UK: Will Andy Burnham ‘go big’ in expanding the role of the state?
In the first of a series on nationalisation, we look at the critical tests ahead for the PM-in-waiting, from choosing a chancellor to the future of Thames Water.
(…) Neal Lawson, the director of the progressive thinktank Compass and a vocal supporter, sees the distinction between public control – which could just mean tougher regulation, for example – and full-blooded public ownership, as key. He says:
“Does Andy Burnham think he can go for ‘control,’ when all of the evidence suggests these things are uncontrollable, and can only be managed in the public interest by being owned in some innovative way by the public sector?”
