Thread by @docrussjackson

The Tories & the press relentlessly attack & undermine the @nationaltrust & the @BBC, two of our most loved & quintessentially British institutions, not because they're "woke" or "anti-British", but because they're two of the only assets we have left which haven't been sold off.

Contrary to popular belief among the fewer than 3 in 10 of the electorate who voted Tory in #GE209, deregulated free market capitalism is not about "efficiency", 'driving down costs' or 'driving up choice & quality': it's about short-term profit & is not in the national interest.

Most countries have polices restricting foreign ownership on the grounds that there are strategic sectors which should be kept in domestic ownership.

Not the UK: public utilities, the media, manufacturing & property are in the hands of foreign companies & foreign billionaires.

Alex Brummer in ‘Britain for Sale: British Companies in Foreign Hands’ estimated that no less than half of all British companies have been sold to foreigners.

The Right flaunt their nationalist credentials, while selling Britain down the river.

neweconomics.opendemocracy.net/who-owns-brita…

In the 1980s, the irresponsible Thatcher Government embraced privatisation as its primary policy, arguing that 'opening up business' to the "free market" would make them more efficient & productive, & give British capitalism the competitive edge in Europe & the global economy.

The Tories sold off Jaguar, British Telecom, British Rail, British Aerospace, Britoil & British Gas, British Steel, British Petroleum, British Airways, Rolls Royce, & public water & electricity companies - it was sheer bloody minded ideological vandalism.

The #NHS is next.

Thatcher’s reign was built upon a reckless post- nationalist faith in the global free market, enterprise culture & competition, as well as a reactionary belief in Great Britain’s imperial past.

Continued by subsequent Govts, asset-stripped Britain's cupboard is now almost bare.

Thatcherism ushered in a dangerous relationship between Govt & monied powers. MPs increasingly rendered powerless in relation to the City sought personal gain with corporate positions & memberships. The UK Govt is now mainly a vehicle for the the interests of the rich & powerful.

Most UK think tanks, radio stations, TV channels, newspapers & magazines are just the #propaganda wing of powerful corporations & libertarian billionaires; our public institutions are headed by their representatives; & our Government is full of lobbyists, bankers & hedge funders.

So after forty years, what does Britain have left to sell off? The "woke" museums, Universities, #NHS, #BBC & #NationalTrust.

Having got their Brexit, the ERG, Tufton St & now Andrew Neil's hedge-funded TV channel aim to turn public opinion against them, so they can be sold off.