To remind of Venning’s Law

“The correct answer to any question which includes the word “surely” is no.”

Venning’s Law.

Which brings us to:

No one wants to see French-style protectionism, but easyJet is too good a business to lose. Even those of us who believe in the free control of assets in a competitive market can surely agree the company should remain UK-listed.

No. Easyjet is currently not owned by “Britain” so the idea that we should try to legislate - or regulate - that it remain owned by or in Britain is a nonsense. Whether Easyjet is listed at all, let alone listed in London or not is an irrelevance.

The beneficiaries of Easyjet’s existence are the customers who get to fly on Easyjet. The consumer benefit of a company is vastly, hugely, greater than anything else to do with it. What matters is that British consumers retain the ability to take a flight. Everything else, anything else, is a mere pittance in comparison.

“Who gets?” is an important question in economics, obviously. But we really do have to have clear in our minds that the most important thing being got is the good or service being produced. Everything else is second, third or later order than that.

Does anyone even dream that a takeover of Easyjet will lead to fewer flights on offer to Britons? Quite, there is no public policy question here at all.

Tim Worstall