BILL BARTLE mentions the plus points of socialism (HAS, May 16) and he is correct on all of them.

My view of socialism is ‘controlled capitalism’ where the areas critical to public wellbeing have to be under public ownership.

This must include gas/electric/water/railways/town and city bus.

We also need a 90-day holding on shares to enforce stability. The stock market is not supposed to be a casino or Ladbrokes Coral gambling house. One is supposed to invest in UK business and collect a six or 12 month dividend.

Insider dealing is illegal – but is rife, via the ‘old boy telephone call’. This could not be done with a 90-day rule, nor could ‘hedge betting’, which is simply high roller gambling by the super-rich – of no use socially or economically.

This 90-day rule would also stop folks buying shares and collecting dividends when they have only held them for a few weeks, or days – a deliberate ‘fiddle’ – little more than fraudulent and a point which angers many shareholders.

Socialism pre-dates Labour by many years. Folks should try looking at Wikipedia for interesting information about the Land Nationalism Society, whose idea would still make a lot of sense.

As with many global ‘tribal societies’ land belongs to the ‘tribe’, not individuals, hence UK land belongs to the population as a mass.

As a minimum – Scandinavian style non-UK citizens cannot buy land, only leasehold, thus the Redcar stupidity could have been avoided.

GB Butler, Stockton-on-Tees