It will be an unwelcome notion for the business and government titans gathering at the Davos World Economic Forum, but socialism is back in vogue.
A survey by polling company Com Res showed that far more 18 to 24-year-olds identified the “most dangerous” threat facing the world today as big business (24 per cent) rather than communism (9 per cent).
And scepticism about big business will have been given rocket boosters by the collapse of Carillion. The construction giant managed a big chunk of the British public sector via a host of outsourcing contracts, many procured through the private finance initiative.
It was brave timing therefore for the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) to publish a report decrying Labour’s nationalisation plans. According to the thinktank, bringing the energy suppliers and networks back into public ownership would account for the lion’s share of the £306 billion price tag it puts on nationalisation.
With little difference between energy bills in privatised Britain and state-owned European countries, state ownership doesn’t lead to lower bills for consumers, declares the CPS.
As the body that developed much of the thinking that underpinned the Thatcherite privatisations of the 1980s, the CPS has skin in the game. But with the public purse, under pressure in areas like the NHS, voters at the next general election can be expected to take a cold, hard look at whether feelgood public ownership notions make economic sense.