You can own your home outright and still not control the road that runs up to it. Almost two million English households live on estates where the shared ground was handed, on completion day, to a private company they never chose and can't remove. The government is legislating to strip out the worst of it. But a law can remove an abuse after the fact; it can't stop the same trap being built again. This is about the difference between a promise and a structure.

You can see exactly how the Extractive Economy works, and you agree with every critique of it. So why is there still nothing to do on Monday morning? Because overthrow, reform, and exit are all dead ends — and the way out was never on the list.