It took an effort of will, but I just remembered one of the dafter election pledges of Labour in opposition during the early 80s was
Nationalize the Building Trade
That wasn't even close to peak lunacy. Labour's 1983 manifesto is on the net somewhere. That's the one that Labour MP Gerald Kaufman called "the longest suicide note in history".
Some of the highlights:-
Inflation was rampaging in the late 70s and early 80s. Attempts at wage control had failed due to union power so why not try price controls? The government would set the maximum price for goods in the shops. Problem solved. This is the same policy that was implemented in Venezuela. There would have been food shortages and a black market for everything from soap to shoes.
Companies would no longer be managed by boards of directors. Workers' Cooperatives would rule the boardroom. Of course "workers" meant trade union reps. What could go wrong with Arthur Scargill running the mines as well as the miners?
Similarly, schools would be run by the teaching unions with an emphasis on educating children about their union rights in the workplace. Churning out generations of loyal Labour voters was a key part of Labour's long term plan.
Unemployment would be "near zero" after big businesses were to be forced to take on hundreds of thousands of extra staff with neither work for them to do nor profits from which to pay their wages. Again, exactly what happened to the national oil company in Venezuela. With the biggest oil reserves in the world, Venezuela now imports oil from Nigeria.
Of course, profits wouldn't be a problem because everything bigger than your corner shop would be nationalised and the rich would pay. Problem was, all the rich would be unemployed, as their jobs would have been taken by the union reps and the party faithful. Printing money to pay the wage bill would have been the only option, leading to hyperinflation. Guess which country implemented exactly this policy. I'll give you a clue. It starts with V and ends with a fecked economy, civil unrest and starvation.