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The private sector pumps sewage into UK rivers while paying billions in dividends to their global investors. Then when the government tries to reign them back

The private sector pumps sewage into UK rivers while paying billions in dividends to their global investors. Then when the government tries to reign them back in the excuse is their company is "neither financeable nor investible" without customers footing the bill. No shit, it was loaded with debt and money syphoned out of it for 30 years. https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/28/thames-water-says-without-steep-bill-increase-its-neither-financeable-nor-investible https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/28/tha... Exactly the same happens with private train companies in the UK, though hopefully not for long.

mjburgess 2y ago
Sure, and what would happen if the gov ran the system? It's a 300bn fix. The only difference would be that you wouldnt know about it. Thankfully MPs are incentivised to publish this stuff against private companies.
- smcl 2y ago
  Well "the gov" does run the system in Scotland. Scottish Water, which didn't suffer privatisation, ticks over nicely - providing high quality service at low cost and reinvesting any profits. You're inventing a hypothetical nightmare scenario while ignoring a very real and positive one because it's inconvenient for your "privatisation = good" argument.
- phatfish 2y ago
  How would the government be able to hide that? There is oversight of the Treasury by the OBR and there is more than one political party in the UK, opposition MPs happily point out all the failures of the party in power. My view is that it is easy to accuse government services of being dysfunctional because there is far MORE transparency than for private companies. Bankrupting a water company can happen in plain sight by a private company because money that was supposed to be used to, you know, build a functioning sewage system is fed through a maze of offshore accounts for years.

mjburgess 2y ago

Sure, and what would happen if the gov ran the system? It's a 300bn fix. The only difference would be that you wouldnt know about it. Thankfully MPs are incentivised to publish this stuff against private companies.

smcl 2y ago
Well "the gov" does run the system in Scotland. Scottish Water, which didn't suffer privatisation, ticks over nicely - providing high quality service at low cost and reinvesting any profits. You're inventing a hypothetical nightmare scenario while ignoring a very real and positive one because it's inconvenient for your "privatisation = good" argument.
phatfish 2y ago
How would the government be able to hide that? There is oversight of the Treasury by the OBR and there is more than one political party in the UK, opposition MPs happily point out all the failures of the party in power. My view is that it is easy to accuse government services of being dysfunctional because there is far MORE transparency than for private companies. Bankrupting a water company can happen in plain sight by a private company because money that was supposed to be used to, you know, build a functioning sewage system is fed through a maze of offshore accounts for years.