John Gray's brilliant review of the new book Private Island: Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else
by James Meek:
Private Island examines six big privatisations: the postal service, the railways, water, social housing, electricity supply and the NHS. One of our finest writers, Meek couldn't produce a dull sentence however hard he tried. Here he adopts a style that mixes personal observation and memory, travel reportage and interviews with historical narrative and rigorous argument. The result is an unputdownable book that will leave you with a lasting sense of unease. Did you know that when Enron collapsed it owned Wessex Water, which serves Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire? Or that the French energy company EDF is one of the dominant six suppliers of British electricity, owning a portfolio of power stations, including a fleet of nuclear plants, thereby effectively renationalising these businesses – but on behalf of the French state? Or that Northumbrian Water, which serves northeast England, is owned by the Hong Kong-based company Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, which also has the monopoly on London Underground's electricity cables? Well, if – like me – you didn't know, do yourself a favour: read Private Island and find out what has really happened in Britain over the past 20 years.
[....]
t's less clear what will happen here. Quite possibly, nothing very much. No one could describe the capitalism of the past two decades as stable, efficient or particularly productive. Yet it has survived the greatest financial crisis in generations practically unscathed. Intellectually, neoliberalism has long been thoroughly discredited. Politically, it has rarely been more secure. At the end of the book, Meek looks wistfully to a revival of non-market thinking, starting in the area of social housing. But in a political economy where nothing carries greater weight than the housing market, it's an improbable scenario. As long as they own their homes, no matter how heavily mortgaged, most people in Britain don't seem too bothered about who owns the country.
by James Meek:Private Island examines six big privatisations: the postal service, the railways, water, social housing, electricity supply and the NHS. One of our finest writers, Meek couldn't produce a dull sentence however hard he tried. Here he adopts a style that mixes personal observation and memory, travel reportage and interviews with historical narrative and rigorous argument. The result is an unputdownable book that will leave you with a lasting sense of unease. Did you know that when Enron collapsed it owned Wessex Water, which serves Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire? Or that the French energy company EDF is one of the dominant six suppliers of British electricity, owning a portfolio of power stations, including a fleet of nuclear plants, thereby effectively renationalising these businesses – but on behalf of the French state? Or that Northumbrian Water, which serves northeast England, is owned by the Hong Kong-based company Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, which also has the monopoly on London Underground's electricity cables? Well, if – like me – you didn't know, do yourself a favour: read Private Island and find out what has really happened in Britain over the past 20 years.
[....]
t's less clear what will happen here. Quite possibly, nothing very much. No one could describe the capitalism of the past two decades as stable, efficient or particularly productive. Yet it has survived the greatest financial crisis in generations practically unscathed. Intellectually, neoliberalism has long been thoroughly discredited. Politically, it has rarely been more secure. At the end of the book, Meek looks wistfully to a revival of non-market thinking, starting in the area of social housing. But in a political economy where nothing carries greater weight than the housing market, it's an improbable scenario. As long as they own their homes, no matter how heavily mortgaged, most people in Britain don't seem too bothered about who owns the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment