Election results...

Start with the market price for the commodity for sale. Say the market price for gas: A utility company cannot sell gas for less than it costs them to buy, whether they're government or shareholder owned.





Let sum that up and look at the margins: Many energy companies went bust because they operated on wafer thin margins as it was.

If, after all the above, their profit margin was only a few percent (which it mostly was) then ordering them to sell for x% less means they go bust.

The French government bankrupted EDF like that. And then had to basically bail them out. So cheaper bills = higher taxes.

Take your pick - there's no free lunch.

There is for shareholders.
Get free money for doing fuck all and taking no risk; and NEVER being asked to hold a share of the liabilities.


All The Best

1) No they don't.
These companies are both too big to fail, and too important to fail, so Taxpayers will ALWAYS be used to prop them up, which means Shareholder carry almost Zero risk.
Any sector of the economy that is so integral to the basic functioning of both society and the economy that if it looks likely to fail will always be bailed out by the Taxpayer should be owned by the Taxpayer, for the Taxpayer; not owned by private shareholders who in reality contribute nothing, but constantly leech operating revenue from the company.

2) Millions of companies exist worldwide that have no shareholders.

3) When Taxpayer money has to be used to support appalling low wages for the lowest paid just so they can meet the basic cost of living, while at the same time  the top 1% can ever increase their share of total wealth it is abundantly clear that the current model of Capitalism is not working.
The last decade has shown that beyond doubt.

All The Best

The polls suggest that it is a 50:50 split between Independence and Unionism. That's a helluva number of Scots wanting out of the toxic Union.

The SNP still governs in Scotland and the test, for the SNP, in 2026 will be how they can capitalise on the poor showing of the Starmer Government (almost guaranteed) 

Most homes in the UK have access to more than one supermarket, or more than one car retailer, and more than one mobile phone operator.

Despite pretence to the opposite that is not true of electricity, water, gas, etc.

If Morrisons goes under tomorrow there are at least 6 other supermarkets within reasonable distance of my house that I can buy food from, and dozens of smaller independent retailers.

If Anglian Water go under tomorrow there is no one else to provide water, because even if I switch my supplier to another water company it still has to flow through infrastructure owned and maintained by Anglian Water or their appointed insolvency agent. Thus to ensure water supplies and sewerage services to 4.2 Million customers the government would have to step in. We've already seen the groundwork being laid with the Government admitting it might have to step in to ensure continuity of service to Thames Water customers when TW mooted going bust last year.
Same is true of electricity and gas.

The Government currently operates ScotRail. InterCity East Coast, Northern Trains, South Eastern, TransPennine Express, and Wales & Border Franchise within the rail sector because otherwise they would collapse.

And remember, no nation on earth except this one was fucking stupid enough to privatise water, not even the Super-Champions of Free Market Capitalism - America.

Did you complain when the Government dumped £Millions into Tata, a privately owned (by a foreign national, with parent company listed in Bombay) Steel company?
Did you complain when the UK Government bailed out the privately owned banking sector, ushering in two decades of ideological austerity?

Why is it OK for the Public Purse to bail out Private Companies to protect Shareholders, but not OK of the Public Purse to own and operate publicly owned companies to protect British consumers?

All The Best

How has privatisation been an improvement?

Leakage rates are almost as high as they have ever been.
Sewerage discharges are higher then they have ever been.
Bill are higher than they have ever been.
Systemic debt is higher that it has ever been.
How has any of this been a better deal for the consumer?

Since privatisation revenues from bills have MORE than paid for the money spent on infrastructure maintenance and improvement.
So why the need for such excessive debt?
To pay shareholder dividends.
Debts that now threaten the existence of more that one Water Company.

If a water company should fail it should be taken back into public ownership and shareholders, who have taken unwarranted and unsustainable dividends for decades, should lose out.


All The Best