Great New Idea: Prosecute Good Parents.

If there were two restaurants, one which provided a very good service at a reasonable price and one which sold rotting food at exorbitant rates you would expect everyone to go to the first one, regardless of whether it was their nearest one. If that led to increased demand then the good restaurant could expand or they could use the additional money they had to take over the failing outlet.

If on the other hand we nationalised restaurants then we would start prosecuting the diners for preferring good service:

A council is threatening to prosecute parents who fraudulently try to enrol their children in its schools.

East Renfrewshire is demanding greater proof of identity after discovering at least 20 attempts by people from outside the area in the past year.

Schools are more important than restaurants but the attitude seems to be that if you want your child to learn how to read or write you should move to a more upmarket catchment area.