Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

The background is that the telephone service in the UK was originally
provided by the Post Office. In 1984 the telecommunications division of
the PO was privatised. Shares were sold explicitly to private investors,
ordinary citizens, the general public, rather than through the stock
exchange. For many people they were the first shares they ever owned,
and for many they were the last.

The presence of "five hundred British Telecom shares" would be as much
an symbol of the spirit of the times, passing fashions, as "a set of
Dylan albums that was complete up to 'Blood on the Tracks'".

From:
http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/BTsHistory/Privatisationinfosheetissue2.pdf

   Telecommunications Act 1984
   ....
   The concept of whether enterprises were public or private had become
   of 50.2 per cent of shares in British Telecom went smoothly. As a
   result the Government authorised the largest marketing campaign ever
   for the sale of a new share issue to provide information, but more
   importantly to create widespread interest in the shares. In this
   respect the policy was successful with full subscription and wider
   share ownership being achieved.
   One of the main motivations behind such an issue of shares is the
   desire to spread share ownership as widely as possible throughout
   the population with the aim of building support for the Government
   by creating vested interests in the process. The partial sale of the
   Government’s share holding in an enterprise has the added benefit of
   positively contributing to the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement
   (PSBR). Once the Government holding has fallen below 50 per cent
   then any future capital borrowed is exempt from the PSBR, a figure
   that the Conservatives were keen to reduce.
   The sale of 50.2 per cent of shares in British Telecom in 1984 was
   revolutionary in its scale and experimental in its marketing.
   Ultimately it was not just British Telecom that was being sold, but
   the whole concept of privatisation.

British Telecom (now just "BT") was privatised in 1984.  So many people
applied for the share issue that individuals were allocated no more than
a token number of shares, no matter how many the wanted.  I wouldn't be
surprised to hear that it was 500.

Have you read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"?  You probably
should read that first.

Prolly something to do with Margaret Thatcher's privatisation mania.