'Roll Up! Roll Up' - UK Bargains at No. 10

"I'm thinking of finding things to put in the Downing Street Jumble sale." Arturo said cryptically.

"Oh yeah!" I tried to sound nonchalant - 'cos I hadn't a clue what he was on about.

"Yeah! How about selling off your cat litter tray?"

"Haven't got one!" I replied.

"You don't have to own one personally, mi old pal. Just do a Cameron and Osborne! Lay your hands on anything that looks as though it's got value and then sell it!" He pointed a paw at a pile of newspapers and at a tablet screen. "Just see how it's done! it's easy!"

My mind fair boggled when I read all the articles - Arturo was right. Take a look:

Last year Asa Bennett wrote an article in the Huffington Post UK under the headline:

George Osborne's Land Sale Plan Like 'Selling Off Family Silver', Critics Warn

The article continued:

George Osborne has been accused of planning to "sell off the family silver" over new plans to pay down the budget deficit by potentially selling any of the government's property at a "fair price".

The new "right to contest" scheme will allow businesses and members of the public to submit a proposal for any of the government's £330 billion worth of land and property, even if they are currently in use.

So that's where Arturo got his idea from! 'Georgy' Osborne settling the deficit by selling 'off the family silver'. He seems to be selling the ground from under his feet ... and under ours!! Dodgey! Very Dodgey! Let's see what more Asa Bennett wrote:

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude made clear that the government will not be selling "national treasures" like Downing Street or the British Museum. "Hard-working taxpayers expect us to save money like this and that’s just what we are determined to do,” he said.

Ah Ha! That's telling 'em, 'Weasel Man' Francis Maude, Tory MP for Horsham, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General. Yes! The one and only 'Lord-High-Everything' was there to defend the master plan. So Osborne is not planning to sell off Downing Street or the British Museum! Wonder if he's thought about Buckingham Palace - that's a nice bit of real estate!

However, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett did not agree with the old Weasel Man's defence. She was quoted as saying:

... Public assets should continue to be used for the common good, whether it be sporting fields, libraries or community meeting rooms. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. We’ll have little chance of getting them back and we’ll all be poorer.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/08/george-osborne-government-land_n_4560755.html

I looked around the Cabinet Office at the chairs and table - the pictures on the wall, the lush carpet beneath my paws and wondered when they would be sold off!

Next, I came across another example of a sell-off! I saw The Guardian headline:

Royal Mail sale underpriced by £1bn, says scathing select committee report: MPs from all three main parties agree that government pushed through privatisation at expense of getting a good deal

Sean Farrell wrote

Taxpayers lost out on £1bn because the government and its City advisers underpriced the privatisation of Royal Mail, a committee of MPs says today.

In a highly critical report, the Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) committee said the government worried too much about pushing the privatisation through at the expense of getting the best price for taxpayers.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/11/royal-mail-sale-lost-1bn-says-select-committee

Can you believe it! The taxpayers of the UK lost £1bn! That ain't chicken feed!! So - it seems that the Coalition Government is not only unable to know the value of anything but doesn't even know its real cost. Or something to that effect!!

Was our 'Georgy' Osborne daunted by all this criticism - No he was not! Was 'Boy David' Cameron deterred from making another 'fine mess'? No he was not! What did the lads do, do I hear you ask? Well this is what they did:

George Osborne accused of 'selling off the family silver' after announcing Eurostar sale

Yes, my friends! You did read that correctly. Eurostar, beloved of Mrs 'Iron Lady' Thatcher was sold off! Macer Hall wrote in The Express

The Chancellor yesterday gave the go-ahead to a £757.1million deal to offload the 40 per cent state holding in the cross-Channel rail operator to a pension-fund consortium.

The move, which will give Mr Osborne more room for manoeuvre on tax and spending in his Budget in a fortnight, was formally announced early today when the Stock Exchange opened.

The article continued:

However, the move has been criticised by rail unions, with some accusing the Chancellor of conducting a "short-sighted, pre-election act of public sector destruction".

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/561765/Chancellor-George-Osborne-sell-eurostar

Now where have we heard of public sector destruction before? Remember, do you? Yes! The NHS of course!!

Osborne, Cameron and Hunt have not yet said: "By the way, we're selling off the NHS! It's good for the public purse, don't you know?" But, according to the NHS Support Federation it seems that:

almost all of the clinical work that the NHS provides has been opened up to the for-profit sector and they have begun to take over the caring of many NHS patients. At present the NHS is still the dominant provider and for the most part care is still free of charges. But the private sector is quickly expanding its role, energised by the passing of the Health and Social Care Act early in 2012. In areas of many care, the NHS is having to compete for patients and funding, in a new market-focussed health service.

Take a trip to your family doctor, many now work for companies like Virgin and Care UK. Your GP may send you for tests carried out by companies like In-health, who run imaging and pathology. Your GP may refer you to a hospital for surgery - perhaps performed in one of the privately run treatment centres. When you return home you could be cared for by one of the queue of companies who are now taking over the running of community health services right across the country. The reach and influence of the private sector over our healthcare is growing fast.

http://www.nhsforsale.info/privatisation-list.html

Boy, oh boy! The country has become a veritable schmutter fest! So anything else been sold off - well yes, actually! Mona Chalabi writing in The Guardian under the headline :

Britain sells off £1.7bn of family silver

wrote:

New statistics reveal that the UK government has allowed the export of thousands of objects of cultural importance in the space of less than a year - what were they?

She continued:

Between May 2012 and April 2013, 33,842 items, with a total value of £1,665,255,992, were issued with export licences after experts decided they did not have sufficient national importance.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jan/30/britain-sells-off-17bn-of-cultural-importance

So - there you have it! If it is worth a farthing, Osborne and Cameron reckon it's worth selling! You notice they don't sell off their own houses, carpets, curtains or books! That wouldn't be good sense. According to Arturo, their motto must surely be

What's thine is mine to do what I will with - but what's mine is mine - is mine, mate - so get your mucky paws off!

They'd be more genteel like! But that's the gist of it!

Me and Arturo felt quite depressed - we can see our very homes disappearing down the Swanee! What we need is some good old comfort nosh! We're off to the Italian Deli round the corner - the chef there has some scampi on the menu tonight - some is sure to fall off the worktop!

Bye