What is the plan once Britain has sold everything off?
Just more asset stripping. You would have thought we had learned the hardway after Macquarie just milked thames water in the name of the shareholder and at the expense of the customer.
>Macquarie owned Thames Water for more than a decade
Bloody hell, the government not even trying any more are they, like junkies selling off the stereo even while knowing they are being ripped off.
Absolutely blows my mind that the government/country doesn’t own the power/gas transmission infrastructure.
That would be like the roads not being owned by National Highways/Local Councils.
Edited to add:
Same with water. In Scotland they’re wondering what to spend the profits from water rates on. In England the profits go to shareholders, never to be seen again.
How the hell is selling critical infrastructure to other countries even a thing?
If they had kept Thames Valley Water they could have had 10x the amount of money instead of just 6x
Yeah that sovereignty and keeping things English has definitely worked after Brexit.
Out of interest. Would Labour allow this to happen, Do they have any policies on this sort of thing?
So we’re in a global initiative to lower carbon, so to lower the UKs contribution we just sell the gas abroad, lowering the UKs carbon usage (which were not ready for) but not affecting the same amount of carbon being used globally. Got it.
Why are we doing this? What’s the point? The planets fucked all the same but we’re worse off? It takes 2 minutes to realise this makes no difference to the planet whatsoever.
How and why do the national grid have access to the the nations silver supply?
I wonder how much chief executive John Pettigrew made from the deal
You can bet a lot of those foreign investors will be foreign governments, much like with rail, in a twist where it’s okay for other governments to own our critical infrastructure, just not our own.
Does this mean we are more fucked or less fucked? Or just about the same as usual fucked?
The NSIA means that a government department must be informed when there’s a potential sale of companies and assets in 17 areas, and an optional requirement for other sales.
So either the government knew, and OK’d this, or it happened before the act came in, or there may be some fireworks…
*edit* Transmission, not distribution.
Critical infrastructure that the user has no choice but to use should never be sold off to private entities. What incentive do they have to not cut every corner to turn a profit?
That’s how you get companies like Nestle stating things like water isn’t a human right.
Almost as if state infrastructure should always be 51% controlled by the state.
My god and here’s me thinking energy should be publicly owned and not a private company… then they go and make it worse than I ever imagined by making it a FOREIGN privately owned company. Good Job reducing my faith in humanity to levels I didn’t think were possible.
By the company that bought Thames water, made billions, paid no corporation tax then sold it a few months before it got fined for polluting.
Been happening for a good while, SGN was sold off to a Canadian company last year, Cadent Gas is a company formed when National Grid sold off their gas distribution networks to some foreign investors too. The companies still end up being largely operated from the UK after this, the profits just end up going abroad…
I’m so glad we pay for this infrastructure through our extortionate utility costs and taxpayer-funded grants, so it can be sold for private profit.
“We are doing this for ou…Your benefit!”
Nationalise energy, public transport etc…otherwise the politicians are going to sell off everything including the NHS- which they are already wilfully de-funding to push in more paid healthcare insurance companies.
Many of us in a few years will die, hungry, sick, in a freezing room, of a shared apartment that costs 75% of your weekly allowance.
But NOT the politicians or their chums.
I swear to god we need the Tories out of office sooner rather than later they don’t care about the average folk, but knowing them they’ll win again at the next general election. But even then nobody is able to run this forsaken country without bringing in new problems but anyone is better than the Tories next thing you know the NHS will be fully privatised..
Ah yes because having foreign owners of our energy has never been a problem.
UK sold off their rail infrastructure long ago.
More to come.
People seem to forget that national grid was sold years ago. It’s a FTSE listed public company, not a state owned entity.
America went through these mass privatization waves too. Even our media is completely corporate and controlled by the wealthiest few individuals in the world. It’s hard to get back once it’s sold.
Just wait until China owns it all in the end and use it against us.
The time will come.
Sell the gas structure off the thing we want to move away from going towards zero carbon emissions, probably not an unreasonable idea
28 comments
What is the plan once Britain has sold everything off?
Just more asset stripping. You would have thought we had learned the hardway after Macquarie just milked thames water in the name of the shareholder and at the expense of the customer.
>Macquarie owned Thames Water for more than a decade
Bloody hell, the government not even trying any more are they, like junkies selling off the stereo even while knowing they are being ripped off.
Absolutely blows my mind that the government/country doesn’t own the power/gas transmission infrastructure.
That would be like the roads not being owned by National Highways/Local Councils.
Edited to add:
Same with water. In Scotland they’re wondering what to spend the profits from water rates on. In England the profits go to shareholders, never to be seen again.
How the hell is selling critical infrastructure to other countries even a thing?
If they had kept Thames Valley Water they could have had 10x the amount of money instead of just 6x
Yeah that sovereignty and keeping things English has definitely worked after Brexit.
Out of interest. Would Labour allow this to happen, Do they have any policies on this sort of thing?
So we’re in a global initiative to lower carbon, so to lower the UKs contribution we just sell the gas abroad, lowering the UKs carbon usage (which were not ready for) but not affecting the same amount of carbon being used globally. Got it.
Why are we doing this? What’s the point? The planets fucked all the same but we’re worse off? It takes 2 minutes to realise this makes no difference to the planet whatsoever.
How and why do the national grid have access to the the nations silver supply?
I wonder how much chief executive John Pettigrew made from the deal
You can bet a lot of those foreign investors will be foreign governments, much like with rail, in a twist where it’s okay for other governments to own our critical infrastructure, just not our own.
Does this mean we are more fucked or less fucked? Or just about the same as usual fucked?
This purchase may fall under the new National Security and Investment Act. [Here’s the category](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-security-and-investment-act-guidance-on-notifiable-acquisitions/national-security-and-investment-act-guidance-on-notifiable-acquisitions#energy). It’s a Gas ~~Distribution~~ Transmission network company.
The NSIA means that a government department must be informed when there’s a potential sale of companies and assets in 17 areas, and an optional requirement for other sales.
So either the government knew, and OK’d this, or it happened before the act came in, or there may be some fireworks…
*edit* Transmission, not distribution.
Critical infrastructure that the user has no choice but to use should never be sold off to private entities. What incentive do they have to not cut every corner to turn a profit?
That’s how you get companies like Nestle stating things like water isn’t a human right.
Almost as if state infrastructure should always be 51% controlled by the state.
My god and here’s me thinking energy should be publicly owned and not a private company… then they go and make it worse than I ever imagined by making it a FOREIGN privately owned company. Good Job reducing my faith in humanity to levels I didn’t think were possible.
By the company that bought Thames water, made billions, paid no corporation tax then sold it a few months before it got fined for polluting.
Been happening for a good while, SGN was sold off to a Canadian company last year, Cadent Gas is a company formed when National Grid sold off their gas distribution networks to some foreign investors too. The companies still end up being largely operated from the UK after this, the profits just end up going abroad…
I’m so glad we pay for this infrastructure through our extortionate utility costs and taxpayer-funded grants, so it can be sold for private profit.
“We are doing this for ou…Your benefit!”
Nationalise energy, public transport etc…otherwise the politicians are going to sell off everything including the NHS- which they are already wilfully de-funding to push in more paid healthcare insurance companies.
Many of us in a few years will die, hungry, sick, in a freezing room, of a shared apartment that costs 75% of your weekly allowance.
But NOT the politicians or their chums.
I swear to god we need the Tories out of office sooner rather than later they don’t care about the average folk, but knowing them they’ll win again at the next general election. But even then nobody is able to run this forsaken country without bringing in new problems but anyone is better than the Tories next thing you know the NHS will be fully privatised..
Ah yes because having foreign owners of our energy has never been a problem.
UK sold off their rail infrastructure long ago.
More to come.
People seem to forget that national grid was sold years ago. It’s a FTSE listed public company, not a state owned entity.
America went through these mass privatization waves too. Even our media is completely corporate and controlled by the wealthiest few individuals in the world. It’s hard to get back once it’s sold.
Just wait until China owns it all in the end and use it against us.
The time will come.
Sell the gas structure off the thing we want to move away from going towards zero carbon emissions, probably not an unreasonable idea