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You don't know your history Adam. Long before Margaret Thatcher there was a guy called Alf Robens. He happened to be the usual bussed-in Labour MP for our area. He was appointed chairman of the NCB in 1961. And, I quote from Wikipedia: That's when the major decimation of the coal industry happened. What happened in Margaret Thatcher's era was painful for our area, but it had been coming for many years. Nationalisation did what it always does do: it stifled competition and made people complacent; other countries moved on and produced coal more efficiently at lower prices, and we lost markets. There was a short "golden era" post nationalisation because during the war (WWII) much needed rationalisation didn't happen and nationalisation brought that rationalisation, but it brought with it a command economy which didn't take proper account of market forces. Those 406 mines were closed by a stroke of the command economy pen - by a system you think you now want. But Margaret Thatcher closed nothing, ordered nothing closed; long building economic pressures forced those more gradual closures! Yes, I most certainly have heard of Northern Rock, RBS and Lloyds TSB. I was a Northern Rock shareholder for quite a while, but sold my shares when I saw how idiotically it was being run. I got out before the shares started to nosedive. These were not nationalisations they were government rescues "in order to protect the banking system". Northern Rock should have been allowed to fail. The shareholders would have lost all their money, but the depositors would have enjoyed the usual protections, and the mortgages would have continued under another banner. No public money should have been wasted as it has been. If you search this board you will see that I and others predicted the NR collapse before it happened. Unfortunately the Conservatives and LDs would have done the same silly thing as Labour did - they both said so! It was a big mistake and has cost you and me a lot of money. Not money you can easily appreciate, but future tax revenue that could have been spent on things we really need. There's another factor here called "Moral Hazard", but do your own research on that. It's the ambition of all political parties to attract foreign investment. In the past our area has attracted lots of overseas companies - and so it should it's a great place to come! But it's tough times at the moment, so no one may be looking at setting up in the North East at all. Though, if I was thinking of setting up production or distribution in the EU I'd be attracted to an English speaking country, and an area where there was plentiful labour, and lower living costs. What would quickly send me scuttling off somewhere else would be the prospect of a "bolshie" and militant unionised labour force that was going to strike at the drop of a hat. Or, worse still, a government that seized private assets in order to buy tax payers votes with their own money. Fact: Governments do not create jobs, and can not run enterprises. This has been proven time and time again in every part of the world - capitalist, communist, and every system in between. Governments can only create the conditions in which enterprise can thrive, or be stifled. And, creating the conditions is a s-l-o-w, and at times uncertain, process.