Dogged ideological opposition to privatisation ignores many facts and deprives a country of opportunities, writes Tim Cohen IN THE debate in parliament on his budget speech, finance minister Pravin Gordhan described privatisation as an "old word" from the era of Margaret Thatcher. It had caused the financial meltdown, he said, and would not be part of government's policy. One slightly despairs when one hears this kind of talk - it's just wrong in so many ways.First, the notion that privatisation was a Thatcherite policy is only half true. Gordhan threw Thatcher into the debate because in his mind and perhaps that of his constituency, she is a kind of hate figure. An academic, David Parker, has written a huge, two-volume work called The Official History of Privatisation and I'm one of perhaps five people on the planet, I suspect, who have read it. Parker describes Thatcher's position on privatisation in May 1979 as "enigmatic"."She had in the past demonstrated hostility to big gover...
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