Letter: Essentially wrong over Clause IV

Sir: Mark Evans (letter, 12 October) suggests that the difficulties in redrafting Labour's Clause IV could be overcome by saying that common ownership etc should cover only 'essential goods and services'.

Unfortunately, this will not do.

Take just goods. It is essential to drink, eat and, in our climate, to wear clothes. Drinking might not present too much of a problem, public ownership of the water industry would be in order. But would Mr Evans really mean that all farms, supermarkets, corner grocers' shops, fish and chip shops, pubs selling 'good grub' etc should be in public ownership? The briefest reflection on clothes would lead us into an even deeper morass.

Yours sincerely, G. F. STEELE Kesgrave, Suffolk