A few decades ago it looked like Labour were going to romp home and take over from an unpopular Tory government then Labour announced that they would renationalise the utilities without compensation losing them the election.

It had never occurred to them that it was the traditional Labour voters who had made some money by investing in these utility shares and they didn't want a Labour government to take it away from them

A lot of the recent posts on this thread seem to suggest that higher taxes and more state intervention will necessarily improve the lives of the poorer sections of society and indeed all of us. Yet where massive state control has been tried, the outcome has been the opposite.
Low tax, less government and state intervention gives more opportunity for people and businesses to apply their effort, their income and savings in making far better economic decisions than the state ever can.

Your post reminds me of a book I read several years ago, entitled The Blunders of our Governments, written by two senior and highly regarded academics. Shirley Williams described it as "hugely enjoyable" and "truly shocking". Certainly, when the amount of waste over the years (by both main parties) is laid bare, one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. A couple of examples:-

£3.5bn (almost £7bn in today's money) spent on introducing the Poll Tax and then replacing it with the Council Tax.

An estimated cost to the taxpayer of the Public-private Partnership to upgrade the underground of over £20bn.

And any number of schemes involving waste of hundreds of millions.

Tbh I doubt one of Englands greatest buildings could be renovated with stuff from screwfix and it’s done once every half century. All parties would prefer it was done properly and not by a call to the yellow pages

So the biggest disaster in living memory,apart from dead old Starmer,is planning to resurrect her career!!

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