Which parts of the public sector are actually thriving, any?
That is obviously a trick question. If any part of the public sector was thriving it would be privatised, and if it wasn’t possible to be privatised then it would have its budget slashed at least in real terms – thereby guaranteeing future failings.
Having said that Network Rail, which is publicly owned, is still currently making £millions in profits, despite the devastating effects of the pandemic on the railways.
But the railways have proved exceptionally difficult to privatise and keep privatised. Margaret Thatcher attempted to privatise the railways and failed, John Major managed to succeed but almost immediately the infrastructure had to be nationalised again.
For the last 30 years UK governments have had to repeatedly intervene and subsidise the railways due to private sector failings, as they desperately tried to keep them under private ownership. However I believe that most railway operations in the UK today are now under the ownership of either the UK government or other foreign governments.
So not very typical.
Edit: I hadn’t seen that DaveyBoy had basically made a similar point as I wrote my waffling post.