Let’s do better drug deal
WE WON one battle with Orkambi to ease the lives of cystic fibrosis sufferers. Now an even better wonder drug is on the horizon. Trikafta will help 90 per cent of sufferers and is the first to tackle the root cause of the problem. It is going through the EU licensing programme now and hopefully can be available from next year.
But let us not have a repeat of the Orkambi farce. It took four years after licensing for that drug to become available.
What we need is an early agreement on distribution and the company Vertex to take a more reasonable approach to the cost.
LABOUR can’t stop flinging our money around, promising us yet another supposed freebie that will cost us a fortune. This time shadow chancellor John McDonnell has pledged taxpayers’ money to renationalise BT so we can all have free broadband.
He says he will tax tech companies to pay for this, but that could lead to a catastrophic loss of investment and jobs in our country when these companies decamp elsewhere. BT says the process is likely to cost the best part of £100billion and will kill private investment in the sector.
The news saw BT’s share value dip three per cent, reducing the pension pots of many shareholders. If Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk don’t like this, they’ll be nationalised too, says McDonnell, at more expense.
In contrast, the Conservatives have promised a more reasonable £5billion to improve broadband in the countryside while working alongside BT and other providers.
That tells you all you need to know about the two main parties’ different approaches to getting Britain moving. Labour wants to throw our money around like confetti, having raised taxes to get their hands on more of it, then use that cash to privatise major utilities at enormous cost.
They say a Labour-dominated parliament would decide how much to pay BT shareholders.
YOU CAN bet it would be well below the market rate, thus stealing money from thousands of investors, including pension companies providing a steady income for older generations. And for what?
A state-run broadband monopoly would have no incentive to be innovative or competitive and would sink into a mire of mediocrity like other state-owned industries.
Unions would have more power than bosses and would cripple such state-run enterprises with myriad strikes.
So-called “free” broadband would not be free at all, costing our economy billions. You may as well start giving away water and energy. If so, where is the incentive for anyone to invest or improve these basic services?
“These proposals would be a disaster for the sector,” says the techUK chief executive Julian David. “Renationalisation would immediately halt the investment being driven not just by BT but the growing number of new and innovative companies that compete with BT.”
This is why capitalism generally delivers a vibrant economy, raising everyone’s living standards, and Marxism creates sclerotic, failing industries that impoverish everybody. The collapse of the Soviet Union showed us this, but McDonnell and his Marxist comrades want to repeat the errors of history.
It’s no surprise McDonnell has chosen BT as a target for state ownership. Back in 1984, the privatisation of British Telecommunications was one of Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s flagship policies. The initial sale of the state asset attracted thousands of people who had never owned shares before and successfully spread the idea of popular capitalism. It followed the rightto-buy sale of council houses that gave many working people their first opportunity to own their own home.
Corbyn, McDonnell and their Momentum supporters have never forgiven Thatcher for such genuinely popular policies.
But the whole point of the 1980s privatisation revolution was that vast state enterprises in the previous decade had stagnated, providing neither efficiency nor value for money.
There is no doubt broadband needs to be improved across the UK to give us all access to better communications but the sensible way is to work with business leaders and only provide public money for infrastructure beyond the pocket of private investors.
TORIES understand that and have pledged more money for improvements in transport, health and communications. Britain postBrexit would unlock cash just waiting to be invested in major projects that would create thousands of jobs.
The way not to do it is to junk the free market, waste billions of taxpayers’ money, scare away companies and axe jobs. But Labour is happy to outbid any sensible Tory plans because they don’t expect to win a parliamentary majority. It is easy to promise the world when there’s little likelihood of having to deliver it.
Expect a lot more reckless promises from Labour. They’ve only just started committing your money to their fantasy Marxist economy but, there again, it is a Christmas election.
Santa Corbyn is going on a spending spree but if he gets anywhere near power we’ll all be picking up the heftiest of bills in the new year.
‘Labour’s proposals would be a disaster for the telecoms sector’