Ed Miliband seems to want a return to the bad old days of Labour interventions. Lurching to the left is causing concerns for Tony Blair and should scare the life out of all of us.

I’m old enough to remember the 1970s with the industrial disputes, the inefficient state run industries and the civil unrest.

Giving powers to councils for them to decide where businesses should trade is madness.

Dr Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute, writes in the Independent that it should be up to small businesses and not Ed Miliband to decide where they should locate their premises.

He was speaking after the Labour leader proposed new powers for councils to prevent too many of the same kind of business opening up in one area. Markets don’t work that way.

Dr Butler says that Mr Miliband shows no understanding of business or economic history.