MSE Poll: Do you support renationalisation of rail, energy, water and more?

Former_MSE_Karl

Poll started 26 September 2017

Do you support renationalisation of rail, energy, water and more?

This week, Labour reaffirmed its commitment to taking back into public ownership a raft of services which in the 1980s were privatised (usually by floating them on the stock market). Those arguing for privatisation often focus on increased efficiency due to competition. Those against often say firms do what’s best for shareholders, not for consumers.


For EACH service below please vote on your view on whether it should be renationalised.

Click here to vote in the poll

Did you vote? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click here.

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

Thanks!


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Stockie

There's several like water and phone where I'd like a hybrid where the state owns and maintains the infrastructure but private companies provide the services. BT openreach do such a bad job at times at getting stuff sorted, and we could have lower prices across the sector if they didn't have a (near) monopoly.

krisl

I’m a labour voter but some of the nationalisation plans in the recent manifesto are based on ideology rather than logic.

The rail industry could easily be nationalised as the franchises end and there’s heavy subsidy in the current model. How much better it could be run though I don’t know - the issues in the south regarding the role of guards could easily be replicated over the whole network I’d there was a single rail company.

For energy, it would be rediculously expensive to buy all the power generation, and I doubt it would help much - the profits of the energy providers may seem high, but as a percentage of revenue they’re pretty minor.

The postal service is something I don’t really care about - there’s something archaic about getting a piece of paper delivered every day. It needs to be allowed to transition into a small parcel service.

For all the BT bashing in the press, I think they’ve done a pretty good job getting VDSL2 cabinets to cover the percentage coverage they have done.

Gavin83

I think all essential industries/services should have a state owned option. I'd have no issue with a privately run company in the same sector to give the consumer a choice but the state owned option should exist.

worried_jim

If it happens I'll get a job with them. That's me with my feet up for the rest of my career. Zero fuxks given.

Owain_Moneysaver

Does no-one remember how awful these services were when state-owned?

There was a waiting list for phone lines, and if you were in an area with a shortage of external plant you could be waiting years.

Trains were awful. Passenger journey numbers were falling.

Everywhere kept going on strike because the government could always be held to ransom by the unions (and the government didn't care if it lost money, because it's not the government's money it's spending).

Private 118 directory enquiries services are pointless and will die a natural death now we can look up things on the internet.

Why don't we nationalise all the supermarkets as well, after all if water should be nationalised why not food?

Incidentally, water in Scotland (and possibly Wales?) is government-owned.

macskin

Selling of state owned assets to fund small tax cuts and say they have balanced the books have instead sold the family silver of on the cheep and it is only now that there is nothing left to sell do we see how they have failed our future generations. Yes they made a small sum of money at once making them selfs look good. If they had not sold the family silver of to be asset stripped to the bone and not invest in the company the state owned assets would of given government after government there profits which would of resulted in over time brining in more money than they were sold for and keep bringing in more money.
It is amazing how many state owned assets that the UK government has sold of now belong to foreign governments resulting in the British public funding not our own tax breaks but that of other countries.
Even in Brexit we tell the French government how we will deal with Brexit long before article 50 is singed this was done when the PM had talked with Nissan

9411john

I suspect that some of your poll results will be heavily dependent upon the voter's location as well as how internet savvy they are (e.g. to switch energy supplier). I can remember the good (sic) old days of overpaid nationalised industry employees who would not know what a proper days job was and who would hold the country to ransom at a whim! Even today we have some 'nationalised' areas where people keep bleating about their pay forgetting how good their pensions are compared to the vast number of people in the private industries. However, I feel that there is a role for government either as share holder or by imposing legal requirements (with heavy fines for non compliance) in all essential services.

spikyone

krisl wrote: »

I’m a labour voter but some of the nationalisation plans in the recent manifesto are based on ideology rather than logic.

Let's be honest, all of these nationalisation plans are based on ideology. I've yet to hear a worthwhile argument for any of the proposed services being nationalised, other than Corbyn's socialist dream. Given that Labour also want to give the unions more power, we'd see a never ending cycle of strikes by the "poor underpaid workers" and price increases/tax increases when Corbyn rolls over and gives them pay rises that are double the rate of the private sector.

Stockie wrote: »

There's several like water and phone where I'd like a hybrid where the state owns and maintains the infrastructure but private companies provide the services. BT openreach do such a bad job at times at getting stuff sorted, and we could have lower prices across the sector if they didn't have a (near) monopoly.

What you're suggesting with Openreach is giving the part that is a monopoly back to the government, where it would be a monopoly with public sector inefficiency and wastefulness. Lower prices is the exact opposite of what it will achieve.

webwiz

It's understandable that young people who have never suffered under nationalisation might vote for it. But for those 65+ indicates memory loss.

pollypenny

French and German governments seem to do very well with shared ownership of rail and postal companies - including those in the UK.

Certain things, such as water supply, should remain 'services' not never at the mercy of profiteering companies. The same could be said for transport.