This article is part of ourEconomy's 'Public ownership in times of coronavirus' series with TNI.
There have been dramatic and contradictory swings in the politics of public services in the UK in 2019 and 2020. The unfolding story can be told in five parts.
Firstly, as in other countries, the UK has seen a steady flow of re-municipalisation of local services as contracts expire, and rejections and reversals of privatisation at regional level, including public sector water services in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the renationalisation of Cardiff Airport in Wales. At national level there have been continued privatisation policies, although campaigns by We Own It and others succeeded in forcing the abandonment of some proposals, and even forced some reversals, for example the probation service.
