Farage maked a similar point recently about not making a difference. Surely they’ve heard of the tragedy of the commons? I think both Blair and Farage are being disingenuous.

Getting rid of regulations is not an automatic route to growth

The ironic thing is that regulations very often facilitate trade. For example, consumer protection laws don’t only protect the consumer, they actually give the consumer confidence to purchase in the first place, thereby increasing trade.

because you’re a human being

to borrow a phrase: nationalisation is the worst form of ownership, except for all the others

You can only accumulate wealth in a society. Our taxes uphold and sustain that construct. Of all people, it’s in the interests of the successful to nourish the ecosystem in which they are flourishing. I think you’re wrong.

A wealth tax has got to happen - I haven’t heard any viable alternative idea of how to get out of the pickle we’re in.

aside from the ethics of it all, isn’t there something fundamentally mad about trying to get people who’ve got next to nothing to pay for all the stuff we need?

Corruption is what young Ukrainians want to get away from, it’s why they absolutely reject the prospect of rule by Russia

was that they regard Putin as a criminal leading a regime that is corrupted from top to bottom. They don’t want to live like that. Trump shouldn’t try to bargain away Russia’s territorial gains in the east. He shouldn’t treat those who don’t want to live under Putin’s rule as being expendable.

Yeah, it seems so obvious that it wasn’t going to work, I’d have to agree with you.

If privatisation was working, we should have lower prices and higher performing services by now. I think it speaks for itself - and completely debunks the notion that it was ever a good idea

There isn’t proper competition, that was always the fundamental flaw in the whole project. Created private monopolies that could leverage prices and be crap at the same time.

I totally agree. Instead of a competitive marketplace, what they actually created were privately owned monopolies. I can remember people saying as much at the time.

If you’re not too bothered about truth, why would you worry about subbing?