I have sympathy with Brian Ledger (Letters, February 15), who regrets that Corbyn’s Labour didn’t win the 2019 election because public ownership - or ‘nationalisation’ - of the energy companies (to which I would add water) might have followed.

Such ‘bare necessities’ of life shouldn’t be a source of revenue for shareholders and investors but be totally dedicated to serving the community as public utilities.

It’s just a pity that our first era of nationalisation and public ownership was often such an on-off experience!

However, if the tables had been turned in December 2019, and Labour hadn’t been trounced, I think we would have experienced a ride just as ‘exciting’ and chaotic as we have with Johnson - in different though perhaps equally alarming ways.

In my view we were faced with a ‘lose-lose’ situation back then.

Still, at least no government has yet tried to privatise the air we breathe!

Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York