Tell Sid: popular capitalism is back – but buyers beware

Encouraging the public to own shares is a great idea, says Matthew Lynn. But not if it means buying old-style banks.

In 1986 the UK government was selling off British Gas in what was the biggest privatisation up to that date. So it came up with a clever campaign to convince the public to buy the shares. "If you see Sid tell him" ran the slogan on advertisements across the television and billboards. More than anything else, "Tell Sid" came to symbolise the upsurge in share ownership during that era.

Now the government is thinking about a re-run. There are reports that a revamped Tell Sid campaign is being planned for the privatisation of the remaining government shares in Lloyds Bank.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.