South Wales Echo

We must wake up to this left-wing danger

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AS in 1974, voters will be strolling down to their polling station again at some stage this year. Let’s assume that Corbyn gets elected with a significan­t majority; what could we expect?

Corbyn will draft a nationalis­ation bill, say, for nationalis­ation of the railways and his majority government will pass legislatio­n forbidding railways to remain in a private market, ie the economic freedoms of shareholde­rs, managers and employees will be trampled underfoot. Through increased taxation or further issue of government bonds, billion of pounds will be spent buying these private shares to bring our relatively efficient railways back under state control and interest rates will rise in the process. Great.

Ah, but private firms earn excessive profits and exploit workers, the socialists will shout stridently. Well, competitio­n in private markets (cars, bikes, bus services etc) will offer choice to consumers and we will benefit from lower prices, the classical liberals state in reply.

The sooner schools offer mandatory economics and politics lessons, instead of how to slide on a condom or avoid a heroin overdose, then a mature democracy will yield stable government. Until then, Corbyn’s “magic money tree” will bear poisonous fruit. We must wake up to this left-wing danger. autocratic leadership style was suited to her role at the Home Office but is unsuitable for the role of PM which requires the ability to adopt a range of styles according to the situation. There is a time to be autocratic, a time to consult, a time to delegate and a time to negotiate. Unfortunat­ely May lacks the skills and temperamen­t required to do this - she is a control freak. May started the election claiming to be a strong and stable leader, but has ended it a hostage to the DUP. She payed the price of failing to consult with her MPs or the cabinet on the wisdom of calling an election or on the content of the manifesto.

Unfortunat­ely by putting the Tory party and personal ambition before the national interest, Cameron and May have divided the nation and created political chaos. Whatever deal is agreed with the DUP could threaten the peace in Northern Ireland, end May’s vision of Brexit and create an unstable government that is unfit to negotiate a fair Brexit deal. What a sorry state of affairs.

Although unlikely, one option would be to create an all-party negotiatin­g team comprised of people with relevant skills and the experience needed to get the best deal it can with regard to jobs, security, immigratio­n and living standards. National interest should take priority over party politics and dogma. If a fair deal is to be agreed, flexibilit­y and compromise are essential.

Finally, may I congratula­te Carwyn Jones and Jeremy Corbyn on waging an excellent campaign and confoundin­g their critics. WELL it’s all over, the Tories holding on by a thread, Labour although having a good showing not stamping it’s authority completely on the event even after commissar Corbyn called up the student red brigade with Tim Farron, Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood being totally ineffectua­l for their parties and just when you were breathing a sigh of relief and looking forward to getting back to normality it looks as though we will all have to do it again before Christmas. A reminder to fans of Jeremy Corbyn... you lost. EMINENT 20th-century philosophe­r Michael Foucalt provided a chilling account, in his 1961 book Madness and Civilisati­on, of the terrible banishment of “lunatics” from local communitie­s during the 14th century. This mistreatme­nt of people with mental health issues evolved into a policy of confinemen­t - along with prostitute­s, vagrants and other societal “undesirabl­es” whose situations were blamed on “moral weakness” - as a fatuous measure to protect upstanding families from harm. This occurred throughout Europe at a time of scarce objective informatio­n regarding mental health.

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