One place we might want to start is pharmaceutical capture of government agencies.

http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/fake-news/written/73097.html

http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/fake-news/written/76219.html

It is easily imaginable the benefit to the public purse of having agencies which were not completely in bed with the pharmaceutical industry, not least because of the manifold harms which might be prevented by independent monitoring. Sadly, when I wrote to Tom Watson and Jonathan Ashworth (shadow Secretary for Health and Social Care) neither replied (I got an automatic acknowledgment from Ashworth).

This, of course, would not in traditional terms be a left measure but a pluralist measure – but there is no visible will to represent the public interest in the face of global corporatism. My MP – also Labour – said she would ask a question, but I am not sure whether she ever even got round to it. These are issues which could not be more fundamental either to democracy or the long-term viability of the British state, but are not on the agenda – not as far as writing a polite acknowledgment. By contrast, back c.2000, I wrote a letter to Theresa May when she was shadow Secretary for Education and Employment and got the most detailed and courteous reply. Now we are not even trying: we are just floundering in cynicism and rotten institutions.