who owns what?

cmonstanley · 09-06-2013, 07:59

ive just found out that arriva the private transport company is mostly owned by the German government, edf who run the nuclear power stations are mostly owned by the french government,the utilities are all owned by middle east companies. this is proof ,this is the real reason we are in debt .this is evidence this is hard facts we need radicalisation nationalisation of the transport system the utilities ,the waterways no subsidies to these companies get them back in british hands.

jaysay · 09-06-2013, 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

ive just found out that arriva the private transport company is mostly owned by the German government, edf who run the nuclear power stations are mostly owned by the french government,the utilities are all owned by middle east companies. this is proof ,this is the real reason we are in debt .this is evidence this is hard facts we need radicalisation nationalisation of the transport system the utilities ,the waterways no subsidies to these companies get them back in british hands.

You live in your own dream world, the world has moved on since Stalin, live with it

cmonstanley · 09-06-2013, 08:42

but your anti-European is it good for their governments to own our utilities

jaysay · 09-06-2013, 09:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

but your anti-European is it good for their governments to own our utilities

Two entirely different things, Government by Europe

DaveinGermany · 09-06-2013, 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

the transport system the utilities ,the waterways get them back in british hands.

In his own ham fisted way (more through luck than design) he's making a valid enough point. If the assets that are now held by foreign owners were back in British ownership there would be more chance of reaping the benefits, taxes paid into UK, employment of locals & not their own people being brought in from outside, plus the added spending power from the workers within their own economy.

jaysay · 09-06-2013, 17:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

In his own ham fisted way (more through luck than design) he's making a valid enough point. If the assets that are now held by foreign owners were back in British ownership there would be more chance of reaping the benefits, taxes paid into UK, employment of locals & not their own people being brought in from outside, plus the added spending power from the workers within their own economy.

He never makes one valid point by luck or design Dave, the Guardian does

cmonstanley · 09-06-2013, 19:20

its the same the Germans,French,Norwegian plus the middle east they 50% of our utilities no wonder we yes to everything they want.they control our economy now.its not just a coincidence energy prices keep rising when we are in recession .they are trying to bring the British public and industry to their knees.

GEaston · 10-06-2013, 02:27

Why does it matter who owns them Stan ?

There's an implicit suggestion that these were formerly great industries contributing large profits to the exchequer. They weren't. The govt ran far too much, and watching the current MP scandals it's clear they can barely run themselves let alone large industries.

I'm pleased they are not owned or run by our government. If overseas companies can run them properly then good luck to them, I'm certain we can't. I defer to the Landrover story. Good initial design hampered by crap company management under British Leyland (state owned and state miss-managed). The last cars we produced (up to 2001) were the worst Land Rovers and Range Rovers ever produced and certainly the most unreliable. BMW bought the company and invested in it in 2002 - the Land Rovers and Range Rovers from 2003 onwards are superb. They sold it to Tata and we now produce more very high quality Land Rovers and Range Rovers than ever before. These are all made in Britain with British Jobs and exported to the world. Noone sees it as an Indian company even though it is.

On the security point, you can't walk out of the country with a sewer system in your bag. The infrastructure can be owned by the Germans or French or whoever but it stays here in the UK.

The bigger point here is that the money raised by all the privatisations was squandered by the last government who's wreckless spending over 12 years created the largest debt our country has had since World War 2.

Boeing Guy · 10-06-2013, 04:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by GEaston

I defer to the Landrover story. Good initial design hampered by crap company management under British Leyland (state owned and state miss-managed). The last cars we produced (up to 2001) were the worst Land Rovers and Range Rovers ever produced and certainly the most unreliable. BMW bought the company and invested in it in 2002 - the Land Rovers and Range Rovers from 2003 onwards are superb. They sold it to Tata and we now produce more very high quality Land Rovers and Range Rovers than ever before. These are all made in Britain with British Jobs and exported to the world. Noone sees it as an Indian company even though it is.

Hate to be pedantic, but BMW bought Land Rover along with Rover in 1994, they sold Land Rover in 2006, having sold Rover in 2000. Ford bought them then sold them to Tata.
Land Rover is a global brand, who is to say they will be continued to be built in the UK, the newly revived MG isn't.

Boeing Guy · 10-06-2013, 05:25

The problem is where does all the money go, if it is British owned then most of the money flows back into our country, Dyson for example, but similarly money flows out of the UK into the hands of foreign corporations and in doing so propping up that countries economy.
Whist I do not believe Nationalisation as the way forward, seeing our inept politicians allowing foreign corporations to purchase anything they want, I cannot argue against Cmonstanly on this one and in fact find myself agreeing with him.

GEaston · 10-06-2013, 06:36

Time flies. My point is the brand is better than ever, more cars produced in the UK than ever and it's been in the dreaded "foreign ownership" since 1994.

MG were never a volume car manufacturer in the UK, but were another shining example of poor quality car production by a UK nationalised industry. If MG was the best we could do, then we should not be producing cars.

GEaston · 10-06-2013, 07:15

What you don't touch on Stan is where this happens in reverse. The overseas companies that UK firms own. UK has always been one of the largest owners of overseas assets, and that continues to this day.

Royal Dutch Shell owns $271 billion of Foreign Assets
BP owns $244 billion of foreign assets
Vodaphone $224 billion of foreign assets

and so the list goes on (2010 numbers from the Office for National Statistics). Would you like to moan about that also ?

I'm sure there's Stanley equivalents overseas moaning about how the Brits own so much stuff. The Irish probably don't like that Guiness is a British Brand (Guiness is owned by Diageo - the worlds largest drinks manufacturer, which by the way is a British firm).

The real owners of overseas assets though are our banks:

HSBC owns $2,454 Billion of overseas assets
Barclays owns $2,322 Billion of overseas assets
RBS owns $2,262 Billion of overseas assets

so our top 3 banks (all top 10 global banks by size) own a staggering $7 trillion of overseas assets or enough to repay the entire UK national debt 5 times over.

So if our banks sneeze, that's a huge problem for the UK. Having such a large UK financial sector as we've all seen is in many ways unhealthy. However, when moaning about how "foreigners" are invading our shores and plundering our prized though mostly lossmaking nationalised industries the other part of the picture should also be considered - our ownership of johnny foreigner which is a large number.

Even with our broken banks the UK earns more on our investments abroad than foreigners earn from investments in us.

jaysay · 10-06-2013, 07:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by GEaston

What you don't touch on Stan is where this happens in reverse. The overseas companies that UK firms own. UK has always been one of the largest owners of overseas assets, and that continues to this day.

Royal Dutch Shell owns $271 billion of Foreign Assets
BP owns $244 billion of foreign assets
Vodafone $224 billion of foreign assets

and so the list goes on (2010 numbers from the Office for National Statistics). Would you like to moan about that also ?

I'm sure there's Stanley equivalents overseas moaning about how the Brits own so much stuff. The Irish probably don't like that Genius is a British Brand (Guinness is owned by Diageo - the worlds largest drinks manufacturer, which by the way is a British firm).

The real owners of overseas assets though are our banks:

HSBC owns $2,454 Billion of overseas assets
Barclays owns $2,322 Billion of overseas assets
RBS owns $2,262 Billion of overseas assets

so our top 3 banks (all top 10 global banks by size) own a staggering $7 trillion of overseas assets or enough to repay the entire UK national debt 5 times over.

So if our banks sneeze, that's a huge problem for the UK. Having such a large UK financial sector as we've all seen is in many ways unhealthy. However, when moaning about how "foreigners" are invading our shores and plundering our prized though mostly loss making nationalised industries the other part of the picture should also be considered - our ownership of johnny foreigner which is a large number.

Even with our broken banks the UK earns more on our investments abroad than foreigners earn from investments in us.

Can't remember C'Mon pointing this out about the assets in foreign assets we own, well he wouldn't would he, its swings and roundabouts in economics, pity he's never grasped that

Boeing Guy · 10-06-2013, 08:42

You forgot to say that Britain is the sixth ls largest exporter in the world.

Cmon's point was not about any of that, he is concerned about our infrastructure, these should be British owned else we could have a repeat of the 1970's, being held for ransom by the utility companies.

The reason the Chinese have resurrected the MG brand is simple, it is sportier than Rover.
As to quality, well if you want to drive of road try a Land Cruiser, or a Cayenne or even a Jeep. Range Rover is no longer thevehicle of choice.

Boeing Guy · 10-06-2013, 10:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by GEaston

Time flies. My point is the brand is better than ever, more cars produced in the UK than ever and it's been in the dreaded "foreign ownership" since 1994.

MG were never a volume car manufacturer in the UK, but were another shining example of poor quality car production by a UK nationalised industry. If MG was the best we could do, then we should not be producing cars.

You need to get your facts straight. In 1972 we produced a record 1.92 million cars. The closest we have got to that figure was in 2000, then it was 1.80 million. Far from building more cars. ...