Posted on 10/12/2009 10:36:35 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Monday a 16-billion-pound sale of state assets including a high-speed railway and a betting service to cut soaring debt caused by the economic crisis.
Brown -- facing a likely election defeat next year by David Cameron's Conservative Party -- wants to halve Britain's deficit in four years.
But opposition politicians derided the asset sale as a political gimmick and compared it to a "national car boot sale" and "selling the family silver."
The planned disposals, which also include a 33-percent stake in European uranium consortium URENCO and the Student Loan Company.
"We plan a sale of assets to deal with our debt issues and... 16 billion of assets will be sold within the next two years," Brown told financiers during a speech in central London.
The public deficit increased after an expensive bailout of the troubled banking sector.
The deficit is widely forecast to strike 175 billion pounds this year as the nation's finances also face pressure from a recession which has slashed taxation revenues.
As well as announcing the sale, Brown's speech was also a bid to seize back the political initiative on the issue from the Conservatives, who are well ahead in the opinion polls with a general election due by June.
It included a string of attacks on Conservative policies, a taste of the electioneering flavour which is likely to dominate political debates in the coming months.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
From bail-outs to sale-outs.. socialism is sucking the lifeblood out of Western Civilization.
Workers repair part of the Channel Tunnel which links Britain and France in Coquelles, northern France. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced a £16 billion sale of state assets including a rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel to cut soaring debt caused by economic crisis. (AFP/File/Philippe Huguen)
Saudi Arabia will get a sweet deal on everything.
With the amount of mosques being constructed around London, I thought they already owned the country by now.
Incompetence, anyone? If someone cannot turn a profit running a betting service, that someone is the very personification (whether singular or plural) of incompetence. Sheesh.
"One step closer and I'll make you look like a Popsicle with this thing..."
“....socialism is sucking the lifeblood out of Western Civilization.”
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My Yukon Denali SUV has a gigantic ass.
I can fit that phrase on a bumpersticker, and still have room for “Sarah-January 20, 2013”.
This is privatization, hence leads to less socialism. What are you complaining about?
Me, complain? I’m in California. It’s my nature. :-)
If all the major assets of a nation are held by foreign investors, no problemo, huh? just so the trains run and the lights stay on.
Sp then, I pick up a 500 acre country manor, 1 hour outside London, with castle, woods and lake for around 1000 quid?
How about parts for my old Triumph ?
I think America should sell some stuff to
Amtrack
GM Chrysler
The Post Office
AIG
thats off the top of my head
I doubt the socialists still make parts for such a wonderful, politically incorrect automobile.
Better get yourself a Pious
There are probably more Triumphs and stocks of Triumph parts in the USA anyway.
No, but you should identify the problem correctly. Merely mumbling, completely out of context, something about socialism places the discourse at the level of an Oriental bazaar.
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