Personal task (p.T.) for two or three students

Be prepared to deliver a report on this subject and/or translate you colleague's report. Interpret the content of a concept and find answers to the following questions:

1 Interpret the title of the article 'Patterns of Change'

2 What contribution does each sector of the economy make to the production of: a sweater, a hamburger, this book, a telephone call?

3 If British industries continued to change at the same rate, what would you expect them to look like now?

4 What Russian industries have lost a lot of jobs since 1992?

5 What countries in your opinion deserve the title 'the workshops of the world' nowadays?

2 Privatisation and Share ownership

E.T.: Pre-reading task: study the list of synonyms presented below, as it might help you a little to make your reading easier:

to run – to be in charge, to manage

to take over – to come into possession of a business or company

to argue – to present supporting or opposing reasons in a dispute, to try to prove by presenting reasons

share – a part or portion of something that is distributed among several people; shares – any of equal parts into which the capital stock of a company is divided, it gives the owner the right to receive a proportion of the company's profit

E.T.: read to be prepared to answer the questions and do the tasks given below:

Did energy and transport industries initially belong to state corporations or private companies?

What government made up their minds to privatise state-owned corporations? What arguments did they put forward?

Who bought the National Freight Corporation?

Who clean some of British schools and hospital?

What happened to many British corporations eventually?

In the article below find well-known brands and compile a list. What products or services do they offer?

How many shares are owned now by private individuals?

Britain's energy and transport industries were originally run by companies in the private sector. But in the late 1930s and 1940s these essential services were nationalised under huge state-owned corporations. In later years, the state took over other companies that were in economic difficulties in order to protect jobs: some car manufacturers (including Rolls-Royce) and shipbuilders became state-owned in this way.

From 1979 it was Conservative government policy to return nationalised industries to the

private sector. There was considerable political debate about this policy. Тhe Labour Party, which had been responsible for nationalising many industries in the 1940s, felt they should be kept in state ownership. The Conservatives argued that the state ownership had brought no real benefits. They therefore privatised whole industries, such as gas and telecommunications. They also encouraged local authorities, hospitals and schools to use private firms from outside for services such as cleaning and rubbish collection.

INDUSTRIES PRIVATISED BEТWEEN 1979 AND 1989

(Each f represents £ 1,OOO,OOO,OOO)

Industry Value Major privatizations (with dates)

Oil fffffffff BP (1987)

Britoil (1985)

Energy ffffffff British Gas (1986)

Communications fffff Сable & Wireless (1983)

British Telecom (1984)

Transpoгt fff British Airways (1987)

British Airpoгts Authority (1987)

Cars ff Jaguar (1984)

Rolls-Royce (1987)

Planes f British Aerospace (1985)

Others f Amersham International Water (1982)

ОТНЕR INDUSTRIES PROPOSED FOR PRIVATISATION

Energy Electricity

Communications Post Office Counter services

Transport British Rail

Cars Austin Rover

Others Nature reserves Helicopter rescue service

The sale of state-owned industries meant that share ownership increased. State corporations were turned into companies whose shares could be bought and sold on the stock market. For example British Telecom and British Gas shares were sold to the general public with huge advertising campaigns. On the other hand the National Freight Corporation was initially bought from the state by its own employees to preserve their jobs: shares were not available to the general public until five years later.

In 1979 less than a third of shares in the London stock market were owned by private individuals. The rest were owned by large financial institutions such as insurance companies, and the proportion of individuals owning shares had fallen far behind the rate in other western industrial countries.

Privatisation altered the picture dramatically. However, it is impossible to say whether share ownership has made individuals generally richer as that depends on the state of the stock market at any given time.

E.T.: Vocabulary

In the article above find synonyms of the words and phrases given below

to manage basic good n to believe to change

P.T.

Be prepared to deliver a report on this subject and/or translate you colleague's report. Interpret the content of a concept and find answers to the following questions:

1 What is the difference between privatisation and nationalisation?

2 Which major industries were privatized after 1980?

3 What proportion of shares were owned by individuals in 1979?

4 How did personal share ownership change after 1980?

5. Why is practically impossible to find out the exact number of individual shareholders?

6 What advantages and disadvantages can you see in privatisation? Are there any examples of privatised or nationalised industries in your own country?

3 Symbols of Capitalism in London

The City of London

Everybody's task (E.T.): read to be prepared to answer the questions and do the tasks given below:

Pre-reading task: look through the words and if you don't know them look them up in your dictionary. Add words and phrases of your own while you are reading article

bowler site walled city recently tight

roll desert issue lend cargo

From the following article you will learn what bank is the most important in the country, where to go if you have some extra shares, what institution you will possibly want to apply to if you happen to have a steamboat and you are planning to ensure it.

London has been an important centre for finance for many years. The financial district, known simply as 'the city', occupies one square mile (see the note below) of central London. It is the site of the original walled city, and still has its own Lord Mayor and local government. Until very recently it was the home of the 'city gent' with black bowler hat and tightly rolled umbrella; the bowler is rarely seen today. In contrast to the entertainment district in the West End of London, the city is almost deserted at night. Although hundreds of thousands of people work in its offices by day, only about eight thousand actually live within the square mile.

Although the city is central to international finance, to many observers it seems increasingly independent of the British domestic economy. When London was an imperial capital, the city was its financial heart, but in the age of telecommunications, the city could be situated anywhere.

Note: An English or land mile is equal to 1,609 metres

The Bank of England

This is Britain's central reserve bank. It controls other British banks, issues banknotes (although the Scottish banks still issue their own notes), and acts as the government's banker. The city has the greatest concentration of banks in the world and is responsible for about a quarter of international bank lending.

The Stock Exchange

London has had a Stock Exchange for dealing in stocks and shares for over 200 years. Since

1973 it has been the single International Stock Exchange for the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In March 1986 membership of the London Stock Exchange was opened to overseas companies, and commissions became negotiable. In October 1986 it became possible for stockbrokers to deal in shares through telephones and computers instead of face-to-face on the floor of the Exchange. These dramatic changes in city practices became known as 'Big Bang':

they linked London much more closely with the other major international financial centres in Tokyo and New York.

А number of international exchanges are also based in the City. These provide an international market where materials and services can be bought and sold. For example, the London Metal Exchange deals in industrial metals and the Baltic Exchange arranges the sale of half of the world's ships and most of the world's sea cargo.