Gosling's Grouse - It was acceptable in the eighties

It is unofficial election time so I guess we are going to have to put up with a lot of old waffle about Gordon Brown being a bully (so what?), and the Conservatives suggesting they would like to give the private investor the opportunity to buy into the state-owned banks at a discount.

This all looks and sounds a little like the privatisations of the 1980s where all those state-owned monopolies – British Gas, BT, the railways etc – were punted off to the small investor via flotations, which in themselves set the ground for the wave of demutualisations of the building societies and life offices that came afterwards. The Conservatives suggest giving us all the chance to buy a few shares at a discount is a little thank you for us helping bail out the banks in their hour of need. Actually, we did not have any choice. I do not remember getting anything from Her Majesty’s...