Water

Bit behind on blogs. Busy at work.

Read this article:

So I send this letter into The Guardian. It won't be published, so here it is:

John Nelson, "I helped privatise UK water firms. But its government inaction that wrecked them" has a really quaint memory of his involvement in the privatisation of British Water companies in the 1980’s describing it as “carefully thought through by the Government”.

Privatisation, we were told in the 1980’s, was necessary because apparently the public sector were not good at running public services and the necessary investment needed to improve the infrastructure could be gotten through a privately owned company. Yet John now says they are 15 to 20 years behind in terms of infrastructure investment despite them living through a period of virtually nil cost borrowing.

Yet now, the suggestion is that capitalism is suspended, the companies are not allowed to go bankrupt and pass back into public ownership but instead that taxpayers “provide significant financial support” to keep them afloat.

And now John is looking after what he describes as “one of the most beautiful and important natural harbours in the U.K.”. What he finds is chickens coming home to roost, or shit coming home to fester, and he blames us, the voters, not the bankers, not the system, not those who were in power, not himself.

Those who proclaim that private ownership is a solution need to take ownership for their decisions. We have had 40 years to see the effects on our water, our railways, our health and education systems, our policing all our infrastructure.

It’s time to accept the obvious, if you prioritise profit about everything, you will firstly lose your services, then your safety and security, then the planet, and finally, your future.