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BUSINESS | MICHAEL GLACKIN

Corbyn the energy-sector snatcher makes the SNP look Thatcherite

The Sunday Times

Power to the people! Well, power networks, at any rate. Jeremy Corbyn’s big idea to nationalise the companies that control the nation’s £62bn energy infrastructure — the pipes and cables bit — at less than their market value must have sounded like a pretty clever wheeze when he first thought of it.

What could go wrong? I mean, appropriation of private property always went down well at the north Islington branch meetings of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Stalinist Doctrine in my misspent youth. Shareholders appear to be the new kulaks.

In the event of a Labour election victory, investors in affected companies, including Glasgow-based (but Spanish-owned) Scottish Power, and Perth-based SSE, would face a severe haircut, since compensation would be determined by