When oil and gas where discovered in the 1960’s in the North Sea while politicians paid lip service to the idea of using UK reserves to bolster our energy policy that rapidly went out of the window. Unlike the Norwegians whose government kept a tight rein on their reserves and has profited massively as a result the UK has gone from being a net exporter of crude oil to a net importer. Our oil and gas leases are being sold off by the BP’s and Shell’s to smaller companies hardly any of them British.
One of the downsides of becoming Europeans is that other countries can come in and buy up the infrastructure of their neighbours, effectively owning them.
France's EDF energy group has been involved in electricity generation in Britain for many years, along with the sale of gas and electricity to households and businesses.
The OFT states: 'From our own data, we found that approximately 38% of infrastructure is held by foreign investors.
Boots the Chemist now owned by Alliance (GmBH articled in Switzerland), their website says they are “international”
Rolls Royce, they kept the name but the marque like the iconic Mini is owned by BMW.
The Spanish, US, Australians are swooping on our banks, the ones we the taxpayer don’t own that is.
Kraft have bought Cadbury and are asset stripping it to death and killing the taste of the chocolate I grew up with by moving the production to Poland. The icing on the cake, this week Deutsche Post are the main contender to buy our privatized Royal Mail so no more queens head on the UK’s stamps.
For a start a country’s infrastructure shouldn’t be for sale. In an ideal world everyone gets a fair share, but what happens when the gas supplies run low and the French company decides their citizens get what’s left. Or the Germans cut our power because they can. England, which am I ashamed to say has been brought to a grinding halt by snow that the average Utahn would consider ‘light’ is never going to be part of Great Britain if it doesn’t start rediscovering some backbone and telling foreign investors where they can stick their money. I’m not suggesting they nationalize everything it’s been tried and it was a complete disaster. I think we can save ourselves if we put our minds to it and our cupboard of British owned companies is pretty nearly bare.
