Share dividends..

One of the effects was to transfer money from the citizens to the government. It had the same effects on the government budget as billions of taxes or spending cuts, and made people think Thatchers government was good at balancing the budget.

Of course, unless you are a prostitute, you can only sell your assets once, so after they had sold it all, it was back to taxes and cuts again.

JohnD said:

One of the effects was to transfer money from the citizens to the government. It had the same effects on the government budget as billions of taxes or spending cuts, and made people think Thatchers government was good at balancing the budget.

Of course, unless you are a prostitute, you can only sell your assets once, so after they had sold it all, it was back to taxes and cuts again.

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You are of course forgetting that a fair proportion of it was subsidised by the aforementioned taxpayers. All of these companies are now quite profitable, and contribute to our pensions.

People seem to forget the biggest share owners are the pension funds. So when companies are criticised for making profits just remember where the profits go.

Your pension fund.

One of the biggest UK stockmarket investors is Hermes (circa £40bn), Hermes invests in stockmarkets around the world, it also invests in hedge funds (heaven forbid), the funds everyone loves to hate, so who is Hermes?

Well if you have a BT pension (or indeed Royal Mail), they are the company managing your pension pot.

"Hermes, owned by, and the principal fund manager of, the largest pension fund in the UK"

'largest pension fund in the UK', I wonder who that is?

JohnD said:

One of the effects was to transfer money from the citizens to the government

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But the government transferred equity in a private company in return. The thing is, it already belonged to the taxpayer - the sleight-of-hand was getting the taxpayer to pay for it twice!

It had the same effects on the government budget as billions of taxes or spending cuts, and made people think Thatchers government was good at balancing the budget

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Yes there was a one off revenue spike for the guvmints books. But the government (taxpayer) got a loss making enterprise off their hands, which turned into a private profit making enterprise, so corporation tax was paid.

Privatisation was one of Thatcher's great successes, if anything she should have gone further, for example we still have a government run health service which is a complete cash drain. She did start taking the NHS on but got beaten back.

GrahamPearce said:

You are of course forgetting

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I am of course forgetting nothing.

JohnD said:

GrahamPearce said:

You are of course forgetting

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I am of course forgetting nothing.

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Is that it?

Must try harder.......

An article here today about employee share schemes

http://www.investorschronicle.co.uk...e-schemes-uzwp2lYWPld4cu5LkTtgoN/article.html

I don't know if you can read it without registering