Vocal Voices

I'm watching this one.

There is only one core reason for this merger and it has two parts. Trump Tariffs and Brexit.

This is going to be exceedingly interesting to watch. Ditto if Trump really does hit the EU with major car tariffs too.

Brexit, definitely. Trump, I am not so sure.

Merger negotiations were going on more than a year before Trump pulled his tariff trick. However, he might have firmed and speeded up a decision that was going to be made anyway.

So, a major British infrastructure company being sold by the Indians to the Germans.

To me this is everything that is wrong with this country. It should be blocked, and steel manufacturing should be renationalised. I don't care about the cost or the politics, just do it.

Similarly the Chinese emerging as preferred bidders for HS2. By 2020, it is now being thought that NO British company will have any stake in running our railways. We have truly sold out our soul to the global economy.

Sorry to end with a rant, but this sort of thing will make me, (any many like me I'm sure), vote Labour in the next election. I can't stand Corbyn, Abbott, McDonald et al, but I do support their emerging policies. And no, I don't care about rational argument, I'm beyond that ; this is now ideological. The politicians in power in this country are playing a very dangerous game.

Well we had two British companies running the railways up the east coast. But in order to win the bid they had to offer the Government £3.3bn and then make their profit above that.

Notably Virgin West Coast is still in operation.

It is not that British companies don't have the money. But ask yourself this. As an investor, would you rather invest your money out of the UK or in UK businesses where one of the political parties is talking about Nationalisation without market value compensation.

I can assure you I would not invest one penny in UK business that the Government might feel they would make a statement by nationalising.

American companies invest in America because their government works to protect that investment. Time was that was also true in the UK. However that truth died with the advent of the Labour party and their Nationalisation.

As for Steel? Time will tell. But if you look at the Public ownership of most mainland EU utilities, they allow the government to invest in them and the private partners to make profits from that investment, from which the Government takes taxes. A lesson idiots like Corbyn could do well to learn from.