Reducing the pension deficit a precursor to privatisation?

[stephen500]

A thought just occured to me after reading the latest articles on Hell mail about privatization and the uso.
If I remember correctly the government would be required in the event of privatisation to make good any pension deficit beforehand.
If this is correct and either the board , the government or both wanted to float RM then the current situation would make a sale differcult if not impossible.
So a privatisation motive would require dealing with the pension deficit .
The actual pension, in my opinion, was never in danger.
Our pension is protected by the new government levy which pays out 100% for existing pensioners and 90% for future pensioners.
However as I said interested parties would probally be detered by the pension deficit and the government, if I am right, cannot off load RM without paying for the deficit.
So any party with a motive of privatisation, either on the board or in government, must reduce liability first.
Any one else have any thoughts on this?

[norbet colon]

Leighton has talked about a legacy from the past-translate the management speak as everything he says tends to be innuendo or alluding to something . Most of the official RM speak is vague , obscure & ambigious .

The Major government certainly did a few fattening up deals with the railways for privatisation , some mediocre directors did very well out of it . It's basically the banks , big bus companies and building firms that own it now , subsidy from the tax payer went up six times .

Hellmail have to keep their advertisers happy but watch for management buy outs , it's happened .