Members back a pay cap on water and energy bosses, and a ban on private equity in care

Monday on refnation was a day of members reaching for the cap and the ban. Water and energy bosses should have their pay capped, members voted overwhelmingly, and private equity firms should be kept out of care homes, GP surgeries and other public services by a similarly emphatic margin. Even the losing side wanted something done: the most-respected No case on private equity asked for regulation, not a free hand.

The verdicts

The day's closest result was on whether social media users should have to verify their real identity to post. Yes carried it, though it was still a comfortable win. Its two most-respected arguments were hedged, one admitting to being on the fence, while the blunter No case, built on distrust of the state, drew the strongest respect.

On jobs and tax, members leaned protective. UK-trained nurses should get priority over overseas nurses for NHS jobs, members decided overwhelmingly, with the leading Yes case a moral one about not poaching nurses from other countries. Members also voted overwhelmingly against parents paying income tax when they hand their family business to their children, the sharpest charge being that it is just inheritance tax dressed up as income tax. And the 5p fuel duty cut should be kept beyond December, members said by a wide margin, brushing off the trade-off in the question itself: the most-respected case was that this shouldn't be an either/or.

Two results turned on principle more than money. Members voted comfortably against SAS soldiers facing murder investigations over killings during missions against ISIS, though the leading No voice conceded that wrongdoing must be investigated; the argument was over who does the investigating. And members backed approving new AI data centres even if they make net zero targets harder to hit, comfortably, though the loudest Yes voices barely defended data centres at all, arguing instead against net zero itself.

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