Left in charge

The worst of Britain’s post-war mistakes, ideas we thought long dead, are once more in the air. Yet again there are plans for ‘workers on boards’ (the govern-ment, of course decides who’s a worker), and for mandatory price caps, based on the delusion that government can make things cheaper by diktat. Intelligent people are once more agreed that British employers should pay the highest minimum wage in the developed world — a policy estimated to condemn tens of thousands to unemployment. The tax burden is at a 30-year high, yet many assume we should make that burden still heavier — as if the country can be taxed to prosperity.

The Labour party has been pontificating along these lines in Liverpool all week, but these are in fact Tory ideas. Yes, John McDonnell goes much further — but Theresa May is on the same path. It makes it very difficult for her to point out how very dangerous and damaging these ideas might be.