Privatisation amongst friends
13 April 2010
Is Britain’s defence technology going to drift away to the highest bidder?
History is not my subject, but I am more than aware that international friendships are not forever. An ally one day (or year, or decade) may not be such a comfortable bedfellow in the future, and I believe that the modern instability throughout the world can often be traced back to former imperialist rulers that have dominated and dropped countries to suit their own needs. A bit like the tyrannical father whose dysfunctional son comes back with venom when he has his own independence.
Generally speaking, imperialist tendencies are frowned upon these days in the global village, but the daily news tells us that these are far from peaceful times. What’s more is that it is some of the individuals and financial institutions from countries that we might regards as ‘unstable’, or maybe ‘not on-side’, who are investing in ‘British’ companies, whether they are football clubs or supermarkets. Now, when the company in question is a football club, the supporters can change scarves or wave placards to voice their disapproval, but in fairness it is really only the supporters themselves that are aggrieved. And even then it is amazing how quiet they go when results start going their way!
It is a more sinister state of affairs when the company in question happens to be the UK’s defence research agency, Qinetiq. This is a company now in its fourth year of privatisation and it is a year since the Ministry of Defence relinquished any shareholding in it. The company is in the business pages because it has attracted the interest of American investment funds, therefore potentially moving it away from British ownership. I do not see how such moves can be resisted in the long term.
The shares of any publicly registered company is likely to be bought and sold based on that company’s performance. These shares can end up in pension or investment funds that can be sold as a block or even change ownership, and there are no national boundaries in the financial world. Or to put it another way, the notion of ‘Britishness’ of a company goes out of the window as soon as it goes public. Given that any company operates for the benefit of its owners, if these owners happen to not turn out to be interested in the defence of the British realm then that is not really surprising. It is one of the cases of ‘natural monopoly’ that should, in my opinion, have never been sold by the Government for quick profit. Apart from anything else, the people who invest in it today may not be our friends in the future!
Damn lies…
On another matter, I noticed (with deep scepticism) that the UK is leading the charge out of recession. Back in November I wrote in this column that ‘The good news is – ONLY the UK is still in trouble!’, referring of course to the official Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures that while Europe, America and everywhere else has emerged from recession during the third quarter, only the UK remained in it.
Now it appears, with the election race in full swing, that not only is the UK growing faster than everyone else (except Canada in the G7), this stellar performance is being led by our buoyant manufacturing sector, which grew at its fastest rate for 15 years, according to the Purchasing Managers Index. Much as I would be delighted if all the above was true, I wonder how many such statistics will be rolled out by Labour politicians over the next four weeks, while the Tories and Lib Dems will find equally convincing, yet negative, statistics to prove what a bad job the incumbents have been doing. ONS, apparently, are a totally independent organisation and therefore beyond government tampering. But as we all know, statistics may be factual, while their contextual use can leave them misleading or meaningless, and I am sure there will be plenty of the latter in the run-up to 6 May!
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