I'm 47 and can remember pre privatisation, each area had its own electricity board, YEB (Yorkshire Electricity Board) round here. Every town and city, and even some smaller towns had a gas board and an electricity board shop, where you went to pay your bill. The small town near where I lived as a kid had an electricity shop (can't remember if it had a gas board shop), i know the nearby big town definitely had both. I think it was a good a good idea at the time, but over the years the companies have just got too greedy, because they know we've got no other choice but to pay them. Although let's not forget the train companies are slowly reverting back to public ownership, Northern Rail, LNER and TransPennine Express all government owned at the moment.
Thanks for this, Dave. I think you're right about commercial businesses having an effective monopoly - state-owned organisations need to generate enough to pay their cost and upkeep and develop their service, but don't need to pay shareholders!
I'm 47 and can remember pre privatisation, each area had its own electricity board, YEB (Yorkshire Electricity Board) round here. Every town and city, and even some smaller towns had a gas board and an electricity board shop, where you went to pay your bill. The small town near where I lived as a kid had an electricity shop (can't remember if it had a gas board shop), i know the nearby big town definitely had both.
I think it was a good a good idea at the time, but over the years the companies have just got too greedy, because they know we've got no other choice but to pay them. Although let's not forget the train companies are slowly reverting back to public ownership, Northern Rail, LNER and TransPennine Express all government owned at the moment.
Thanks for this, Dave. I think you're right about commercial businesses having an effective monopoly - state-owned organisations need to generate enough to pay their cost and upkeep and develop their service, but don't need to pay shareholders!