What services had been privatised before and after the Tameside protest

What services had been privatised before and since the Tameside protest

As a lot of the protest of Tameside in 1998 was to do with the privatisation of the care  home I wanted to research more where this started and what state the country was in when the protest happened. 

Start of Privatisation early 1980’s

Tories began to propose privatisation – they proposed it would make the large utilities more efficient and productive.

The Government sold off Jaguar, British Telecom, Cable and Wireless, British Aerospace, British Oil and British Gas. They had started to privatise core utilities.

1987 – 1991

Continued to sell off core utilities, including British Steel, British Petroleum, Rolls Royce, British Airways, water and electricity.

1992 – 1996

Second defeat of the miners, final sell of British coal

Powergen and National Power and British Rail were privatised

Michael Heseltine’s attempt to privatise the Post Office was left due to public opposition.

1997 – 2001 – Time of Tameside Strike and Cuts

New Labour – Tories grew unpopular due to over privatisation, Labour pledged to stop the sell of air traffic control but of course, this wasn’t carried out.

Thatcherism had destroyed Trade Unions and the Militant Left which gave way for Blair’s neoliberalism (reductions in Government spending)

2002 – 2008

Labour wanted further state downsizing and privatisation. 

This was on hold while the credit crunch happened but was always a priority to restore companies back to private ownership.

Source