Off Topic Politics Thread

If you had your child at the same age as Adrian Mole, you might just qualify for a place on the Erasmus scheme. Well done to the minister responsible getting that restored.

 

Sounds like one for Led by Donkeys.

 

100% Utilities should have never been privatised.

 

These are all a waste of time. These prank things only preach to the converted. Need to come up with something that actually gets to the people on the other side instead of continually calling them thick and dumb. Funny that. Insulting the voters you want to change the minds of doesn't work...........but they keep on with that strategy.

 

And you would probably be surprised to know a lot of "right wing" voters agree with you!

 

Call me cynical, but the privatisation of the Water companies, under Thatcher's Tories, iirc, was nothing more than a 'get rich quick' scheme for people with money to spare - Under price the Utilities, pretend it's for the purposes of greater investment, then allow people to sell the shares that they paid far too little for, and 'Hey Presto' - all those already rich people were able to increase their finances without doing anything.
What's that? Utilities are being under-financed? Money is being siphoned off to fat cats with no thought of the wider issues in society? I hadn't appreciated that people are only in it for themselves, and altruism isn't uppermost in everyone's dealings. Oh, well, at least Tories got rich, so not all bad.

 

Its always the haves that make money........and in the western world that includes the ones on the "left." Like pigs in a trough.

 

Water is an essential requirement for life. People may be able to put up an argument for the privatisation of other public services, but water should never ever have been part of it.

 

The cost. Shareholders would have to be compensated, and that would run into billions. Then the government would have to either take on on the debt, or deal with the creditors. Water privatisation was a disaster, a crime against the public really, but taking the industry back into public ownership would mean bailing out the thieves at a cost to the public purse. So the Cunliffe report aims to make these faiuling firms clear up their own mess, albeit ultimately at our expense.

 

Can't the government let it fail and go bust? Then take it back at that point. Investments go down as well as up as we are so often told so I do wonder why shareholders should be due anything if the company folds?
I'm not an economist obviously

Edit. The infrastructure has value so that would be sold off to pay some creditors but surely the government can buy that?

 

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Fergal Sharkey is all over the water industry crisis and if what he says in this interview is correct, renationalising the water industry could be done at no cost.
And I love the way he talks to Ed Balls in a manner that I interpret him saying “Will you shut the **** up and just listen.”

https://youtube.com/shorts/SH9_2co5mW0?si=Crl-Q7dNKCmEFBFO

 

If there's a way for Thames Water to go broke and be taken over by government, without the taxpayer getting saddled with the debt, I'd certainly be all for it. Not sure there is, but like you I'm not an economist.

 

Fergal Sharkey has been a great campaigner for clean water for years now, and deserves credit for that. But he's a singer by profession, so I'm not entirely sure I'd trust his figures tbh.

 

It's not just the water companies, steel and trains are also needing bail outs or renationalisation. No bonuses for managers no matter how they're disguised or dividends for shareholders.

 

Yeah awful decision by Thatchers gov to go that route. What is it, 40 years on (?) & we’re still paying for it. That water shareholders “dividend” is just obscene & probably similar for all the utilities.

 

I have said before that if a company is carrying debt then it should never be allowed to pay shares dividends, until after the debt has been cleared.

 

I see where you are coming from, but that would never work in practice. Some debt (loans, mortgage, etc) enable you to make a profit if you see what I mean.

 

Would you trust his perfect cousin?

 

Only if he's had his teenage kicks but he does have a good heart.