Warnings of rising costs has fuelled memories of the simpler days of nationalisation

LAST week we had a young guy round to do some tidy up work on the trees in our garden and as usual I got chatting to him over our coffee break. I mentioned that this month had seen our 55th wedding anniversary and it did seem a pity that it was not a big date to celebrate. He asked us what it was like setting up home in 1966 compared to how expensive it appeared nowadays.

I explained that we were lucky that we simply fell into our very first home, a pretty new two-bedroom maisonette that belonged to the New Town Commission. Senior management was working at the town library and this meant she was entitled to accommodation when she married. In those times some women had to finish work when they married, and I do recall that the banks, for some reason, insisted on this. Thankfully the County Council, who employed librarians, did not.

We loved that flat for all the four years we lived there, and it was the home we brought our son back to from the maternity hospital. So many memories for us are locked in there and we were sad to leave despite moving into the first home we bought with a mortgage.

I was soon explaining that no homes then had much in them to start your life together. The kitchen had a sink, and some cupboards, but nothing else. We had to go shopping to buy a cooker and arrange for an account with the electricity board where we bought the cooker so then they would come round and install it!

The bathroom had a loo, bath, and a sink, but the hot water was from the boiler at the back of the fire. Great in winter but both expensive and uncomfortable in summer. Very few homes had central heating and certainly in this, our first home, we were no exception. In winter every room except the lounge was pretty cold and even that had to wait until we got home from work to light the fire!

Despite the lack of central heating of any sort, we still needed gas to provide the fuel to ignite the poker required to light the fire, and just as we had an account with the electricity board, so we set up a similar arrangement with the gas board. In time an account with the GPO followed for the telephone and like everyone we had to pay our rates and water bill. In those days a television set was usually rented.

All of these accounts were with nationally-owned companies. Be it electricity, gas, water, or the GPO, if you required their services it was to these companies one had to go. There was no choice, and no way to negotiate. Your usage of gas or electricity was metered and you paid the quarterly bill. If your means were limited, you had meters under the stairs into which shillings had to be fed to get the energy required.

Maybe it sounds like a hard life, but it was normal then and we simply got on with it. What changed this arrangement was privatisation of all these industries on what now seems a pretext as we were told it would keep prices down for us due to the competition available. This week has seen this all change as we are warned of much higher fuel bills, dearer food as the shortage of CO2 will make food difficult to get to our table.

I am sure there are very good reasons for these problems, but my more simple mind does wonder why we cannot return to the nationally owned companies that somehow did not have these crises. I accept the thought of re-nationalisation will upset the Government, but how are we all to pay the fuel and food bills unless we grasp this nettle?

My more simple mind does wonder why we cannot return to the nationally owned companies that somehow did not have these crises.