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Ed - What I dont understand is why someone intelligent, as you are, is so stuck in the mud over the privatisation.
We dont really own nationalised or 'Trust' property, we would own it if we bought some shares and our pension funds did so. It is of no financial benefit to us that DHB is a Trust Port, Dover has had little benefit from the Port except a few jobs. I wonder how many people who work for DHB even live in Dover.
The ownership of the Port has no bearing on the salaries or employment law, there is no reason at all to think there will be any more jobs or better paid jobs if it was kept as a Trust Port.
You surely know that this scare story about foreigners buying is utter nonsense. There are many ways to privatise and the most likely, the one our MP should campaign for, is for the shares to be floated as a going concern with the employees, Port user companies and their employees and local people getting a chance to buy as a priority, with any remaining shares sold to institutions such as pension funds. Incidentally, shares in Dover Port would be particularly attractive to pension funds.
Indeed the commercial freedom of a privatised port may well usher in a new age of prosperity for Dover increasing local wealth and employment.
As for the 'old proposals' there is no reason why the money could not be ring fenced and incidentally there would probably then have been more money than £500mil. The transport infrastructure would have needed every penny and this proposal would have meant this could have been fast tracked and not needed to take a place in the que for capital projects. Without this capital gain the Dover transport links would have gone back into the pot and would be prioritised alongside other projects, being top when Labour dropped it would not have automatically meant slipping back into top place 8/9 years later as prioritise do change.
Your anology of the driveway is not at all relevant. Dover has an interest in the success of the Port whether private or trust, indeed the nation as a whole has an interest in the success of the port. I would argue that if people locally owned a chunk of the Port through shares they would have a much greater stake than now. The Port depends on good transport links.
I dont know the legal answer to amending the Trust, DHB at the time were totally against any move to impose levies (or privatise) and to therefore amend the Trust. Whether it could be done with opposition from DHB is the big question.