Mr Christophers is much more reasonable than me: so too are two of his other star witnesses, Adam Smith - founder of modern economic thinking and Winston Spencer Churchill. All three give the lie to the modern Neoliberal belief that land is better in private hands rather than those of the state.

The book clearly and systematically shows how British governments of the right and nominal left, have been selling the family silver for a quick buck and ruining the balance of the country. I am always bemused by the theory that someone 'owns' land. Polanyi came up with the term 'false commodity' to refer to land: how can something have a value without added labour? Land as a commodity has always been a no no for me; it was interesting to learn that this is not just a fellow traveller's view point.

Now, we just need to convince 60 million forelock tugging Brits that it's wrong... ( )

How public land has been stolen from us. Much has been written about Britain's trailblazing post-1970s privatization program, but the biggest privatization of them all has until now escaped scrutiny: the privatization of land. Since Margaret Thatcher took power in 1979, and hidden from the public eye, about 10 per cent of the entire British land mass, including some of its most valuable real estate, has passed from public to private hands. Forest land, defence land, health service land and above all else local authority land- for farming and school sports, for recreation and housing - has been sold off en masse. Why? How? And with what social, economic and political consequences? The New Enclosure provides the first ever study of this profoundly significant phenomenon, situating it as a centrepiece of neoliberalism in Britain and as a successor programme to the original eighteenth-century enclosures. With more public land still slated for disposal, the book identifies the stakes and asks what, if anything, can and should be done.