In the news

'Privatisation' is a red herring. If 'privatisation' required of 'private' interests to actually run a public service, no-one would take one on.

The problem are the idiotic contracts governments sign, including gigantic subsidies and get-out clauses, etc. The (ideological) aim is obviously primarily to siphon off public money into already wealthy hands without adequate value being delivered, but the opposition that people inevitable perceive between 'public' and 'private' (a very strong pair of opposites in English) creates the desired division, even if only a minority are in favour of 'private' (and obviously many people won't be able to see the problems created clearly unless they affect them directly). Division means that it's easy to fudge issues and no clear political will emerges.

Much better not to concentrate on the concept of renationalisation but to clearly state what nonsense terms the government committed to in each case. It's not as simple and sweeping but cuts to the chase.

'public' and 'private' (a very strong pair of opposites in English)

Except in schooling, tho.

Lozzles Fox

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/28/laurence-fox-ruled-out-london-mayor-contest-errors-nomination

Wouldn't surprise me if it was on purpose.

He was only ever going to get 0.5% of the pop to vote for him so might as well get publicity for being banned by the 'blob' or whatever they're wanging on about this week.

Cheaper and less embarrassing.

He could have run a gofundme to pay for the campaign/libel fines though

I overheard him telling a photographer he needed someone to take some pics for him for his campaign and that he hadn't submitted his papers yet. However badly these chancers seem to come across in the media it's as nothing as to what they are like in person.

Ha - I guess that's the more plausible situation; that he's a fucking moron.

Even binface made it in...

Thames Water: the existing assets need to be placed in a sovereign wealth fund.
The assets that were privatised were paid for by either Water Rates payers or central government.

Any assets installed since privatisation have been funded by Water Bill payers, as far as I know, no management team at TW has taken on debt or loans to fund increases in assets, only to pay dividends, and disproportionate executive salaries. Once the assets are ringfenced, asset managers can bid for management contracts, that stipulate environmental targets, to include minimising leaks of drinking water and zero discharge of untreated sewage into rivers.

Excellent
And never going to happen is it :(

Any assets installed since privatisation have been funded by Water Bill payers, as far as I know

Yes and no, yes asset maintenance, replacement and creation is paid for by bill payers but the cost is spread over the bill for decades, the money to pay for the investment is funded via debt

any situation where renationalisation happens and can be shown to disprove the "privatisation is good bullshit" to be false, helps get more stuff renationalised in the future,

We already have UK examples of nationally run water companies in the devolved areas, the don't achieve better outcomes or lower bill costs, they should but they don't

Do you have an example?
As far as I know TW managed to convince a Tory SoS for the Environment and the Treasury to allow an increase in annual water bills to cover the costs of the Thames Super Sewer in advance to fund the construction.

Blame that on the revolving door between OfWat and water companies.

I was listening on radio 4 about the shocking state of the water / sewage in Northern Ireland.

Seems no money in the public purse to run it properly.

I know very little about Northern Ireland, and in particular how its water/sewerage is funded. Did the report suggest that having no functioning government for long periods had contributed?

I think they were talking about this. I was driving home so was not 100% listening to it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68649594

Fergal Sharky was giving his 2p worth as well. One of the contributors was saying that private ownership in the UK and public ownership in NI wasn't working. Didn't come up with a solution though iirc

Ofwat doesn't have any role with NI Water or Scottish Water

Tideway who are constructing and will operate the sewer is a separate company from Thames Water. Thames via customer bills is paying 1.2bn, Tideway then raised £1.7 billion of debt and £1.3 billion of equity. Of the debt, about £1 billion came from bond sales and £700 million of debt comes from a European Investment Bank loan. Customers bills then keep paying tideway to operate it via bills.

I am no means clued up on the legalities of bankruptcy, nationalisation and so forth, but my suspicion is that the shareholders want a temporary nationalisation to clear the debt (onto the taxpayer) before they get their asset back, debt free- so they can raise more debt to invest in the required infrastructure upgrades, and of course keep paying those sweet sweet dividends.

How about the shareholders get their investment back via a mechanism that takes into account how much river water they are willing to drink?

How near an outfall would the water be taken from?

Rivers have a nasty habit of flowing, so 5 miles would probably be unsafe and almost certainly less than a mile below the NEXT part-time arsehole substitute.

Shareholding, like insurance, is just betting with faux respectability. The bloody shareholders should be allowed to lose their shirts, like backing the loser in the 3:13 at Kempton. They won't, neither will the executives lose their bonuses for failing to meet their responsibilities.

Jacob Reese Mogg has said Thames Water should be allowed to go bankrupt

1 Attachment

Sorted for Es and whizz...

Samples taken from marine life in Portsmouth Harbour have shown traces of cocaine, amphetamine and MDMA (source:Independent), these may affect behaviour. This is due to the substances passing through the original purchasers into raw sewage pumped into the sea. Apparently coke can make prawns faster. Having had a night out in Pompey a few years back it isn't difficult to believe.

The little bastards don't pay for it either.