'The Labour Party is already aiming to destroy one of Britain's successful exports,' writes Lady McAlpine

If you were "shadowing" someone in a commercial company, you would be learning their job. This is clearly not the case with political parties.

Remember the letter left by Liam Byrne? "There is no money left."

He has spent the years since then beating himself up for telling the truth.

If only more people would tell the truth, unvarnished, straight. We are not a socialist country.

"Socialism" works well for a country like Norway which has huge national reserves from its oil industry and isn't too "woke" to exploit the natural resources it has. Will Labour allow Fracking?

To change our culture from Capitalism to an acceptable form of Socialism we would have to change the way Brits think, change their aspirations and expectations. Can this Labour Party do that? In five years? Of course not.

To persuade a country to change the way it thinks, you have to have strong leadership, inspirational ideas and a very clear plan. Labour under Starmer? I think not.

There is talk of a Wealth Fund? and where will they find the "Wealth?" We are back to Norway and its oil. We do have untapped reserves of oil.

Politicians are no longer capable of making decisions which may offend a minority: so those reserves will remain untapped.

We do not have untapped reserves of cash. Labour thinks taxing successful businesses is the way to raise funds for the unsuccessful.

Ask a 10-year-old if this makes sense. I have. They think for a second and say, "That can't be right".

Perhaps Labour are not even thinking of changing things? Or will they feel they must be seen to be doing something, so change stuff that doesn't need changing rather than tackle the big things, like the NHS and education?

National Service? Now - there's one I've been bleating about to no avail for decades.

Ask any male of my generation, from any "class", and they will say National Service was the best thing that happened to them.

It isn't about learning to kill. It is about taking you apart, putting you back together, giving you confidence but not allowing you to be cocky; making you learn to be part of a team.

I have been asking politicians to push for it for so long. All tend to say, "It's a vote loser" or "It would only work if there was a threat of war."

I told a Conservative MP before the last election that the suggestion of bringing back a form of National Service would be a huge vote-winner and was laughed at.

I think it is one of the few vote-winning ideas that either side might offer. Rishi got there first but it wasn't his idea. Boris was in favour last time... has he been talking?

READ MORE OPINION:

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• 'Bringing back National Service will strengthen social fabric of Britain'
• 'Parents face school places nightmare under Labour’s 20% private school tax plan'

Back to Labour: Are they capable of making big businesses feel sufficiently comfortable to want to stay in the UK? I doubt it. They are already aiming to destroy one of our successful exports: education.

Or will they be happy to see our elite schools filled with foreign students because Brits can simply not afford the extra fees?

Will the foreigners keep coming if there are no Brits in the schools?

If the schools close, where are the places in state schools for the children whose parents can't pay the extra? This is just one of the myriad examples of a complete lack of Labour's ability to do basic maths.

It seems to me that Labour is all hot air and has no grasp of reality. Is this what we need for the Management team for Great Britain? Would you choose any of the Labour front-benchers to run your company?