Gordon Brown's car boot sale

Gordon Brown announced a sale of £16bn of state assets to reduce the public debt. But the government's track record on asset sales isn't good, and this one doesn't look promising either.

Gordon Brown announced a sale of £16bn of state assets in order to "deal with our debt issues". On the block are the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, the Dartford Crossing toll road and Tote, the nationalised bookmaker, along with a 33% stake in uranium enrichment company Urenco. Around £11bn of the total is expected to come from sales by local authorities.

What the commentators said

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