The Daily Mail reports:
Millions of rail passengers face higher than expected annual fare rises of up to 10 per cent as the Government considers scrapping the formula for raising ticket prices.
Commuters and families will feel betrayed by rises which have put ministers on a collision course with rail unions, who vowed yesterday to 'stop the Government in their tracks' if train fares increase and investment is cut.
Passenger groups say UK train fares are already the highest in Europe.
The fares system, imposed by Labour, already guarantees inflation-busting rises by allowing train companies to put up prices each New Year by 1 per cent above the level of the retail price index from the previous July.
However, Conservative Transport Secretary Philip Hammond signalled yesterday this formula may have to be broken - allowing fares to rise even further if, as expected, his department is forced to bear the brunt of budget cuts in the Government's October review of finances.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT union, said his union's annual meeting in Aberdeen this week will 'be planning the fightback and a mobilisation of rail workers and rail users that will stop the Government in their tracks'.
He added: 'We could see fares jacked up by as much as 10 per cent while passengers are crammed into ancient carriages running on creaking track.'
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Campaign For Public Ownership's Press Release on the Budget
The Campaign for Public Ownership strongly opposes the new privatisation measures announced in Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s Budget.
The government has announced its intention to sell off the Student Loan Book, the air traffic control system, and the state-owned bookmaker the Tote, in public ownership since its inception in 1928. It also pledges to introduce ‘private sector investment’ in the Royal Mail.
It beggars belief that after Britain’s disastrous experience of privatisation the government, (which also announced this week its decision to sell off the High-Speed Rail link), still thinks that selling off publicly-owned assets is the way forward.
While selling off the family silver may lead to short term financial gains for the public purse, in the long term we all lose out, as we end up having to pay higher prices for basic services.
A truly ‘progressive’ government would not be announcing further privatisation, but instead be embarking on a programme of re-nationalisation. Such a programme should start with the re-nationalisation of Britain’s railways, a move supported by over 70% of the people.
The government has announced its intention to sell off the Student Loan Book, the air traffic control system, and the state-owned bookmaker the Tote, in public ownership since its inception in 1928. It also pledges to introduce ‘private sector investment’ in the Royal Mail.
It beggars belief that after Britain’s disastrous experience of privatisation the government, (which also announced this week its decision to sell off the High-Speed Rail link), still thinks that selling off publicly-owned assets is the way forward.
While selling off the family silver may lead to short term financial gains for the public purse, in the long term we all lose out, as we end up having to pay higher prices for basic services.
A truly ‘progressive’ government would not be announcing further privatisation, but instead be embarking on a programme of re-nationalisation. Such a programme should start with the re-nationalisation of Britain’s railways, a move supported by over 70% of the people.
Monday, June 21, 2010
The Campaign For Public Ownership's Press Release on the Government's decision to sell the High-speed rail link
The Campaign for Public Ownership strongly opposes the government’s decision to sell the London to Folkestone high speed rail link, which was announced today.
Transport Minister Philip Hammond admits that “HS1 is a national success story and a world-class railway operating to international standards.”. But if that’s the case, why sell it?
Hammond also said: “ The government does not have to run everything directly - we need to take prompt action where private enterprise can provide both a better deal and a superior service to the public." But regarding Britain’s railways, it is abundantly clear that private enterprise has not provided a better deal or a superior service to the public than the state-owned British Rail.
Our rail fares are the highest in Europe, despite private train operators receiving four times more in taxpayers subsidy than British Rail.
Instead of privatising yet more of our rail network, the government ought to be listening to the British public, and bringing our entire rail network back into public ownership.
Transport Minister Philip Hammond admits that “HS1 is a national success story and a world-class railway operating to international standards.”. But if that’s the case, why sell it?
Hammond also said: “ The government does not have to run everything directly - we need to take prompt action where private enterprise can provide both a better deal and a superior service to the public." But regarding Britain’s railways, it is abundantly clear that private enterprise has not provided a better deal or a superior service to the public than the state-owned British Rail.
Our rail fares are the highest in Europe, despite private train operators receiving four times more in taxpayers subsidy than British Rail.
Instead of privatising yet more of our rail network, the government ought to be listening to the British public, and bringing our entire rail network back into public ownership.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The tyrants in pinstripe: Neil Clark on the biggest menace to threaten Europe since the Nazis
This article, by CPO co-founder Neil Clark appears in The Morning Star.
Seventy years ago, European countries faced a battle for their very existence as nazi forces swept across the continent.
Now those countries face another battle - against the forces of international capital.
The money men won't be happy until every last publicly owned asset is privatised and in their greedy hands.
Europe's debt crisis, caused in large part by the greed of international speculators, is being used as an excuse for something which the money men and their cheerleaders in the media have long desired - the wholesale sell-off of those assets which remain in public ownership.
As John Foster said in his Morning Star analysis recently, it's a confidence trick so gigantic that it would make even that Olympic champion fraudster Bernie Madoff blush.
Earlier this month, Greece's "Socialist" government announced a major programme of privatisation, including the sale of 49 per cent in the state-owned railway, the sell-off of regional airports, highways and harbours and stakes in the post office and water utilities. The French government has announced a fire-sale of over 1,700 state properties, including many historic castles.
Here in Britain, new Postal Affairs Minister Ed Davey, from the "progressive" Liberal Democrats, has said he is considering the full-scale 100 per cent privatisation of Royal Mail, which has been in the hands of the British state since its inception in 1516.
If the money men have their way then over the next few years, governments in Europe will sell off not only their railways and national infrastructure but hospitals, schools, universities and all other state-owned enterprises.
It's a prospect eagerly awaited by "free-market" fanatics in the media. In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Heffer claims that deficit reduction requires "severe cuts" in the NHS and the privatisation of Britain's motorways. The former editor of The Economist Bill Emmott says that "if this debt crisis were to end up turning Europe Thatcherite, that would be something for us to celebrate."
While Janet Daley, an enthusiast for private provision of health care and pensions, says that the cuts should be seen "as part of an essentially positive, fundamental reconstruction of the way that public services are funded and delivered."
But in reality there will be nothing "positive" about these changes for ordinary people, who will be forced to pay much higher prices for basic services. For the financial elite however, there will be rich pickings.
It's a depressing scenario, but we mustn't lose heart. Things looked pretty bleak in 1940 in Europe, but nazism was eventually defeated.
By organising a mass pan-European movement to oppose privatisation and cutbacks in state provision of health, welfare and education, we can defeat today's anti-democratic, money-grabbing, pinstripe-suited tyrants.
You can read the whole of the article here.
Seventy years ago, European countries faced a battle for their very existence as nazi forces swept across the continent.
Now those countries face another battle - against the forces of international capital.
The money men won't be happy until every last publicly owned asset is privatised and in their greedy hands.
Europe's debt crisis, caused in large part by the greed of international speculators, is being used as an excuse for something which the money men and their cheerleaders in the media have long desired - the wholesale sell-off of those assets which remain in public ownership.
As John Foster said in his Morning Star analysis recently, it's a confidence trick so gigantic that it would make even that Olympic champion fraudster Bernie Madoff blush.
Earlier this month, Greece's "Socialist" government announced a major programme of privatisation, including the sale of 49 per cent in the state-owned railway, the sell-off of regional airports, highways and harbours and stakes in the post office and water utilities. The French government has announced a fire-sale of over 1,700 state properties, including many historic castles.
Here in Britain, new Postal Affairs Minister Ed Davey, from the "progressive" Liberal Democrats, has said he is considering the full-scale 100 per cent privatisation of Royal Mail, which has been in the hands of the British state since its inception in 1516.
If the money men have their way then over the next few years, governments in Europe will sell off not only their railways and national infrastructure but hospitals, schools, universities and all other state-owned enterprises.
It's a prospect eagerly awaited by "free-market" fanatics in the media. In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Heffer claims that deficit reduction requires "severe cuts" in the NHS and the privatisation of Britain's motorways. The former editor of The Economist Bill Emmott says that "if this debt crisis were to end up turning Europe Thatcherite, that would be something for us to celebrate."
While Janet Daley, an enthusiast for private provision of health care and pensions, says that the cuts should be seen "as part of an essentially positive, fundamental reconstruction of the way that public services are funded and delivered."
But in reality there will be nothing "positive" about these changes for ordinary people, who will be forced to pay much higher prices for basic services. For the financial elite however, there will be rich pickings.
It's a depressing scenario, but we mustn't lose heart. Things looked pretty bleak in 1940 in Europe, but nazism was eventually defeated.
By organising a mass pan-European movement to oppose privatisation and cutbacks in state provision of health, welfare and education, we can defeat today's anti-democratic, money-grabbing, pinstripe-suited tyrants.
You can read the whole of the article here.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The Campaign For Public Ownership's Press Release on the new Coalition Government's Privatisation Plans
Thursday 20th May 2010.
The Campaign for Public Ownership strongly opposes the new coalition government’s plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, its plans to allow private business to run state schools and its policy of granting profiteering train companies longer franchises.
Thirty years on from the Thatcher government’s first privatisations, public opposition with privatisation has reached an all-time high. Over 70% of the British public would like to see our railways renationalised, yet our new coalition government, putting the interests of capital before the people, proposes even longer franchises for the profiteering train companies, who receive over four times more subsidy from the taxpayers than British Rail did.
The idea that privatisation will improve the Royal Mail and state schools is naive to say the least: has privatisation improved Britain’s railways- or brought lower prices and better service to gas, electricity and water consumers? The opposite occurred and if we do privatise Royal Mail we will get a worse, not better service- with cutbacks in deliveries and hiked prices.
Every country in Europe that has been foolish enough to privatise parts of its postal service has experienced this.
It’s time to call an end to the Great Privatisation Rip-Off and for all concerned citizens to fight against the coalition’s plans for further privatisations.
The Campaign for Public Ownership strongly opposes the new coalition government’s plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, its plans to allow private business to run state schools and its policy of granting profiteering train companies longer franchises.
Thirty years on from the Thatcher government’s first privatisations, public opposition with privatisation has reached an all-time high. Over 70% of the British public would like to see our railways renationalised, yet our new coalition government, putting the interests of capital before the people, proposes even longer franchises for the profiteering train companies, who receive over four times more subsidy from the taxpayers than British Rail did.
The idea that privatisation will improve the Royal Mail and state schools is naive to say the least: has privatisation improved Britain’s railways- or brought lower prices and better service to gas, electricity and water consumers? The opposite occurred and if we do privatise Royal Mail we will get a worse, not better service- with cutbacks in deliveries and hiked prices.
Every country in Europe that has been foolish enough to privatise parts of its postal service has experienced this.
It’s time to call an end to the Great Privatisation Rip-Off and for all concerned citizens to fight against the coalition’s plans for further privatisations.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
BBC Worldwide threatened by privatisation
The Sunday Express reports:
A new non-executive chairman of the BBC will be installed to act as a board-level watchdog pushing through wide- ranging reform, including the privatisation of its commercial subsidiary BBC Worldwide.
The secret plan to appoint a non- executive chairman has been revealed by the former Thatcher minister Lord Fowler, who is chairman of the influential Lords Communications Select Committee.
Lord Fowler said the privatisation of BBC Worldwide would make millions for the Exchequer.
“Even the last Government said there was a strong case to privatise this organisation and I think the new Government will feel that the case is overwhelming. BBC Worldwide is restricted in how it can develop because it hasn’t got the investment, so I think a scheme of bringing in private investment would have the support of those working there.
“You’re talking about raising quite a considerable amount of money, most of which could go to the public coffers. At a time when the Government is concentrating on raising money to combat the national deficit, then something like this is a glaringly obvious step to take. This could be like one of the memorable privatisations from the Eighties.”
A new non-executive chairman of the BBC will be installed to act as a board-level watchdog pushing through wide- ranging reform, including the privatisation of its commercial subsidiary BBC Worldwide.
The secret plan to appoint a non- executive chairman has been revealed by the former Thatcher minister Lord Fowler, who is chairman of the influential Lords Communications Select Committee.
Lord Fowler said the privatisation of BBC Worldwide would make millions for the Exchequer.
“Even the last Government said there was a strong case to privatise this organisation and I think the new Government will feel that the case is overwhelming. BBC Worldwide is restricted in how it can develop because it hasn’t got the investment, so I think a scheme of bringing in private investment would have the support of those working there.
“You’re talking about raising quite a considerable amount of money, most of which could go to the public coffers. At a time when the Government is concentrating on raising money to combat the national deficit, then something like this is a glaringly obvious step to take. This could be like one of the memorable privatisations from the Eighties.”
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The German state buys Britain’s ‘privatised’ trains- and why it won’t stop there
This article by CPO co-founder Neil Clark appears in The First Post.
When the sell-off of Britain's state-owned companies started in the early 1980s we were told it would be much better for publicly-owned assets to be transferred to the private sector.
State ownership was bad and inherently inefficient, private ownership was good. That was the Thatcherite mantra.
Thirty years on, however, large sections of our economy are back in state hands - only it's not the British state that's the owner, it's the governments of other European countries.
Today's £1.59bn takeover of the bus and rail firm Arriva, Britain's second largest transport provider, by Deutsche Bahn, which is 100 per cent owned by the German government, is just the latest in a series of deals in which publicly-owned European companies have taken over privatised British companies, or firms running services previously operated by the British state.
Even before today's transaction, Deutsche Bahn already owned Britain's largest rail freight company (which operates the Royal Train) and Chiltern Railways: in addition they have a 50 per cent stake in London Overground and the Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway and, since April 1, have also run Tyne and Wear Metro.
It's not just the Germans who are operating British trains: the Netherlands' state-owned railway, NS, is a joint owner of Northern Rail and Merseyrail. France's state-owned railway SNCF, who missed out on Arriva, are keen to enter the UK transport market too.
As for British utilities, EDF Energy, a subsidiary of the French state-owned EDF, supplies 5.5m customers in the UK. Last year, EDF Energy also took control of the privatised British Energy, the UK's largest electricity generator and operator of Britain's nuclear power stations.
The German state running trains in Wales? The French Government providing your gas and electricity? Such a prospect would have seemed incredible in the mixed economy Britain of 40 years ago, but it's the reality of life in the 'everything is for sale' Britain of today. years ago, but it's the reality of life in the 'everything is for sale' Britain of today.
In the next few years we can expect to see this process continue, as the last few assets which remain in public ownership are put onto the market. In the general election, all three of our main parties advocate further privatisation, with the Royal Mail, the Tote, the Dartford Tunnel, and the Channel Tunnel rail link likely to go under the hammer whoever wins the election.
There is, of course, an enormous irony in all of this. Privatisation in Britain in the 80s was aggressively pushed by extreme neo-liberal think-tanks, such as the Adam Smith Institute, who abhorred the idea of public ownership of the country's assets and who were keen to roll back the frontiers of the state.
In the next 30 years, their pro-privatisation views, regarded as beyond the fringe before Margaret Thatcher's arrival in Downing Street, became 'mainstream' among Britain's political elite - with New Labour dropping Clause Four and the Liberal Democrats, under the influence of their 'Orange Book' faction, abandoning their plans to renationalise the railway network and aping the anti-state rhetoric of Thatcherite Tories.
The rest of Europe, however, has followed a different path. As their powerful state-owned companies buy assets which were once owned by the British people, those European countries who were not foolish enough to sell off their family silver have undoubtedly had the last laugh.
When the sell-off of Britain's state-owned companies started in the early 1980s we were told it would be much better for publicly-owned assets to be transferred to the private sector.
State ownership was bad and inherently inefficient, private ownership was good. That was the Thatcherite mantra.
Thirty years on, however, large sections of our economy are back in state hands - only it's not the British state that's the owner, it's the governments of other European countries.
Today's £1.59bn takeover of the bus and rail firm Arriva, Britain's second largest transport provider, by Deutsche Bahn, which is 100 per cent owned by the German government, is just the latest in a series of deals in which publicly-owned European companies have taken over privatised British companies, or firms running services previously operated by the British state.
Even before today's transaction, Deutsche Bahn already owned Britain's largest rail freight company (which operates the Royal Train) and Chiltern Railways: in addition they have a 50 per cent stake in London Overground and the Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway and, since April 1, have also run Tyne and Wear Metro.
It's not just the Germans who are operating British trains: the Netherlands' state-owned railway, NS, is a joint owner of Northern Rail and Merseyrail. France's state-owned railway SNCF, who missed out on Arriva, are keen to enter the UK transport market too.
As for British utilities, EDF Energy, a subsidiary of the French state-owned EDF, supplies 5.5m customers in the UK. Last year, EDF Energy also took control of the privatised British Energy, the UK's largest electricity generator and operator of Britain's nuclear power stations.
The German state running trains in Wales? The French Government providing your gas and electricity? Such a prospect would have seemed incredible in the mixed economy Britain of 40 years ago, but it's the reality of life in the 'everything is for sale' Britain of today. years ago, but it's the reality of life in the 'everything is for sale' Britain of today.
In the next few years we can expect to see this process continue, as the last few assets which remain in public ownership are put onto the market. In the general election, all three of our main parties advocate further privatisation, with the Royal Mail, the Tote, the Dartford Tunnel, and the Channel Tunnel rail link likely to go under the hammer whoever wins the election.
There is, of course, an enormous irony in all of this. Privatisation in Britain in the 80s was aggressively pushed by extreme neo-liberal think-tanks, such as the Adam Smith Institute, who abhorred the idea of public ownership of the country's assets and who were keen to roll back the frontiers of the state.
In the next 30 years, their pro-privatisation views, regarded as beyond the fringe before Margaret Thatcher's arrival in Downing Street, became 'mainstream' among Britain's political elite - with New Labour dropping Clause Four and the Liberal Democrats, under the influence of their 'Orange Book' faction, abandoning their plans to renationalise the railway network and aping the anti-state rhetoric of Thatcherite Tories.
The rest of Europe, however, has followed a different path. As their powerful state-owned companies buy assets which were once owned by the British people, those European countries who were not foolish enough to sell off their family silver have undoubtedly had the last laugh.
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