Electricity Privatisation - A Record of Failure

A new independent report and video documentary on electricity privatisation in Victoria, Australia, addresses its economic failings and social costs. Professor John Quiggin of the University of Queensland provides detailed evidence to support the conclusion that free-market electricity reforms have been 'a spectacular failure' and there is no fiscal or economic justification to continue the sell-off:
http://www.etu.org.au/system/files/ETU%20Electricity%20Privatisation%20Report.pdf
http://gmpsiaprec.blogspot.sg/2014/02/electricity-privatisation-record-of.html

Breaking the grip of privatisation – ‘a failed and corrosive model'

Seumas Milne writing in the Guardian takes stock of recent developments in the NHS as well as the energy/utilities sector and states that it should be obvious that ‘powerful interests are driving what is by any objective measure a failed 30-year experiment - but which transfers income and wealth from workforce, public and state to the corporate sector. In the case of privatised utilities, that is the extraction of shareholder value on a vast scale from a captive public.’ Milne concludes that ‘the case for public ownership of basic utilities and services – including electricity, gas, water and communications infrastructure – is overwhelming. It's also supported by a large majority of the country's voters’
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/29/grip-privatisation-vital-services-ineos-energy?CMP=twt_gu

Thatcher’s professed aim - 'irreversibly' dismantling Britain’s public sector

A considered view of Thatcher's legacy from Michael Hudson writing for the US webzine Counterpunch. From her first Government's groundbreaking privatisation of telecommunications and public utilities through to New Labour's deregulation of the City of London and the financial sector, Hudson traces the continuities since 1979 which have led to Britain's 'Great Polarization between the creditor 1% and the increasingly indebted 99%'
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/08/the-queen-mother-of-global-austerity-financialization/