Fu*k me, I had a double take there. I thought I had opened the matchday thread and you were talking about Lee Johnson
Of course not. However, people have been screaming about getting him out since 2019. They got what they wanted, how's it looking now?
If I read it correctly, some £72 billion has been paid out as dividends or cash buy backs by the water monopolies since privatisation. I suppose some of that largesse could have been spent building new reservoirs, to help prevent water shortages during droughts. Or perhaps fixing/preventing leaks so as not to waste water. Or perhaps to have effective sewage treatment plants, so we do not have to swim in **** in the rivers/seas. The wooden ms pinocchio who is now PM, cut funding for the environmental agency by £250m that was used to monitor water pollution. We can but hope she becomes a real girl at some point..and does a decent job.
It's a business, just like any other. True, the raw material comes free, in most cases, but inconveniently it doesn't get to the end user without some heavy engineering and huge costs. And of course it is not just people that need it, but many industries have a huge requirement for water as part of their manufacturing process. I've just checked. It takes 62,000 gallons of water to make a ton of steel. I do see the point you are making, but we live in the real world, not some cosy socialist Utopia.
The real world doesn’t have to mean huge profits for shareholders though does it ? Electricity prices have gone up because of a lack of confidence over gas. The markets have changed and the pound has improved because we have a new prime minister who has done **** all. I’d argue that we we redefined what the real world is because that’s a bizarre kind of world that we’ve developed when arbitrary things stabilise/ destabilise our finances. Just gather water and share the ****er. Make it simple
Not good economics. Electricity (and Gas), prices have gone up because most of Europe have decided not to buy Russian Gas and Oil. Simple supply and demand. As for The Markets they are contrary right enough. It's one I've never been able to fathom. The way you use the word 'Shareholders' suggests to me that you think this is another dirty word. Might I suggest you substitute the word OWNERS. Then it will make more sense. And most of us are Owners in that our Pension's, for those who have them are mostly invested in The Stock Market
Pensions are an interesting case, mine dropped by about 10k during covid but has pretty much regained all that since the conflict. Guessing some of mine is invested in gas and oil suppliers. Still doesn’t help me pay the bills like.
I don't know anyone who thinks that the Capitalist/Democratic system we live in is perfect, but till some bright soul comes up with a better one, it's the one we have to make the best of. The modern alternatives appear to be -- Dictatorship - tends to lead to a relatively small group gathering in most of the wealth leading to more poverty. Comunism.- In practice this has tended to end up with a dictatorship under a different name. Marxism. -While I am neither a Marxist or Biblical Scholar, I have always understood that there are great similarities in The Surmon on the Mount/Plain and Marxist principals. This philosophy though requires that ALL the people are without any of those 'vices' that abound in the real world. Greed for example. My only hope is that over time Humanity will improve the capitalist system, to the point that it's worst excesses are curbed. But I am not expecting to see it happen.
That's true but you can't accuse those people of seeing things in hindsight. He was an absolute disaster not least because he's a compulsive liar. In fact it's worse because I don't think it's an unconscious compulsion, he lies deliberately because it's suits him to do so ... ... even in his farewell speech he was lying through his teeth. I don't want someone like him as my country's PM, simple as that.
Not wanting to nit pick - but will this once. Your description of ‘dictatorship’ is ( imho) word for word my description of todays form for capitalism.
If we allow rich donors - in any party - to dictate policy like the USA then British democracy is ruined and it’s time we put it straight. People say the same about unions but unions represent - not perfectly or exactly I know but there is democratic input - swaithes of disempowered people- donors represent the retention of their own power and wealth and the voice of a small privileged number. There really is no comparison. If we let wealth ‘dictate’ our policies we are fools, but look at what’s happening in reality. I’d argue Russian wealth and US wealth have more influence over the Tories than British working people yet people voted to take back control. It’s farcical.
