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Alex213
Stranger
Registered: 08/22/05
Posts: 1,839
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Fat cats lapping up the privatisation cream
#5254691 - 02/02/06 10:54 AM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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FAT cats are licking their lips over a big dollop of double cream about to plop in their laps under a ?1.3billion government scam.
The crown jewels of military invention will be flogged off a fortnight today and international speculators can hardly believe their luck.
State-owned research labs - a treasure trove of skills - will be handed over to venture capitalists in a shameful Labour privatisation.
Stuffed full of the kind of boffins who came up with bouncing bombs and jet engines, they'll be surrendered to the money men.
The research agency's been given a fancy new name, QinetiQ, pronounced "Kinetic", raising additional fears that this lot are dyslexic fat cats.
Hitting the jackpot will be the blood-sucking US Carlyle Group, secretive buy-and-sell merchants red in tooth and claw.
It was advised by former Tory Premier Sir John Major, and a ?42.4million stake gifted four years ago by the government is to soar eightfold to ?341million.
Two QinetiQ bosses, Sir John Chisholm and Graham Lee, will trouser upwards of ?20million each for no risk. Three merchant banks and an army of consultants stand to share ?100million. Thousands of workers have been dumped over the years to make these labs attractive to speculators.
A huge portfolio of buildings and land will inevitably be auctioned to property developers at huge profit. And feather-bedded long-term Ministry of Defence contracts guarantee a steady income.
So why the lack of a political outcry, a backlash to shake the government to its very foundations?
I fear Labour MPs, with some honourable exceptions, are dulled to rip-off privatisations as Tony Blair turns the public sector into a giant car-boot sale.
Tax offices, schools, hospitals, Jobcentres, London Underground, council estates, the Tote and air traffic control have all been hived off by Labour.
MUCH of the millions earmarked to turn the National Health Service into a neighbourhood health service will end up in the bank accounts of big corporations.
Nauseatingly, another US corporation has formed United Health Europe, headed by ex-Downing Street adviser Simon Stevens, who drew up the NHS privatisation plans, to share the bonanza.
Defence Secretary John Reid argues the taxpayer will receive a multi-million windfall from QinetiQ. But Blair is guilty of doing exactly what Tory ex-Premier Harold Macmillan accused Maggie Thatcher of: selling off the family silver.
And, like Thatch, he's scandalously giving it away at a knock-down price. Dispossessed future generations will pick up the tab.
SOLD! TO THE FAT BLOKE ON MY RIGHT..
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/kevinmaguire/
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wilshire
free radical


Registered: 05/11/05
Posts: 2,421
Loc: SE PA
Last seen: 14 years, 3 days
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Re: Fat cats lapping up the privatisation cream [Re: Alex213]
#5255203 - 02/02/06 12:58 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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do you know how they arrived at the price?
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Alex213
Stranger
Registered: 08/22/05
Posts: 1,839
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Re: Fat cats lapping up the privatisation cream [Re: wilshire]
#5257794 - 02/02/06 11:51 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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You mean other than the fundamental rule of all such privatisations? Rip off the taxpayer for as much as possible whilst making a handful of directors millionaires overnight at no risk?
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wilshire
free radical


Registered: 05/11/05
Posts: 2,421
Loc: SE PA
Last seen: 14 years, 3 days
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Re: Fat cats lapping up the privatisation cream [Re: Alex213]
#5346017 - 02/27/06 04:09 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i'm asking how the specific price was determined. government-owned assets were sold to the private sector at a certain price. if that price was below market value, i'd agree that someone got ripped off here. if it wasn't, i don't see how there was any ripoff. since you're saying taxpayers got ripped off, but the article says nothing about how the price was determined, i'm asking if you know how the price was determined and why you think it was too low.
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