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Labour are going to sell the Dartford Crossing

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Panic Button | 22:57 Sun 11th Oct 2009 | News
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Why don't they go the whole hog and sell the M25?
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Who on earth would buy the M25?
I'd buy a couple of feet of it, Rosetta, just enough for a toll booth.
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Who on earth would buy the Dartford Crossing?
True jno, true. Mind you there is not much throughput. Maybe car parking charges too.
This from Wikipedia,makes you think they were thinking of this as long ago as 2002.After all who would buy a bridge without a crossing charge,where would the profits be?

A fee was retained however under the new principle of Road User Charging, which had been introduced in the 2000 Transport Act as a means of using road pricing for controlling traffic congestion and funding local and national transport schemes. Under this act, the A282 Trunk Road (Dartford-Thurrock Crossing charging scheme) Order 2002 allowed the continuation of the crossing fee, which officially became a charge and not a toll on 1 April 2003. At the same time, under the terms of the 1988 Act the DRC company was liquidated and management of the crossing was contracted to Le Crossing Company Limited on behalf of the Highways Agency. Under the new user charge regime, Le Crossing collects the charges which are set in statutory Charging Orders under the 2000 Act, with the revenue passing in full to the government for redistribution, and annual public accounts of the operation published showing expenses/revenues of the crossing.
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The French will buy it. Watch those tolls rise!
The governent plan to raise £16billion from such sales. The Tory plan is to drastically cut services and absorb a huge increase in unemployment.
>Who on earth would buy the M25?

Well private investors paid for the building of the M6 Toll road (which is basically the same as buying it). Not sure they are making as much money as they would like, but I bet they would bite the governments hand off to buy the M25. Just think of how many toll booths you could set up round the M25.
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Labour governments always run out of money
>The governent plan to raise £16billion from such sales.

Yes, it is called "selling the family silver" which you only normally do when you have wasted all your cash and now need to sell off the family heirlooms.

And once they are sold they cant be sold again.

This goverment will probably sell them at too cheap a price anyway, and probably to their big busines "friends" (who will offer them jobs when they lose their setas in the next election).
Oh well, I can see my efforts at levity went down like a pair of lead knickers lol
>Labour governments always run out of money

Yes its called socialism.

Basically you find all the poor people in the country, keep giving them money to sit at home and do nothing, or pay them lots of money for each kid they have.

To pay for this you tax all those in work so that in the end companies start to go bankrupt, then close down, reducing the amount of tax coming in, so you cant afford to keep giving all this money away.

So you finish up sellign the family silver.

Vote Labour - Bankrupt the country
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Raised a snigger or two with me, Rosetta
VHG you are making this too easy!
*******************************************************************************************************************************
Yes, it is called "selling the family silver" which you only normally do when you have wasted all your cash
and now need to sell off the family heirlooms.
*******************************************************************************************************************************
Like:
The National Grid
The Regional Water Authoritiories
British Steel
Royal Ordinance
British Aerospace
British Gas
BT
British Shipbuilders
British Petroleum
Associated British Ports
.....?
Being extra picky - The Dartford crossing is not strictly the M25.

The part of the road from the 1st entrance/exit in Essex to the 1st entrance/exit in Kent is the A282.

Reason for this is that a) the road i s not of motorway standard also it allows non-motorway-users (i.e. learners) the ability to use the crossing legally
The subtle difference is that all the above were complex organisations that benefited hugely from private-sector leadership and management, having been freed from the shackles of ineptitude under Government ownership.
The Thames River crossing is simply a cash-cow with no competition and never any likelihood of any. It paid off its private sector funding costs comfortably inside the original 20 years of the Design/Build/Operate concession and, being a simple business that it is hard to screw up, it will continue to generate huge amounts of cash for whoever owns it.
It's pity that the money can't continue going back into the Treasury, but if you've fouled up big-time in the public finances, one can see that sometimes you have to sell the family silver
Talking of simple businesses that it is hard to screw up, anyone know when AB are going to get around to sort out the 'screen width' problem that didn't exist before?
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What screen width problem?

That was sorted ages ago.

I don't see it any more on Firefox or IE.
Benefitted hugely from privitisation ?-

You mean stategic national infrastructure

The water boards? The national grid? Royal Ordinance?

Well let's list some other companies that benefitted so greatly from Privatisation.

Rolls Royce - Now German
Jaguar - Now Indian
Rover Group - Last toenail the mini - now German (Ex execs now on fat pensions)
Girobank - Now Spanish
British Ship Builders - Now wound up
Amersham International - Now American.

Yes A great benefit! - not selling off the familly silver at all!
The family silver was sold decades ago.

I can see why it is not desirable that our energy grids are now foreign owned, but frankly I do not give a toss who own a bit of tunnel. If that is the price to pay to reduce the deficit, I would sooner that happened than services were cut and unemployment increased drastically. Paying 5 million unemployed or sell a tunnel. I know which option I prefer.

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