‘Perhaps nationalisation is no longer a dirty word’

MARGARET Thatcher casts a long shadow over British politics. The logic of free-market capitalism that she so carefully fostered during her time in Number 10 has informed many of the key decisions that have shaped modern Britain.

It was this logic that saw many of our key industries privatised in the 1980s and 1990s, including our railways, manufacturing hubs and critical infrastructure.

Her predecessor, Labour prime minister James Callaghan, saw that there was little he could have done to turn the tide.

“There are times, perhaps every 30 years, when there is a sea change in politics,” Mr Callaghan is reported to have said. “It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of.”

This “sea change” meant that for many years, there has been little serious discussion of public ownership. Politicians of all stripes will go to great lengths to avoid using the word “nationalisation”.

When Network Rail returned to public ownership in 2014 the government described it as a “statistical decision”. More recently, Keir Starmer told supporters he prefers to avoid the term “nationalisation” and use “common ownership” instead.

Despite all the semantics and equivocation, there is growing evidence to suggest we are now in the midst of another “sea change.”

Of course, public ownership isn’t always a silver bullet, and when the government is forced to take over private companies mired in vast corporate debts, it does so at huge expense to the taxpayer.

But there is a clear appetite for our key infrastructure to be run in the service of the British public, rather than shareholders in distant boardrooms. Perhaps nationalisation is no longer a dirty word.

Speaking to the New Journal about the potential collapse of Thames Water this week, south Hampstead resident Jody Thompson articulated this sentiment: “The sooner the water companies are nationalised, the better… at least we know that the profits aren’t lining the pockets of lots of overseas investment and pension funds,” she said.

And this view isn’t limited to those on the left. Commentators from across the political spectrum have criticised the decision to privatise England’s water companies.

In a recent appearance on Good Morning Britain, the Times sketch writer Quentin Letts said: “There are some things [where] privatisation really doesn’t make sense. When you’ve got such a monopoly on the network… Thatcherism took it too far.”

Taken together, it seems there is another sea change upon us. Politicians looking to stay afloat would do well to recognise which way the water is flowing.