Britain is now too poor for even virtue-signalling socialism

Yahoo

2 days ago

We have told the private equity barons to get lost, and might take Thames Water back into public ownership. We have renationalised the railways, slashing fares and buying some new rolling stock at the same time. And we have pumped plenty of fresh 'investment' into the steel industry as we save it from the ravages of free market capitalism.
In some alternative universe, Britain's Labour Government would be indulging in some high-profile virtue signalling this week. In this one, unfortunately, a very different narrative is unfolding. It turns out that we are now too poor for even socialism – we have already run out of 'other people's money'.
This should have been the week for a Labour Government with a huge majority to indulge its Big State instincts. It is surely clear to everyone that Thames Water is now broken, and it will inevitably require some form of bail-out from the Government if the taps and the sewers in the capital are to keep operating.
Whichever bright spark at Ofwat who decided to impose a massive fine on Thames Water only last week, and whichever civil servant who approved it, must be feeling a little sheepish now that the private equity giant KKR has pulled out of rescue talks.
The Government might be expected to step in with a plan to take it into state ownership. The problem is the Treasury doesn't have the money, either to service its debts or to repair the pipes. Instead, it is scrabbling around for some other form of refinancing.
Likewise, last week the Government should have been celebrating the return of South West Railways to public ownership. We should have expected some razzmatazz, with red flags fluttering on the platforms of Poole and Dorchester, free tea handed out in a Marx mug, and some flashy Tik Toks about the 'People's Railway'. It didn't happen.
Instead, the very first 'public train' you could catch was a rail replacement bus running from Waterloo to Woking. True, there was a quickly repainted 'Great British Railways' logo, but that was where the budget ran out.
As relaunches go, it was about as flat as a glass of warm prosecco on the delayed train to Cornwall. Meanwhile, the Government may soon be forced to take what remains of British Steel into public ownership as its Chinese owners grow tired of its mounting losses. But the Government doesn't have the cash to spend.
Add it all up, and one point is clear: the UK is now too poor for virtue-signalling socialism. That national debt is close to hitting 100 per cent of GDP, and will almost certainly punch through that crucial barrier over the summer.
Taxes are running at a 70-year high, but the budget deficit keeps getting wider and wider, with the Chancellor racking up an extra £20 billion of debt in April alone. Receipts are falling with entrepreneurs and nom-doms fleeing the country, and the growth the Starmer administration promised has failed to materialise.
Mrs Thatcher once famously observed that: 'the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money'. Unfortunately for Sir Keir Starmer's Government, the money had already mostly run out before it took office, and what little was left in the kitty was immediately frittered away on higher public sector wages.
We can all argue about whether it is better for the water industry, the railways, or steel manufacturing to be in the public or the private sector. And yet we could probably all agree on this point: Britain's crumbling infrastructure, and its shrinking manufacturing base, need more money spent on them.
This should have been the perfect month to demonstrate what the public sector can do. Unfortunately, Britain is too poor to afford it any more – and until that changes, the virtue-signalling will have to remain on hold.
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