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From The Socialist newspaper, 1 June 2016
Public asset sales will lose us money
The Tories are selling off public assets at the expense of future income, photo TaxRebate.org.uk (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)
Rudi Abdallah
Profit-hungry chancellor George Osborne will damage public finances by privatising the Land Registry and other public assets. A new report has found ongoing income would outstrip the sale's windfall.
Think tank New Economics Foundation, acting for campaign group We Own It, reports that handing the Registry to the private sector will savage public finances in 25 years' time. It also warned that if other assets like National Air Traffic Services were sold, the impact would be felt within seven years.
Supporters of We Own It, who crowdfunded the report, are concerned the government is embarking on the most comprehensive privatisation programme since Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street.
The group's director Cat Hobs said: "The Land Registry is a profitable, successful, innovative organisation doing a great job - why privatise it? We need to think about the wealth of the next generation, not just a 'quick fix' on the deficit."
Osborne's destructive campaign aims to sell off £20 billion worth of public assets by the end of this parliament. This includes shares in bailed-out banks.
The Tories, determined as ever to sell off every part of the country, breathe in numbers and think in graphs. Those graphs show only the bosses' profits. They will always put the needs of private enterprise before workers.
The Socialist Party opposes privatisation and austerity. We want key industries including the banks and all public services to come under democratic workers' ownership and control - to be run in the interests of all, not just a few super-rich shareholders.
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Coronavirus crisis - Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 1 June 2016:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Motion passed for no-cuts council budgets
Jobseekers told: take three-hour commute
Public asset sales will lose us money
The BBC
France
France: struggle against government intensifies
Fighting austerity: French strikes show the way
What we think
Tories tearing themselves apart over EU referendum: vote leave to get Cameron out
Socialist Party workplace news
PCS conference takes serious approach to key political and industrial questions
Could it be 3 strikes and you're out at 2 Sisters?
Welsh Government under attack at Wales TUC conference...and museum strikers close to victory
University lecturers strike for fair pay
Thomas Cook cabin crew to strike over breaks
BIS office closure: Anger and determination to fight on
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Property speculators target Butterfields tenants
Pent Valley campaigners take council to judicial review
George Tomlinson school: Academy fears
Birmingham Labour council takes credit for Tory privatisation
Get a copy of the Socialist from a workplace near you!
International socialist news and analysis
Solidarity with protesters in Kazakhstan
Portugal: Lisbon dockers' victory
Socialist Party comments and reviews
Obituary: Simon Gomery 1968-2016
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