Comments by "Andrew Sainsbury" (@andyinsuffolk) on "Politicians need to be people with convictions" video.

Private Fire Insurance operated for centuries in the UK before municipalisation. There are many private operators in the USA today. The idea that it doesn't work is just ideological dogma much like (Richard's perception of) 'Neoliberalism'. Most free-market/libertarians would not assert that the market is the solution for everything this is just as ridiculous as insisting that the state is the optimum provider for many things when it clearly isn't. People would choose what works best for them but Richard wants to make the choice for you. This ties in with 'conviction politicans' point. In a free society the politician's priorities should be mostly irrelevent - we don't need to have ideologically 'sound' people to get the pot-holes filled.
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@davidparry5310 - I didn't say it was optimal - how would I know? The optimal solution may differ by a multitude of variables and might even be single-state-provider; it could be different for two neighbours. My point is that Richard is wrong about fire services in particular - they can be 'market' driven - much like everything else that authoritarians insist they know best how to manage.
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