12th March 2017

The year is 1992.  The great energy privatisation approaches.  Like his predecessor, newly-installed Prime Minister John Major has reassured us that competition between newly-privatised electricity companies is a great idea, as it will ‘drive down prices for customers’.

I’m working at MANWEB – the soon-to-be-defunct Merseyside And North Wales Electricity Board.  And I know he’s talking bollocks.

MANWEB’s Chief Executive is Chester-based John Roberts, later bestowed with Deputy Sheriff of Merseyside for his services to business in the region. He’s probably also aware that John Major, like Margaret Thatcher before him, is giving this the hard sell, and the real reasons for doing it are:

a. Tory ideology

b. The chance to enrich their friends and controllers in the City of London

c. The opportunity, upon retirement, to proceed through a revolving door and into a top job

And if he, as CEO, welcomed it with open arms, or just sat…