The water companies show us every day why they should be re-nationalised. Why won’t the politicians do it?
Ash Sarkar does it again.
Appearing as a panellist on the BBC’s Question Time, she was asked to discuss the way privatised water companies have been allowed to dump raw sewage into the UK’s waterways, poisoning them – and have even gone beyond the permissible limit, incurring large fines.
The fact that the water firms then pay these fines make a very clear point – that it makes more financial sense to pay up and carry on polluting than it does to clean up their act.
Ms Sarkar put forward the obvious solution, and – well, you’ll see what happened, but “Frank Owen’s Legendary Paintbrush” gives the game away a bit:
The right created the problem.
The left has the solution.
Centrists say the solution is "too expensive" so we just have to put up with the problem.
British politics in a nutshell. https://t.co/gdp4GXamgI
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush🥀🇵🇸🇾🇪 (@OwenPaintbrush) May 12, 2023
She phrased that brilliantly, I thought.
And she passed responsibility on to Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire, to explain why her party is not offering re-nationalisation of the water companies as an alternative to the current Tory mismanagement that is stinking up the entire country.
Here’s what she said:
Labours Thangam Debbonaire says the next Labour govt won't take our failed privatised water industry into public ownership because of the cost. Why not issue bonds?
But then of course, cost is simply an excuse to mask the Labour rights ideological oposition to public ownership. pic.twitter.com/7eZq0HP4E7
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 12, 2023
So, filling potholes in our roads is more important than cleaning up our environment and ensuring our natural water is free of diseases like the e.Coli that is infesting the river near Environment Secretary Therese Coffey’s own home?
No wonder Phil Waller tweeted what he did:
Labour are frankly shit
"we can't nationalise because of the cost"
meanwhile, many want services nationalised Because they're getting poorer, the services are shit or spewing out shite & making large profits
But labour will continue to be shit on this
Fucking unforgiveable
— Phil Waller (@Davejones0305) May 12, 2023
And while the politicians dither over technicalities (there’s plenty of money to pay for re-nationalisation; the problem is simply that the Westminster elite don’t want to stop the flow of profit), the rest of us continue to drown in our own waste – and theirs:
Kent. 50 meters from my home. Our creek smells like shit. Because it is full of it. This is what the Tory party want us to live with. What do you say @Helen_Whately ? https://t.co/zyKsTGHriO pic.twitter.com/7cQVYeET7G
— Robert Bob…. mrrobertbob.bsky.social (@MrRobertBob1) May 11, 2023
"Sewage flooding Cambs street for third day 'going straight into the river'."
Meet @Anglianwater the same AW that just 2 weeks ago was fined £2.6 for illegally dumping sewage, the 5th such fine in 2 years. £4.328m in fines in the 2 years alone. That AW?https://t.co/AxWPT01R8a
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) May 12, 2023
"Sewage spills in Fife: councillors to summon Scottish Water for explanation over 193 spills into Kingdom waters."
Well done @FifeCouncil 👏👏👏https://t.co/vZNFygYOCQ
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) May 12, 2023
There are only 2 small stretches of river in England designated as bathing waters
This morning both have 'No swim' advisories posted.https://t.co/jVrJ8vDAJc
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) May 12, 2023
The answer is clear: if privatised water firms are refusing to clean up their act (and they are) then the owners need to be deprived of their profit stream by re-nationalisation. And if our current Westminster politicians like Thangam Debbonaire, Labour, and all the Tories won’t do it, then we must get them out of Parliament – for our own survival.
Now, how do you propose to do that?
Politicians won’t re-nationalise the water companies because they will lose the bribes MPs take from the Water companies….
We must be one of those “shit countries” the orange Trump was referring to?