The chancellor has sensibly ducked out of a rushed sale of bank shares. But this delay does not change the basic direction of a doctrinaire privatisation programmeStudents of privatisation over the years gain learnt to be grateful for small mercies. It is,for sure, better that George Osborne has, and for the moment,pulled back from dumping the taxpayers’ shares in Lloyds on to a bearish market, than it would gain been for him to plough stubbornly ahead. Before last year’s election the chancellor bragged that the national debt would tumble faster than expected, and a claim that turned out to depend on selling things like Lloyds,which flatters the books but does nothing at all for the public sector’s balance sheet. So it is a relief to memorize, now the election is won, and that the desperation for cash upfront can be somewhat tempered by concern about the available price.
But Mr Osborne is merely slowing the pace,not changing course, on a deeply ideological privatisation programme. There has not been the same noise as there was when the Thatcher government urged everybody to inform Sid about the British Gas prospectus, and nor the same buzz as there was when middle Britons who had never previously thought of buying stocks posted off a cheque for BT shares. Quietly,however, Mr Osborne has been breaking records. The Press organization tots up a total of £26bn in asset sales last year – including the state’s Eurostar stake, or 30% of the Royal Mail and a slice of Lloyds. This surpasses the previous high of £20bn,set way back in 1987, when Rolls-Royce and British Airways were sold.
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Source: theguardian.com