It's a very UK approach.
Set up an inquiry, but bar the inquiry from considering the solutions that are effective, but politically unacceptable.
It's the usual M.O.
Why is it acceptable to nationalise the steel-making infrastructure, but not the water-purification infrastructure?
My article in The National this morning.
The impending sale of Wood Group to a Dubai-based company raises an important question again about the level of foreign ownership in Scotland.
It's Scotland's economy. Or is it?
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25099874.common-weal-scotlands-economy/
A couple of weeks ago, I gave a presentation to Unite the Union's Retired Members Branch on the state of the National Care Service and how Scotland could bring the private care sector into public ownership.
“It is always useful for a university to have a Very Big Thing. It occupies the younger members, to the relief of their elders (especially if the VBT is based at some distance from the seat of learning itself) and it uses up a lot of money, which would otherwise only lie around causing trouble or be spent by the sociology department or, probably, both…”
Terry Pratchett et al; Darwin’s Watch
#Discworld #BritishSteel #Nationalisation #AlwaysMoneyWhenTheyNeedIt
Just signed and sent this email:
Closing date for the consultation is 15th of April.
As the birthplace of my parents, I stand with the good folk of #scunthorpe and fully support the #nationalisation of #BritishSteel I am proud to be a #communityTU member #joinaunion
It is time for our railway to put the people who use it first - demand the government do these four things:
Reinstate the railway’s duty to cater for disabled persons and the environment
Create a publicly owned train leasing company - to stop billions being taken out of our railway in dividends
Give passengers a real voice - so that the railway is democratically accountable to us
Invest in the railway - this will enable the government to cut fares and attract more people to the railway
Transport is devolved, but this public consultation will feed into legislation that will affect the whole of the UK.
So this affects you whether you live in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Take just 1 minute to respond to the consultation now.
Ask the government to run our railway for people, not profit
https://crm.weownit.org.uk/civicrm/mailing/url
#railways #UKpolitics #inequality #nationalisation #petition
"...research from the University of Greenwich... average of 35% of customer bills in 2023-2024 was ... to pay for the interest on the companies’ ever-growing debt piles, and to pay dividends to the shareholders.
You are paying a privatisation tax for the dividends and debt of these companies. Over one-third of customer bills for water in England and Wales pass straight through the companies without being used for water and sewerage services.
Publicly owned Scottish Water doesn’t have to pay dividends to private shareholders, and lost just 8% of revenue in interest payments in 2023-24: less than a quarter of the cost in England and Wales.
https://weownit.org.uk/news/governments-worst-case-scenario-for-nationalising-water-still-leaves-households-better-off/
#UKpolitics #prvatisation #nationalisation #inequality
La #nationalisation de l’eau est une fausse bonne idée
Par Rébecca Pétrin, Geneviève Paul, Sylvie Paquerot et Alexandre Lillo
Les auteurs sont respectivement directrice générale d’Eau Secours ; directrice générale du Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE) ; membre du CA de la fondation Danielle Mitterrand ; professeur au département des sciences juridiques de l’UQAM.
https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/idees/858433/idees-nationalisation-eau-est-fausse-bonne-idee
glané sur le net « Journal d'action »n°1 – pour une industrie des transports tournée vers l'avenir: Quel est l'avenir de l'industrie automobile ? Des suppressions d'emplois, des fermetures d'usines ou une réorientation vers la production d'armements ? Ou une réorientation vers la production de moyens de transport individuels ou publics ? Avec ce « journal d'action pour une industrie des… https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article73914&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #IndustrieAutomobile #TransportsDurables #Emplois #Volkswagen #Nationalisation
UK petition about water companies, national ownership and government minister's approach.
https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/steve-reed-include-public-ownership-as-an-option-in-your-independent-commission-on-the-water-sector
#UKpolitics #WaterCompanies #nationalisation
Hello fediverse do your thing. The uk government has opened a consultation on the formation of Great British Railways (yes, that big renationalisation of the privatised services). This will replace what is currently in the Grant Shapps plan for rail. Link here, deadline 15 April https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-railway-fit-for-britains-future
#BurkinaFaso passed a bill on #nationalisation and transfer of land ownership to the state.
The next goal is the complete eradication of hunger.
We await with interest the reports of the Western media. Their bosses, especially in France, must be outrageous 
"...paranoia about the value of bonds in issue because we have all been told that this represents the national debt that is a burden on our grandchildren.
How is having clean water a burden on our grandchildren?
How would also having guaranteed safe electricity supplies into the future, and by safe I mean climate-sustainable electricity supplies into the future, be a threat to our grandchildren?"
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/12/13/nationalising-water-shouldnt-cost-taxpayers-anything/
#UKpolitics #nationalisation
#ukpolitics #nationalisation #pr You can see my direction of travel! 
https://labourlist.org/2024/09/labour-railways-reform-election-2024-louise-haigh/?source=email-labour-list&link_id=12&can_id=7b9738e200d95c7d65029a1f82a1c247&email_referrer=email_2549557___subject_3079978&email_subject=how-bold-will-labour-be-on-electoral-reform
That's more like it.
Right Wing Press can go fuck itself, howling about Privatisation being undone.
££s siphoned off to private interests that morally belongs to the people
The National Grid "builds and runs power grids and cables across Britain, reported an underlying operating profit of £2.05 billion for the six months until September 30, surpassing £1.8bn in the same period last year."
Sharon Graham (Unite union) said, “Energy profiteers like National Grid are extracting cash for overseas shareholders through ever more expensive bills."
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/national-grid-2bn-profits-lay-bare-britain-broken-energy-system-campaigners-say
#nationalisation #ukpolitics
venez on nationalise total et d'autres pour qu'ils respectent les accords de paris.
Filling in a bit of polling by 38Degrees, on water companies in UK, I found myself writing:
"Our water and sewage system has been, in effect, robbed of past investment. The money that should have funded infrastructure and better service has, instead, ended up in vulture capital and overpayment of executives and dividends. The companies need to have their rules explicitly tightened to include proper investment and targets for clean water, sewage treatment and the future-proofing of infrastructure (including for climate change). There should be stringent punishments for non-delivery and there should be a realistic restorative element (ie the failure to properly invest in the past should be made up for). If companies cannot do this, then their fall in value will enable them to be taken into public ownership and the remedying can be more directly directed by the nation."
#ukPolitics #WaterCompanies #inequality #nationalisation
#RollingStockFirm’s £80m dividend payout fuels calls for #UK #rail #nationalisation
#Unions describe #Porterbrook’s figures, despite downturn in wider rail industry’s revenues, as ‘shocking but unsurprising’
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/14/porterbrook-rolling-stock-firm-dividend-uk-rail-nationalisation-calls
#ToryLegacy
Spartacus 
