Earlier this week the government announced a sale of some £16 billion worth of public assets to reduce the nation’s deficit and mitigate the spending cuts which will be needed to reverse the country’s economic downturn.
Albeit in his later guise as Lord Stockton commenting on the privatisations of the Thatcher government one of Gordon Brown’s predecessors in the office of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once warned against selling the family silver. Intoning that it could only be done once.
Maybe it can be done at least twice.
Another notable sale seems in the offing with the family silver that was Liverpool Football Club likely to see another investor coming in.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett always had an exit strategy in mind. Anybody borrowing money from banks to fund a purchase has to - it is written in the plans presented to any financial institution and informs part of their decision.
It requires a time and a price when the asset bought has reached a value at which sell on becomes not just profitable but because of the nature of leveraged buy out inevitable.
Banks and those they funded make a huge profit and move on to the next deal. It is their measure of success.
A similar mention of possible strategies in their leaked proposals saw DICs bid create no small measure of concern outside the Anfield boardroom then rejected. Though the Dubai based sovereign wealth fund would not have been relying on banks they need such plans laid out to their shareholders and other financial partners.
The American duo - carpetbaggers with intentions and principles so low that they could make their way under a snake’s belly with Stetsons on - somehow managed to escape that same scrutiny.
They were at the time of their arrival embraced by an overwhelming majority who believed their presence not to mention dollars would be welcome and help the club catch up with title contenders who were disappearing into the distance.
However, just as when Manchester United gained Plc status once Liverpool were put up as a going concern by David Moores they, like that team from the other end of the East Lancs, were and remain on sale.
Talks with Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud’s F6 group may only be with one of the joint owners and may only concern up to half of the club but no one should be under any illusion that each and every percent of ownership is up for grabs.
Also Hicks may have lifted his veto against Gillett bailing out with his pockets stuffed but no one should believe the Texan will necessarily make things easy for his prospective new partner or anyone else.
His ability to prohibit, limit and make things as difficult as he wants them to be remains huge.
A fit and proper person test may only see the Premier League check whether you may have the wherewithal and no outstanding parking tickets - though it’s probably not even that stringent judging by some who have passed - but for Liverpool Football Club a fit and proper person needs to make the grade in a more rigorous test and the very fact that Prince Faisal is neither Hicks nor Gillett is not sufficient.
Nor, though Tom and George especially may differ, is the level of his wealth.
It is his ability to be a fit and proper custodian of Liverpool FC which is the most important and as it should be demanding assessment
The consequences of our club - in whole or even part - being passed into more bad hands doesn’t bear thinking about.
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