So. Nationalising companies is not communist per se. RBS and Northern Rock were nationalised in '08. Network Rail was re-nationalised in '13, though it was neve

So. Nationalising companies is not communist per se. RBS and Northern Rock were nationalised in '08. Network Rail was re-nationalised in '13, though it was never properly private. What about Amtrak? I have seen no mention of "handing control to workers". Nor of Apparatchiks. Wouldn't be the first non-communist country to limit private education either. That said, it sure doesn't seem fully thought out - but what policy is at conference? Tory party policy certainly isn't. I seem to have lived through a very different 1970s to you. :) Most of the problems of the 1970s, throughout the West, stemmed from the abandonment of Bretton Woods and the 73 oil crisis and its after effects. Both of which fuelled rampant inflation throughout much of the West. For Britain a very significant additional part were the policies of the Heath government through 74. Overly strong unions and poor labour relations played their part, which were increasingly problematic, but on top of the systemic issues. The Tories did far worse here than Labour. It was Heath who fuelled the 72/73 boom that spectacularly crashed with the oil crisis and the 400% rise in oil price. Why? Because he was ideologically opposed to unemployment and it had risen markedly since he got elected. So he spent and spent until it went away. After the crash and oil crisis they had to abandon dozens of manifesto promises. Yet not that labour and price policy. Stagflation was born. That made Britain's "sick man of Europe" label inevitable - though there had been (much) lesser issues in the sixties that contributed. It was under Tory Heath we had the miner's strike and three day week, rationed electricity, and evenings by candle light. TV shut down at 10 to save electric. Fun Tory times. That was the last three months of the oil crisis, so there were still queues and rationing at the pumps. Labour under Wilson and Callaghan - for the rest of the 70s - was mostly attempting damage control with no money. Not surprisingly this wasn't hugely effective. Healey going to the IMF 12 or 18 months after getting elected wasn't terribly surprising either - though certainly it made life more difficult. It was Heath's unemployment reducing boom, his ridiculous income policy (and leaving Bretton Woods and that oil crisis) that fuelled the problems of the rest of the decade. Oh, and made someone replacing him as leader downright certain. It was adopting a very Heath-like incomes policy in their last year, to try an control inflation, that brought the fight with the unions and the Winter of Discontent, that ushered in Thatcher. Coldest winter for years gave a few more %% to Thatcher. Last, Thatcher was shaping up for at best a much reduced majority. More likely hung parliament or defeat, except there was this small incident called The Falklands War. Early election, huge majority. Naff all to do with economics - we were barely out of recession and still had double digit inflation, nor policy performance, just a dictator in the South Atlantic.