Re: Thatcher wasn't in favour of rail privatisation.
Massive duplication of services, pre-Beeching - caused by the operation of a free market in the victorian age. There arent many places in the world a town the size of, say, New Mills would have two railway stations
We had lots of little companies running cable, and Virgin bought them all up - the difference is, they still bear the debts incurred in laying the cable in the first place.