WHILE being generally supportive of my comments on the public ownership of utilities Ian W Thomson (Letters, February 3) condemns me for "fantasy politics" while at the same time highlighting the fact that the reality of Thatcher's "nightmare politics" of privatisation could be reversed if the political will existed to do so.
Iceland and now Greece have shown that major fundamental change can be effected contrary to the wishes and interests of the establishment if you have politicians prepared to follow their hearts rather than their wallets and introduce populist policies. What we have instead is mealy-mouthed shape-shifters who promise changes to benefit systems when it is jobs and decent wages we need.
Never mind economics, in a system so idiotic that central banks can and do conjure money out of thin air yet we have to work for it, let's talk about morality and common decency.
Where is the morality, as in the case of Greece, in a system that feels it acceptable to deliberately condemn 65 per cent of its under-25s to be unemployed?
Where is the morality in the UK, where both major parties are willing to deliberately subject the majority of its citizens to increasing levels of austerity simply to protect bloated and corrupt banking and corporate systems and the elite who indisputably profit from them?
The day I see a politician standing in line at a food bank to receive a hand-out (rather than a photo-opportunity) I will stop being a fantasist.
David J Crawford,
Flat 3/3,
131 Shuna Street,
Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article