Last weeks admissions of failure by the British Water Companies are the perfect demonstration of the failure of Margaret Thatcher’s privatisations. Water pollution in the UK reflects and reveals decades of mismanagement by these water companies and exposes once and for all the failures of Britain’s privatisations brought about by the Thatcher and Major governments.
Now the final cost of these privatisations include polluted rivers and the coastline of the British Isles. Years of lack of investment and mismanagement have surfaced to show us the extent of the problems of privatisation. These companies have been creaming off profits to shareholders and investing in other business interests whilst neglecting their primary purpose. The stench of corruption and malpractice is as bad as the stench left by them in our polluted rivers and our beaches. Companies such as these have the obligation to look after the resources they are managing not to trash them. This obligation should be a prerequisite to the nature of there work. Hence by increasing pollution in our rivers and upon our beaches they have failed to execute their duties properly and should be removed as a liability as quickly as possible. It wouldn’t take long to do this and to prove this in a court of law and the British Government should be pressed to do so as a matter of obligation. However we have a Conservative Government in power that still supports these failed privations dating back to the Thatcher and Major Governments so any action on the matter seems remote.
Finally to add insult to injury the Water Companies are telling us that we the consumers are going to have to foot the bill to clean up their mess.
Under investment dating back years has resulted in the UK having Water Companies that are not for purpose. These companies have been taking money from the public and investing it in a expanding portfolio of associated businesses and outside interests whilst diverting this money away from their main purpose. It is no longer in the public interest to have these companies as custodians of our water. They have proved to be greedy and irresponsible with our assets and the exposure of the extent of their polluting activities, which also puts public health at risk, is the final piece of evidence we need to get rid of them. To have them continue to manage a very important public asset is no longer viable. After coming clean ( no pun intended) about their polluting activities they have the cheek to request that in order to improve their woefully inadequate service they will be levying the public by increasing bills to pay for what should be a basic principle of their service: namely investment. This investment was a principle on which privatisations were sold to the public promising a better level of service and better infrastructure. In most cases there has been no evidence of re-investment or improvements to infrastructure. Therefore these companies are admitting to huge failures to deliver what was promised through privation. These companies have been exposed as exploitative and greedy and the contracts and basis upon which they were privatised have been shown to have been broken. Their pledges have been worthless and they are not fit for purpose and never have been. Failure to deliver and a breach of environmental standards in relation to ensuring public health and the proper management of a resource and asset should easily be enough to remove them from their position and re-align them back under public ownership. There will be no improvement until this has been achieved and to do this in a proper way will also mean getting rid of these privatisation supporting Tories who are still stuck with policies in support of the failed policies of Thatcherism dating back 40+ years. Britain it’s time to move on from the outdated ideas of Thatcherism. These principles and ideas are dated and are a reason that it is preventing Britain from moving forward into the 21st Century. Thatcher’s ideas about privatisations have failed and the stench of this legacy hang above our rivers and over our coasts. Thatcher’s privatisations have come to a shitty end.
This is a complete demonstration of the faults and failures of Thatcherism. These Water companies were privatised on the pretext that they would provide improved services for the public. The whole thing was a sham.
Trickle down economics of Thatcherism has been shown to be a failure. Privatisations were exploited by greedy companies many of which have no base in the UK and hence no interest in running these businesses for the good of the UK and it’s citizens. There interest in managing these utilities was merely for profit and not for the good of the UK. The privatisations were mis-sold to the public on the grounds that they would provide better services at a more competitive price. Time has proved that this has not been the case as these companies haven’t acted in the public interest. Isn’t it about time that we realised that privatisations of the water, electricity, gas and rail have failed to deliver their intended purpose? Isn’t it about time that we scrapped these private companies and replaced them with government run services working in the interests of the citizens of the UK: instead of for the satisfaction of the few greedy shareholders? All Thatcher’s privatisations have failed. Time the UK woke up and took back what is rightfully ours. Our rivers and our beaches belong to us. Now is the time to reclaim them from the companies that are willing to destroy them for their own benefit and profit. The UK has a legal right to defend itself from those that seek to do it harm. Having these companies own our utilities is against the public interest. As a national interest we have the right to get rid of anything that poses a threat to the well-being of both the UK and it’s citizens. High time we did. Thatcherism is dead. Trickle down economics is dead. Having companies from outside the UK managing our utilities is against our public interest. Boot em out.
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