One of the reasons privatisation has pretty much halted in the English-speaking countries is that obvious failures have become more common as governments have moved on to the harder cases. In the UK, the last three big privatisations were the breakup and sale of British Rail under the Tories and the part privatisation of air traffic control and the London Underground by the Blair government (more particularly Chancellor Gordon Brown).

The rail breakup/privatisation is universally recognised as a disaster and is being gradually reversed. Now the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has reported that the air traffic control privatisation should never have happened. Looking at the troubles of the Underground, it’s a safe bet that similar findings will be made when this deal is reviewed.