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The great electricity sell-off
James Meek, in his account of the way Britain’s power industry fell into foreign hands, misses out one detail, which was crucial to the massive growth of EDF, the state-owned French company, and key to the way that it and other state-owned firms from elsewhere in Europe have been able to ‘renationalise’ utilities and services…
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Sorting rich from poor
Policy Exchange, a right-wing think-tank, is calling on councils and housing associations to sell off their most valuable housing stock. Policy Exchange has a variable record. It was an advocate of the government’s austerity programme, predicting in August 2010 that ‘if the Coalition stays the course on cutting spending’, then ‘growth through most of 2011’ should…
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‘Praying for Poland’
Octavia Hill is probably best remembered 100 years after her death as one of the founders of the National Trust. But her legacy as an enlightened landlord of working-class housing is perhaps more important. She was born in 1838 into a family of political activists. Her father founded a school in Wisbech run on principles…