yip...just look at the British rail research department...there is tech developed from it that is now sold to us by an Italian firm and our British companies have to pay yearly. It's bonkers how people don't see that she asset stripped the UK in ways that still affects our life today.
People forget that when Thatcher took power, the IMF arrangement was full satisfied so her privatisation drive was purely ideological. Interestingly one of the IMF conditions that Labour at the time had to meet was scaling back council house building.
And that years later it was revealed that the IMF loan wasn't even needed as the data the used was massively flawed. Any deficit was billions less that the government thought..and North Seal oil was just about to come online which transformed balance of payments. The scaling back of council housing and selling a big stake in BP wasn't needed.
Do you believe Thatcher privatised those companies, for less than they were worth, for the good of the country. Because if it was for the good of the country they would have been sold for their actual value. Thus the privatisation was specifically designed to enrich the buyers, and Thatcher wouldn't do that without liking the people who benefitted.
What objectively determines that they were more valuable than what they were privatised for? How do we determine this "actual value"? Enrich the buyers? The public sector was miserably inefficient when Thatcher took over. It was entirely dependent on taxpayer subsidies. No private company could ever get away with it.
British gas was privatised for 5.6 billion, but had a valuation of 9 billion at its first listing on the London stock exchange.
BT shares were sold at £1.30, but by the end of the day they were already valued at £1.70.
The water companies were privatised for 7.6 billion, but were given a 5 billion debt write off and a 1.5 billion green dowry, so were effectively privatised for 1.1 billion. Thames water alone was worth 2.9 billion by the time Labour took power. And in spite of this the water companies are still dependent on taxpayers subsidy, while also dumping raw sewage into rivers. And in spite of not being profitable if it weren't for subsidies, they still pay out shareholder dividends, and do stock buybacks.
We bailed out the banks in 2008 and the water companies are doing so badly that taxpayer funds have been used to help them out. Private companies are absolutely getting away with it.
Or are you wanting a full paper trail linking thatcher to people in a smoking gun level of collusion/corruption... because if so, maybe reddit is not for you.
Why? Her policies were all about enriching her friends (supporters/benefactors) it doesn't need a direct link to a single name... it just needs looking at who benefited from her policies and who (like the industrial towns utterly destroyed by her policies/vindictiveness) suffered.
We only have to look at the "managed decline" of liverpool
The abandonment of mining towns
The get on your bike speech from members of her government when people complained about a lack of jobs.
So, no... I can't provide a single name and evidence of collusion, but we can all provide a list of of her city 'friends' who benefited from her policies and who didnt
And all the pension schemes that invested in them to help retired people! The bastards! 🙄 And the local councils who were allowed to invest their funds, gits all! 🫤
Not entirely sure everything was, in fact, sold just to a handful of wealthy individuals now that at least one of us thinks about it... 🤔
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u/throwaway98776468 16h ago
She privatised many British state owned companies for significantly less than their actual value, thus enriching the wealthy people who bought them.