"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...

But isn't Laing Rail actually Chiltern, and the construction business was
sold off years ago.

The perils of having a company name that is established in everybody's mind
as being in one market sector, and then selling that off and applying the
name to another completely different sector. See Amstrad - until The
Apprentice I didn't know that Amstrad had their fingers in any other pies
than low-end PC computers.


The Evening Standard in London is apparently saying the Chinese have won
the bid, though. Not sure what that means.

MTR is a Hong Kong company; i guess Hong Kong counts as China, although
saying 'Chinese' certainly suggests the big red bit of China to me. It was
started as a government agency, then partially privatised - the HK
government still owns most of it. Mention has been made of their already
being involved in running other railways outside Hong Kong, but i don't
think this has actually happened yet; they're contracted to build some
lines in China, but haven't successfully completed anything yet.

How long will it be before *every* bit of British life is run by overseas
finance and management. Are there going to be *any* companies in Britain
that are still British? Is it a two-way process: are there any transport or
utility companies elsewhere in the world that are owned by British
companies, or is it all one-sided?