Do you agree with nationalisation? Railways, energy and utility companies.

What else would you like to steal next?

How about farms and factories that produces food?

Will brick, cement and steel plants be next on your list too?

The theory of privatisation is good: better efficiency, lower prices due to increased competition (although not really the case due to the extremely high barriers to entry)

but as with most things the reality and theory are pretty different. The main way to improve privatised industries is to increase the power of the regulators.

I proudly support nationalisation of the manufacturing industry, yes. Part of the reason why we're in this deficit crisis is because we've got no income to supplement our welfare schemes, since Thatcher sold off (gifted) our industries to private firms. Anyway, that's a topic for another thread.

When the welfare of British people are at stake, I think it's fair to take back our rails from the international hedgefunds and brokers that bought into it. Our government needs to stop pandering to business/financial interests and start doing what's right for ordinary people.

And you think their welfare will be improved when investment from the likes of Canadian, Australian, Singaporian, Hong Kong and US pension funds collapses due to fear that you will steal their other assets? I'm not saying there are no private equity firms invested but your statement is essentially condoning the raiding of global pension and infrastructure funds who invested in our assets.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cacheuWpK3H1U7EJ:www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/market-studies/ownership-control-mapping/water-ownership-database.xls+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

The above is just water alone, let alone energy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/globalbusiness/9469070/The-Canadian-pensioners-who-own-Britain.html

A relevant article.

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If you want to bring these services into state control then that's fine but to simply steal them without compensating them adequately is idiocy in an open economy. I also strongly suspect that is illegal to do so under the terms of the world trade organisation as well.

Fair enough. I completely agree with either compensating or nationalizing the genuinely personal hedge funds involved, but the institutional investors should really be forced to get out of Britain's vital infrastructure.

When the welfare of British people are at stake, I think it's fair to take back our rails from the international hedgefunds and brokers that bought into it. Our government needs to stop pandering to business/financial interests and start doing what's right for ordinary people.

Miliband has been wise to raise attention to an issue that's been effecting ordinary people for decades - the extortionate bills being charged by transport and energy companies. Bills have been rising consistently year and year, and there's keen evidence to suggest that this is not entirely because of increasing cost of raw fuel, but instead a consequence of cold-hearted profiteering on the behalf of a few business fatcats.

Just two weeks the 2.8% rise in rail fares came into effect. A fair increase or another attempt to make life harder for ordinary people to get to work and back. Could public ownership protect British people from profit-driven interests of these private companies?

Do you think that Britain should nationalise its railway and energy companies?

When the welfare of British people are at stake, I think it's fair to take back our rails from the international hedgefunds and brokers that bought into it. Our government needs to stop pandering to business/financial interests and start doing what's right for ordinary people.

Privatision is really something desired by those who have strong beliefs in free market, laissez faire economies - these people might be called neoliberals or neoConservatives. In their mind, private business is far more efficient than the public sector, therefore all utilities should be nationalised for greater efficiency and output. This was quite clearly the mindset of Margaret Thatcher, a keen promoter of business ethics inside the public sector.

Unfortunately, years down the line, the Thatcher government has left us with a private utilities sector that is failing the public in almost all regards. To nationalise an industry, you must upset quite a few business leaders and thinkers - often the same people who're donating to the Tory Party and even Liberal Democrats. Being seen as anti-business is not a desired image in the modern political world.

While I think we should adopt a more anti-business, pro-common ownership approach, the current culture in parliament is very much in favour of timid reforms and insignificant regulations. Nationalisation is really the thing ordinary British people have been calling for.

I can't think of any industry that didn't suffer under nationalisation. British Shipbuilers, British Rail, British Areospace, British Coal etc; they all suffered from chronic mismanagement and lack of investment by a variety of governments. The majority of these industries are now much more reliable, much more productive and much more technologically 'cutting edge' than they ever were under nationalisation. I can't see how re-nationalisng them would improve anything.

The nationalisation of Natural monopolies is a decent idea, imo. Employ private sector heads and give them a decent wage to maintain efficiency. Private sector monopolies with no market contestibilty have no incentives to act in Public interest. It's all easy to say the government should nationalise something but there are other methods which may be more useful. Increased regulation on these sector and stronger pricing controls. RPI-X should be implemented definitely to encourage such firms to be more productive and to maintain a revenue from Corp tax. Although it can be argued that with increasing costs and inflation the companies themseleves can't be blamed. Regulatory capture might also be a problem in such markets.

How about if it were nationalised? Without profit incentive, what's the point in trying to invest/improve? Neo-liberals would argue that the Government are useless when it comes to innovation. I reckon without the free-market, prices would be at a an all time-high. Atleast the Private sector have some form of competition. As long as no colluding is allowed in markets for energy, I think the outcome currently achieved is pretty good. Contestibility itself is good, by nationalising such firms and implementing such barriers to entry who's to say the government won't screw up the whole operation?

I'm afraid this is incorrect.

If you take railway operators then as they under franchise agreements you can simply wait them out for free so that's okay and Network Rail is already so you've got your railways sorted for nothing. Energy and water on the other hand are different beasts. They are not subject to time expiration franchise agreements and as such you would have to purchase them at market price. If you do not purchase them at market price then in the case of water for example you have just raided the pensions of Canadians and Singaporeans. The National Grid is multinational and would be pretty complicated to buy and also expensive (market cap is well over £20bn).

It's not as easy as just seizing control unless you want to piss off other countries who have invested in these companies and that's before you get to your ordinary people who may do it through work or have small investments themselves or through an ISA.

Because it'll allow us to bring back our services under democratic control, rather than in the hands of whichever institution has the most money. Our services should be directed on the basis of the needs and wants of British citizens, not dictated by this invisible hand of the free market.

Money didn't get spent on them. That is why Thatcher shut them down - she only saw profit. You need to spend money to make money. If you have a business, and don't spend money on it, would you expect it to get better or worse?

When the welfare of British people are at stake, I think it's fair to take back our rails from the international hedgefunds and brokers that bought into it. Our government needs to stop pandering to business/financial interests and start doing what's right for ordinary people.

Remember that the companies involved in the energy industry make profit, nationalisation would mean the government would get that profit - not the companies. There are no costs involved for the government. Except in the case of a nationalised industry, the government can choose to pursue lower profit margins to benefit the population at large, or decide to improve infrastructure in certain areas.

Leaving these things to the 'hand of the free market' sounds quite loony to be honest.

With regards to the rail fare increase, I now have to pay £100 a month for a season ticket - my daily commute is 20 minutes. Got to love living in the suburbs of Glasgow...