Trade unionists laid into laissez-faire politicians and shyster shareholders on Sunday as they sought to thrust renationalisation back on the agenda.

Scottish TUC policy officer Stephen Boyd told the crowd at the Morning Star's Arguments for Public Ownership conference in Glasgow that he was surprised that public ownership had not played a bigger role in the independence debate.

Most European countries see state ownership as a no-brainer, he said, with some national firms even profiting from rail contracts in Britain.

"We're constantly told we should learn from these other countries, but this area just isn't one of them," he said.

Unite finance section's Agnes Tolmie said her own industry was a textbook illustration of the private sector's failings.

The Labour government had missed an opportunity when the financial crisis hit in 2006, she said.

"The banks were in a mess - the government could have picked them up for a song.

"But what did Brown do? He wrote them a blank cheque, no strings attached, and now we're back in the same old bubble."

The public deserved public ownership, she said - and shareholders demanding compensation deserved nothing.

"That's the risk of the marketplace, isn't it? Bits of my company are sold off all the time," she said, pointing out that thousands of her colleagues had lost decades of savings in companies' sharesave scheme during the crisis.

"So (shareholders) can have the same joyous moment we did," she said.

Transport union RMT president Peter Pinkney said public ownership was a matter of life and death.

Mr Pinkney said there was no point returning to the days of a neglected British Rail, but Britain's future did lie in a publicly owned network.

He recalled attending the funerals of four men killed when a train's wheel axle jammed.

He said the private sector's focus on profit spurred contractors to cut corners on maintenance and safety checks that would have prevented the deaths.

"They weren't soldiers going to Afghanistan, they weren't going to Iraq - they were just normal lads, going to a day's work," he said.