If the money can be found for nationalisation, then we should start with that of the railways (“private” companies only kept profitable by public subsidies, which should therefore be renationalised not only immediately, but without compensation) and the rip-off utilities.
The prospect of Northern Rock’s nationalisation calls to mind the never-implemented Labour manifesto commitment in 1945 to nationalise the land and the clearing banks. Well, if the former had been as a first stage towards Distributism, and the latter as a first stage towards turning them all into mutual building societies, then why not? But they wouldn’t have been, although that is not a reason why they never could be.
Still, what might Britain have been like if the land and the banks had been nationalised by Attlee, as he had successfully promised the electorate that he would do? Or if Margaret Thatcher had banned party political contributions by trade unions, as successfully promised in 1987? (And why didn’t she do it?) Or if Tony Blair had held a referendum of Proportional Representation, as successfully promised in 1997? And can anyone think of any other examples?
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