombudsmen. I certainly don’t see how a trial run on a train franchise can’t be worth a try.

 

[Ban-jani]

I hope so

 

[BlueAnorak]

There’s a lot of talk about Labour renationalising rail, water and mail.

I believe the rail network is in public control and the idea would be to wait for rail franchises to run out and then not renew. It’s hard to imagine with the pressure in the NHS and education alone for this to be feasible in my opinion.

Is it a realistic option?

Yes it is. It will take 5 years + as Franchises run out.
Personally I think nationalisation is a bad idea as I remember how SHIT British Rail was. I'd have rail franchises owned by not-for-profit companies owned by the staff and customers.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Yes it is. It will take 5 years + as Franchises run out.
Personally I think natioslisation is a bad idea as I remember how SHIT British Rail was. I'd have rail franchises owned by not-for-profit companies owned by the staff and customers.

To be fair that was a BR starved of investment so as to make privatisation look attractive - if ALL the subsidy given to private companies now was given to the railways to use rather than spunk on management bonuses and share holder divi's it could be quite different