It is predictable and depressing, but by no means rare, when a government that coalesced ostensibly to act in the national interest, acts in precisely the opposite way. Several coalition policies could already be said to fall under this category of conduct. They are nothing compared with what is coming in 2014. The ground is being prepared for a garage sale of national assets designed to do nothing other than fund Conservative re-election, at the cost of massive and irreparable damage to the long-term prosperity of the country.

On Friday, RBS announced a return to profitability. With that announcement came a push for the government to start preparing for a 2014 sale of our stake in the bank, which was the result of the 2008 bailout. Unnamed, but well-placed, government sources were widely reported to agree. Stephen Hester, the RBS chief executive, explained that there was even "a cogent case for starting at a lower price" than that which we collectively paid for our shares in 2008.

This fits neatly into a very well-defined pattern. We have already lost £400m on the sale of Northern Rock. In March, after Lloyds announced a return to profitability and similarly unnamed sources started muttering of a 2014 sale, the Treasury engaged in cha-cha-esque footwork in order to suggest that the price we paid per share was not really the price we paid per share. What we actually paid per share had been hitherto accepted as being more than 73p. The Treasury suggests that what should be the benchmark is the average share price at the time of 61p. In other words, it cost us more than £20bn (not even counting the underwriting of liabilities) to rescue the bank, but we could sell our stake for £3.5bn less and that would count as breaking even. Nobody understands that. Not even Lloyds.

And it is not just stakes in financial institutions that are being laid out on our front lawn with a "make me an offer, any offer" sign. There is increased speculation about the sale of the Student Loans Company. Profitable stakes in the nuclear fuel company Urenco and the blood supplier Plasma Resources UK are up for sale, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skill. Despite the fact that the renationalised east coast line has achieved higher customer satisfaction in public hands and has put profits into government coffers, the Department for Transport is pressing ahead with the tendering process to companies that have miserably failed in their commitments, both service and financial.

And the biggest ticket item – having returned to robust profitability parliament approved the sale of Royal Mail earlier this year. Commenting on the proposed sale on behalf of Michael Fallon, the BIS said: "The decision will not be based on ideology. It will be a practical, logical and commercial decision."

The evidence points to the contrary; a cynical decision to boost Treasury coffers in the short term, in order to be able to stand on a hollow podium and make claims of the "we have cut deficit by X" variety. Even if it applies for only a year. Even if it results in more significant problems down the line. Even if it involves the sale of assets built with the hard work and taxes of several generations and bequeathed to us in trust for those to come.

This irrational way of behaving is heavily ideological in two ways. First, it ignores the evidence that although privatisation can help with liquidity problems (and the UK has no liquidity problems, able to borrow at record-low interest rates as the very same government keeps reminding us), it compounds long-term solvency risks. Second, it is terrified of the mounting data that well-run public companies can be successful.

You may be surprised that "cut your losses" is a bastardisation of the full business maxim "cut your losses and let your winners run". For the price of re-election, the cast of characters running UK plc have decided to do neither.