Election Time...

I guess it's election time. How exciting. This is the first time in my life where the number of factors and mix of parties combined with the depth of feeling within the country I have no idea what will happen.

Normally you can be pretty certain that either one or other of the main parties is going to win and one of the two main parties will almost certainly win but what kind of win is an entirely different matter. So much has changed in the recent years, the left has gone a long way left and the right has moved even further right (which some might find hard to believe).

Not only am I uncertain what will happen in the election I have no idea what will happen once a government is formed. I just have this rather uncomfortable feeling that whatever government is next in power it will not be good for the country but in very different ways. I suspect that a coalition government would be the best outcome, so long as it is not a coalition of right and far right like Conservative and Brexit parties, that would be pretty awful. And even a swing to the left might be... interesting!

Much as I am a mild socialist I worry about Marxist policies being implemented in the UK. I can't say I have seen much success anywhere it has been tried before but we might be able to find out.

Personally I am no longer convinced by nationalisation. At the end of the day someone is responsible for the management and it might as well me a seasoned business manager rather than a civil service department headed by a politician.

I think that rather than nationalising power companies or water companies they could simply set strict goals for the water companies to achieve and if they do not achieve them then fine the companies to the extent of any profit they have and pass a law for utilities companies that means dividends have to be approved before being paid out and only paid if other criteria have been met such as performance targets and pension fund finances etc.

It is arguable I guess that this is a form of nationalisation, in which case, that's ok! But when governments start nationalising companies and dictate the price they will pay, as opposed to the market valuation is a recipe for some long drawn out legal arguments and, if the government won, then it would have a negative effect upon the stock market, which in turn would have worrying consequences on pensions as most pensions are heavily invested in the stock market. But heh, we will see.

The other consequences of renationalising businesses is the impact of wage increases, which would surely follow, on the customers and the likely increase in trade union activity. Trade union activity is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just it has a chequered past. I believe in there being a fairer distribution of earnings across all strata of the employees but it needs a little bit of realism. Not something left wing parties have always taken notice of. As I said, we will all see in a few weeks.