LOOKING back, I remember when “nationalisation” became a dirty word in politics simply because it was taking government money to susidise it.

So what? At least the money was spent supporting our own industries and workforce, unlike today when our money is being handed out hand over fist, in grants and bribes, to foreign companies to try rectifying our own misgivings in management.

The money it is costing our Government now in unemployment and social benefits must surely outweigh the subsidies to nationalised industries. And lest we forget, during nationalisation people were getting up on a morning to go to work and not walk the streets, they were not afraid to turn on their heating during the cold weather, transport ran on time and we still had our own heavy industries – steel, shipbuilding and coal.

I still think essential services, such as gas, water, electricity and the rail network, should be nationalised and run as a non-profit-making enterprise instead of being put out to tender to profit-making companies.

With hindsight of the mistakes made during nationalisation by the upper echelon of management, I think that today it would be a big improvement.

Tom Seale, Middlesbrough.