If Britain must sell off the family silver, let’s put the proceeds to good use at least

Selling off national assets to pay down the national debt is madness. The money could be better used elsewhere.

(Photo By "First, all the Georgian silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the saloon. Then the Canalettos go." Photo: Getty Images)

As the privatisation juggernaut – from Royal Mail to RBS – continues to roll, the government is hoping to net billions more from the sale of public assets.

Privatisation was originally sold as the route to Mrs Thatcher’s much vaunted ‘popular capitalism’. Yet shares bought by the public through privatisation have mostly been sold immediately, while share ownership is even more concentrated today than in the 1980s. A large number of these companies have been bought up by private – increasingly foreign – owners.