Road privatisation is the latest step in the stripping of Britain's assets

[marmar]

Road privatisation is the latest step in the stripping of Britain's assets
If you wonder where David Cameron's plan to sell off our roads will end up, look at how wealth is torn out of the heart of America

John Harris
guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 March 2012


Welcome, once again, to the great British garage sale. What with the outsourcing of the police now a serious prospect, and the deeply strange spectacle of Richard Branson bidding for NHS work, today's announcement from David Cameron about selling off our roads is one of those things which is simultaneously shocking, and no great surprise.

In fact, this particular wheeze has been on the agenda since the time of George Osborne's last autumn statement, when the chancellor talked up the government's "national infrastructure plan": proposals for 500 projects that would be funded by private sources to the tune of £20bn. Pension funds were the focus of most of the resulting news coverage, but there was also a big projected role for sovereign wealth funds, those ever-growing interests that represent one of the 21st century's strangest quirks: the fact that nationalisation is back with a vengeance, but it tends to involve assets in the supposedly free-market west being bought up by foreign governments.

Cameron's speech today, then, represents one of those occasions when the government announces something it has actually announced already, as proved by a Financial Times story from November last year. "'For sale' sign goes up over UK infrastructure projects" was the headline, and the opening paragraph ran thus: "George Osborne will next week hang a 'for sale' sign over British infrastructure projects worth tens of billions of pounds, as he attempts to tempt UK pension funds, oil-rich Gulf states and other sovereign wealth funds to pay for new roads, railways, housing and other projects." There was a brief flurry of comment (from me, among other people), but the issue duly quietened down, while ministers and civil servants got on with making the plans a reality. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/19/road-privatisation-david-cameron

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. Fire Sale In America Sponsored By The Republican Party.

That is the plan that the GOP has for America. When they talk about not needing the national parks. When they say that they would be better used under private hands take it seriously. Add to what I just said and all the commons are up for sale. And the attack on police and firefighters' unions is the first step in contracting them to private security companies. Thom Hartman had a horses ass on today that was yelling at him while they were talking about shutting down the libraries and turning them over to the private sector.

This election is the most important election of all time. If the GOP gets power they WILL SELL OFF the country. When I was at DOL there was information floating around Bush had a plan to turn all the national highway into toll roads and to lease them out to anyone even the Chinese. There are a number of city water systems that are already in private hands.

What Cameron is doing in Britain will come here unless the public stops it. If you look carefully at Europe the RW there is trying to sell off their commons. You will know that it is serious when the conservatives start selling off major museums like the Louvre in France. Right now Greece is under pressure to sell its treasures.

The GOP is driving up our debt so that our country will have to do the same and they have been doing it for 30 years. Look at Romney's POS tax plan. We will have a $20 trillion debt if that jerk ever gets in.