Socialism fails

Shadow Chancellor John Mcdonnell said in a BBC interview on Sunday that he wants to replace capitalism with a socialist society which will transform our economy. He would do well to remember that the last Labour government almost bankrupted the UK.

There has never been a successful socialist government anywhere in the world, Australia and New Zealand tried it but changed before becoming bankrupt. Their economies are now booming. Communism, which should have been the epitome of socialism, failed miserably, through corruption and poverty, and then after glasnost the Russian Mafia took over.

China, the champion of socialism, has a president for life, Russia votes in Tsar Vladimir at every election, and Venezuela’s socialism has turned a country with massive oil reserves into a desert of poverty. Africa is beset by corruption and terrorism.

Capitalism may not be the best economic and financial system in the world, but for people who want to work it sure beats anything that comes second.

JAMES MACINTYRE Clarendon Road, Linlithgow