Lord King King of privatisation

Lord King, who has just died, was an ardent exponent of privatisation. He believed that removing the state from the equation would transform companies for the better. And he demonstrated how it could be done when he ran British Airways in the 1980s. In a few short years, King transformed BA from a demoralised loss-making hulk into a highly profitable carrier that could – without stretching the truth entirely out of shape – describe itself as the «world’s favourite airline». He did so partly by s...