I hope the next government goes further. Abolish PDS and give BPL households cash vouchers for buying food. This is the policy which has worked in famine conditions. The idea is not to ensure food supply but purchasing power. The market will get food where the purchasing power is. This will also cut out the corruption. Abolish subsidies in higher education and restore discipline to the sector by charging students enough so that they will not waste their own and other people’s time rioting. Indeed, abolish the water and power subsidies which have been environmentally disastrous and regressive.

The break-up with the Left should be an occasion for a bonfire of all the economic delusions which have plagued policy for many years. Those who have claimed to speak for the masses have perpetuated unemployment and slowed down the removal of poverty. They have supported the waste of gigantic amounts in regressive subsidies.

Good Riddance. Freedom beckons.

The writer is Professor Emeritus of Economics at London School of Economics and a Labour Peer

Write to M.Desai@lse.ac.uk