Gordon Brown has decided to sell off government assets in order to balance the books. The first items to go under the hammer are the Tote, the Dartford crossing and the student loan book.
It is the sale of the student loan book which I find most worrying. Presently rates are set at a fair level and payments are collected by HMRC, but once this student debt moves into private hands the rates will possibly increase, along with payment schedules. This will affect students who don't find work above average national earnings and in the future may put young people off studying at university or college once the 'bully boy' tactics of debt collectors become known to them.
Some of us may have already experienced the behaviour of a debt agency, I did a couple of years ago. BT told me I owed them money (which I didn't), but the refused to listen even when I sent proof of payment. This resulted in at least one phone call a day from their debt collection agency, plus several lawyer's letters threatening to take me to court. A young person would feel very intimidated by such tactics. In case anyone's interested I wrote a letter to BT, with copies to the various agencies which wrote to me, saying 'See you in court'. I've never heard another word.
Back to the topic - is it sensible to be selling off parts of government at this time? I've always been told never sell when prices are low and they're possibly at their lowest for many years right now. Gordon Brown should know this, after all he gave away our gold reserves for peanuts.
The government has been selling off pieces of Britain for years - some military properties were sold to a Japanese company years ago is just one example, but to sell of the Channel Tunnel to the highest bidder seems bad practice.
More and more I'm convinced this £16bn sale is part of Gordon Brown's contribution to the New World Order. It's sounding more like reality than conspiracy day by day.
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17 comments:
Well, you shouldn't be posting, and you shouldn't be reading this....but if you are I hope your eye is getting better. :)
As far as I can make out all these sales are English things. But the idiot also wants local authorities to sell off their land... at a time when the prices will be as low as you can get, and the interest rates on the money is peanuts...
Again I imagine that this buffoon can't force Scottish local authorities to sell. An Englishwoman on the midnight news last night, someone from the Convention of Local Authorities was saying he had no right to demand sales of their property and it would be fought tooth and nail. (Winter of Discontent anyone?) The BBC has an annoying habit of forgetting that law is different in Scotland, so I have no idea if this was an English or British thing.
Selling assets when you are desperatly broke inevitably means getting low prices for them, as you rightly criticise.
I was amused, however, to see that some numpty from the Tories on that same news programme was talking down the proposals, maybe forgetting that under Major the Tories more or less gave away, rather than sold, the railway system and left us with an unmanageable, incredibly expensive, transport system which is, without doubt, the worst in Western Europe.
What a bunch of half wits we are governed by.
Now stop reading SR and rest your sore eyes! OK? Tx
That would explain why the Dartford crossing toll charge has just been raised from £1 to £1.50. Even though when the crossing was paid for, the toll was to be removed. Obviously to attract bidders.
PS. Spooky, my word verification was "harman"
"It's sounding more like reality than conspiracy day by day."
Indeed Subrosa. This, so called, "financial crisis" and government's response to it seems to have been tailor made for the neoliberal globalists. I wonder who is going to finance these sales - the Banks? In which case they'll be using our money to buy our assets as we can't afford to keep them anymore as we're broke after giving all our money to the ... Banks!
"Great British" assets? Or English assets? Looks like the latter to me.
I'm worried about the student loan's thing too. My wife has just finished her degree, and has another year of teacher training to go starting September 2010. She's got a fair whack of student debt (as you'd expect).
Sadly, I work in IT in the debt collection / credit management industry =( so I know what these companies are like and I'm quite worried about it. So much so, I've asked Eric Joyce for clarification... still waiting to hear his response.
Isn't there a saying 'What goes round comes round' scunnert? Prime example this is too.
I understand the Channel Tunnel was built with money from oil found in Scottish waters Wryd.:)
As for the student loan book, I couldn't find evidence about Scotland having its own system. Perhaps someone will find it for me.
Auch Chris, that must be worrying. At least you'll know how to handle debt agency bullies though - that's a plus.
Write to Eric Joyce again. Pester him until he replies.
That is spooky FE,I wonder if she 'elected' the Dartford crossing.
It's been years since I used it but your assessment is possibly spot on.
They'll be raising the price of the Channel Tunnel tickets too I expect.
Just watch while the assets are sold for peanuts...
Ah, so Tris, the student loan book referred to only affects English students studying in England?
I had a wee search to see if it involved Scotland, because of course education is devolved, but I thought it may because HMRC are involved.
If it's England only then I hope the good folks down there make their feeling known. Just a disgrace to do this when labour know full well they'll never get elected next time round.
Their complete destruction of these islands isn't finished yet I don't suppose.
Thank you for your good wishes. I've managed to increase the font size on this old PC and I'm bored as I can't drive. :)
NO SR, I was wrong. I just gleaned this info from their site:
http://www.slc.co.uk/
The Student Loans Company (SLC) is a UK public sector organisation established to provide financial services, in terms of loans and grants, to over one million students annually, in colleges and universities across the four education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
That may teach me to research first and rant after..... Sorry.
Thanks Tris. I just looked up Scottish government and student loans and couldn't find details.
Why I didn't search for the Student Loans Company I'll never know. :)
What grinds me up with this student loan business is that the geezers who thought up this jolly wheeze benefited themselves from a free education. You couldn't make it up. It's as if the slobs were trying to pull up the ladder (especially on poorer students). Remind me to sing the workmans version of the red flag sometime - the one with the line " I've got the forman's job at last" in it.
PS eyes better this evening?
Bang on the money here. Private debt collectors routinely work within a scintilla of the rules.
As for our old friend Gordon. Is it not the tawdry end to a disgusting administration that they want to sell off public companies at rock bottom prices?
At least they cannot sell the Forth Bridge because the SNP abolished tolls. Yes!!!!
scunnert said...
"It's sounding more like reality than conspiracy day by day."
Indeed Subrosa. This, so called, "financial crisis"
My thoughts exactly, either the financial crisis/recession is not real ( at least not around here, we are booming ) or it has yet to arrive in force. As for the conspiracy, what global warming ? What swine flu epidemic ? What terrorism ?
I have seen virtually none of them but at least a panic sale of state assets might see them flog off the BBC.
WW maybe that's why the SNP banished the tolls? Just a thought...
I don't see much about recession either banned. Fewer people in the furniture shops etc but still most businesses in my town are keeping going.
My plumber and electrician say they've never been so busy.
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