On 02/01/2012 16:31, Bruce wrote:
Neil Williams wrote:
No, I don't. To me, and I would think most people in the UK, a
nationalised organisation is one owned by the state. Simple as
that.
Its business model is irrelevant.


I don't think you can correctly describe organisations such as the Royal
Mail or the NHS that have always been in the public sector as
"nationalised".

The use of the term "nationalised" is very strongly suggestive of an
organisation formerly in the private sector that has been taken into
public ownership, or nationalised.

Does the Royal Mail receive any subsidies or is it responsible for its
own financial well-being and charged with making a profit?

France's SNCF is state-owned, though I heard an official once say that
they have not received any since the early 1980s. Of course, I have no
way of knowing if that is true or not.

I also wonder what the French government would do if SNCF found itself
in a very tight spot. I know that the European Commission has cited
France in the past with basically providing state aid to companies,
under conditions that Brussels felt was a violation.