I guess it depends on your definition of socialist. It's the common term thats used here - the Labour party which until recently was the dominant force in Scottish politics is a member of the Party of European Socilaists. (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8011001.stm#socialis...)

I'd argue that the vast majority of Scots would be in favour of re-nationalising both the railways and royal mail. In the case of the railways, I think there is fairly broad support across the UK for that too.

Also Railways, Post and other infrastructure are all things that make perfect sense as nationalised industries. They often end up as monopolies anyway in a free market so they might as well be state monopolies with democratic accountability.

I think there is a big difference between a socialist state and socialist policies within the context of a liberal democracy - we're clearly talking about the latter.

As Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS said:

"A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan

OK< strictly Social Democratic. But the socialist term is widely used in UK discourse.

PS: When I stayed in Glasgow for a short period about 30 years ago, a 'three way fight' in a constituency was Labour, Liberal and Communist.

We have an old Scots phrase: "common weal," meaning both wealth shared in common and for the well-being of all. Sounds fairly close to some definitions of Socialism.

On renationalisation, as noted elsewhere in this thread, the idea of taking Royal Mail back into public control has already been floated and there's support for doing the same with the railways.

Better than not knowing what constructive debate is.

This is why I flag articles about politics, and why they are considered off topic in the guidelines. This is certainly a well-written, interesting article, but the discussions it's generating are going downhill fast.

Socialism is not worker control. It is more like a lot of corporations are managed directly by the state, which apply to a lot of countries.

As opposed to certain other countries where the state is managed indirectly by corporations.