ABSTRACT
In a speech in Paris on 15 December 1988 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, commented on the UK’s privatisation experience that while the techniques and methods of privatisation had changed during the 1980s to reflect the different types of businesses privatised, the objective had remained the same, namely “to improve the industry’s efficiency and its service to the customer”. By contrast, he stated, “The money that is raised, while useful, has always been a second-order question.”1
