Why Public Ownership Makes Sense
The case for social ownership of resources, accountable to the people, is one that is not often made in Britain these days. It is almost never made in the rest of the English-speaking world. This is a shame. The historic reason is the way that centralised, under resourced public utilities and organisations were undermined by government control and cost cutting after 1945.

Despite this, public services, publicly run and socially accountable, are a success story in many countries. Spain has, for instance, developed a very high-tech railway system lately that is less polluting than airlines, less expensive in the long run, and less dependent on oil and gas. This latter point is critical as oil and gas begin to run down and, fluctuations aside, begin to rise inexorably in price.

Equally, Germany--a republic I admire deeply--is a very good example of how a decent culture can be created and maintained in which the effort of the public is not put to inevitably subsidising private companies to provide public services. The workers in Germany are not ground down as their owners are sold off; and nor are profits removed from the country or ploughed into foreign accounts. Where bosses try that, Germans pursue them.

This 'Rhineland model' of socially responsible capitalism is also forward looking. Germany recently, for instance, took a decision to move into solar and renewable technology. Only government could deliver finance and regulatory encouragement for such a start-up seriously, and they've done it. They've created an industry that can only grow, and which can only make them less energy-dependant and more secure in their sovereignty.

In this country, privatisation, byzantine private finance initiative vehicles, and sell-offs of utilities to foreign companies has resulted in a collapse of public faith in railways. It has resulted in vast subsidies to private companies; in commercially confidential hiding places for government and businesses; the farce of union-hating BA being done over by Spanish-owned Airport Authorities in Heathrow. There are a milliard other examples of farce.

The clock is ticking. This country does not have that much time to deal with the decline of oil and gas resources, its mounting debts, and its flawed economic system.

Yet the beginnings of a solution are obvious. The Freedom of Information Act should be applied to all government deals, and PFI deals should be replaced with direct government accountability. This in itself would go a long way towards making utility and transport owners and construction companies responsible and accountable. In the long run, companies on the lines of government-controlled but commercial Network Rail should replace regulators in the utility, transport, and defence procurement and production industries.

This country should 're-tool' and intelligently adapt itself to change. It does not have to do so on a left-wing basis of centralised growth planning, and in fact should not do so. Instead, an understanding that the people's money spent on the people's business should lead to the people's control is vital.

Equally, co-operatives, worker owned companies, and socially accountable businesses are noticeable by their success. The charities acts, the tax system, and the regulatory authorities should encourage this.

It is time to get ready and to face a future of limitation, not just here, but everywhere. I believe in the best traditions of the West. We have the cultural resources. They've not been depleted, just forgotten. Pragmatic populism, guild socialism, and Christian Democracy all suggest solutions.

The thirty-year history of the privatised, unaccountable parody of the market, of our global squandering, and of our apparently cost-free narcissism is about to end. To coin a phrase, let us go forward together.