Originally Posted by
Eric Cartman
The broadband pledge is a great example. Obviously if you want infrastructure to cover the country then you can't rely on private companies to do so willingly because enough of the network would be unprofitable to build. The two options are 1) you force them or 2) you build the network yourself as a public asset. Network built, rural communities reached and job done. Why then does the service need to be provided by the government? They have identified a need and then dragged that example to its ideological endpoint.
I have no real issue with nationalisation but it needs to be in the interest of the public to do so and not driven by ideology alone. The majority of it meets that requirement in my opinion.
The waspi pledge got on my nerves too. The figure they are saying appears to include almost every woman who had their pension age moved regardless of the notice they were given. This isn't costed, so what we are saying in effect is, either current working people pay for this pledge through taxation or we increase the debt and someone pays for it in the future. I am all for helping people who had the rug pulled out from beneath them and are struggling because of a poor transition but this is just vote buying pure and simple.