The privatisation of Britain’s water companies – one of Margaret Thatcher’s last acts – had a noble aim.
Letting private firms take a stake in how the outdated and underfunded municipal utilities were run, the theory went, would bring efficiency and competitiveness.
In this brave new world, corporate investors would plough money into modernising pipes and treatment works, drive down prices – and make a healthy profit to boot.
Sadly, it has not worked out as envisaged. While water firms – many foreign owned – have grown fat from selling rainwater, consumers have been treated with contempt. Billions of litres of water leak daily, torrents of sewage pollute our rivers and seas, hosepipe bans persist on this rain-lashed island – yet bills go up and up.
One of the worst offenders is Thames Water, which is close to collapse after being loaded with mountainous debts to fund dividends to shareholders. This could leave the taxpayer on the hook for a vast bailout.
One of the worst offenders is Thames Water, which is close to collapse after being loaded with mountainous debts to fund dividends to shareholders (File Photo)
Yet will its brazen interim boss, Cathryn Ross, apologise? Not a chance – even though she ran Ofwat when it turned a blind eye to this unconscionable practice.
The problem is, the regulator has far too cosy a relationship with the companies it is supposed to be regulating.
It is time the Government got tough. If water bosses faced heavy fines for providing a shoddy service, or jail for treating our rivers as sewers, they’d soon up their game.
A misguided law
This week has thrown into sharp relief the creeping advance of – and the confusion and concern surrounding – UK privacy law.
While established news organisations behaved responsibly in not identifying Huw Edwards as the BBC presenter embroiled in a sex scandal until his wife chose to, speculation exploded on social media.
This story was clearly in the public interest. Not just that a senior Corporation employee was accused of paying a teenager a fortune in return for lewd photos, but also how the BBC dragged its feet in investigating the serious claims.
While established news organisations behaved responsibly in not identifying Huw Edwards as the BBC presenter embroiled in a sex scandal until his wife chose to, speculation exploded on social media (File Photo)
Ever since Labour’s insidious Human Rights Act, the courts have given increasing weight to an individual’s right to privacy at the expense of the principle of freedom of expression.
This has hobbled the media – making it harder to expose corruption, wrongdoing and incompetence in high places.
If Britain is misguided enough to have a privacy law, it should be passed explicitly by Parliament – not slipped through the back door by unelected judges.
Strikes are no picnic
When workers strike they are encouraged to join the picket line to drum up support for their cause. Not junior doctors.
The British Medical Association, the orchestrator of the hugely damaging five-day walkout that begins today, is advising medics to gather outside their workplace only for the first two hours.
After that short spell of demonstrating for a blatantly excessive 35 per cent pay rise, they are urged to enjoy some ‘down time’ – have a picnic, play football or go to the park. ‘Picketing,’ the Corbynite militants whimper, ‘can be tough.’
This is truly disgraceful. What is tough is being a patient who suffers when their operation is axed because arrogant, cynical junior doctors are swinging the lead.
Sir Keir Starmer claims to deplore the sabotage carried out against ordinary people by eco-zealots.
Yet having banked £1.5million from Just Stop Oil backer Dale Vince, Labour now proposes to rip up new police powers meant to stop them blocking roads, and causing other disruption, if it wins power.
A coincidence? Or compelling evidence that Sir Keir has been on the fanatics’ side all along?
