Dirty Business on Channel 4

[Moovart]

If you haven't already watched this totally shocking docudrama on Channel 4 then make sure you watch it and tell everyone you know to watch It

It lays bare the scandalous, harmful and lethal  (in some cases) behaviour of the water companies since privatisation.  I for one didn't realise that the water companies pay the regulator/environment agency to regulate them in one mega conflict of interest.  

This is as shocking as the post office/postmasters scandal with even more far reaching consequences.

[Earl Aelfheah]

The privatisation of water is just ridiculous. I have the Safer seas and rivers service app on my phone (recommend it if you like to swim outside) and the regular (weekly) sewage dumps highlighted all along the south coast is just outrageous.

Edited 8 hours ago by Earl Aelfheah

[Angelina]

what's scandalous is our government allowing it. The should and can impose fines and order works which would lead to TW becoming bankrupt, at which point it can be taken back into the public domain.

[Moovart]

It's taken time to see the legacy of Thatcher's free market policy but we're really seeing it now with utilities, housing and infrastructure 😢.  I think I've remembered correctly that on Dirty Business they said we are the only country in the world to have our water supply totally privately owned.  

When it gets taken back into public ownership the private owners will rub their hands together with glee having withdrawn massive profits and bonuses over the last 30 + years, let the infrastructure go to pot and now have the taxpayer come back in after this long period of neglect and pay for the failing systems to be rebuilt.  If you think those companies will suffer at the hands of government then you have more faith than I.  Thatcherism has a lot to answer for ☹️

 

[Angelina]

You're forgetting that the Labour Administration under Blair - while not directly responsible for privatisation - actually reinforced the privatisation by changing their licences and basically cementing the agreement, ignoring warnings, failing to return the industry to the public sector, and there were in fact tenuous links of the Labour Administration to the private profit making sector.

It's like saying the bathroom flooded because Thatcher turned the tap on - but not mentioning that Blair put the plug in and turned the tap on full

 

 

[Underhook]

1 hour ago, Moovart said:

It's taken time to see the legacy of Thatcher's free market policy but we're really seeing it now with utilities, housing and infrastructure 😢.  I think I've remembered correctly that on Dirty Business they said we are the only country in the world to have our water supply totally privately owned.  

When it gets taken back into public ownership the private owners will rub their hands together with glee having withdrawn massive profits and bonuses over the last 30 + years, let the infrastructure go to pot and now have the taxpayer come back in after this long period of neglect and pay for the failing systems to be rebuilt.  If you think those companies will suffer at the hands of government then you have more faith than I.  Thatcherism has a lot to answer for ☹️

 

I can’t say I understand your post. Why would private sector owners be “rubbing their hands with glee” at the prospect of having their assets renationalised? They would receive minimal or nil compensation and lose a lot in value. No private sector owner is openly or even privately calling for this 

[Angelina]

because they are not liable for the costs or fines ?

[Moovart]

4 hours ago, Underhook said:

I can’t say I understand your post. Why would private sector owners be “rubbing their hands with glee” at the prospect of having their assets renationalised? They would receive minimal or nil compensation and lose a lot in value. No private sector owner is openly or even privately calling for this 

Because much of the assets have already been stripped and the big dividends already paid out. The big money has been made.  The costs going forward to repair the failing infrastructure is going to be huge and the that cost could fall to the taxpayer.