22 June 2018
Roll up, roll up, for a spectacle so ridiculous that no other country in the world has copied it! It's the circus of English water privatisation!
CIRCUS is the theme of our first ever SplashMob*, held on the 29th anniversary of water privatisation in England**.
This event will be hosted by the inimitable Danny Chivers, compere extraordinaire. You'll be astonished by the mindblowing, scandalous behaviour of the water companies - and you'll get to throw wet sponges at them!
Want to make water privatisation history? Here are three things you can do:
1) Join us at the circus!
Come to our real life Splashmob at 12:30 - 1pm on Friday 6th July, on Southbank near the OXO tower, London.
- We really need 20 volunteers who can definitely be there. Email us on info@weownit.org.uk if you can
- Sign up on facebook
- Wear BLUE if you can!
2) If you can't make it to the circus - make a big splash online!
- Sign up to the online SplashMob on twitter
- Share this blog on facebook and twitter
- Ask your friends in London if they can make it
3) Donate to make the SplashMob a huge success!
- Make a donation towards the circus! We need to pay for a banner, leaflets, T shirts, equipment like sponges and buckets, filming and polling to make sure the circus is covered by the press! We'd really appreciate your support.
*SplashMob = any event held in a public place, calling for public ownership of water and involving a splash!
**This first SplashMob is being held in London and it's about the English water system but we're very grateful for the solidarity (online or otherwise) of people across the UK including our friends in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Water is too important to leave it to the clowns!
Comments
Martyn Hingley replied on Permalink
Privatisation across the four utilities has only benefitted the shareholders CEO,s and the government.
Roger Philpott replied on Permalink
So, we've got a French/German/Chinese water station with a British flag on top, probably made in China! (With apologies to David Lean's 'Laurence of Arabia' & alteration of statement attributed to General Allenby)
David Gibson replied on Permalink
Water companies need to be nationalised to bring them back into public ownership as one national company. Let's really take back control of our country.
Anonymous replied on Permalink
ABSOLUTELY.
rita stanton replied on Permalink
I believe 36% of Thames Water belongs now to the Chinese, that should be illegal
LindaBache replied on Permalink
Definitely.It'sabsolutemadness.
William Coleman replied on Permalink
Definitely ridiculous situation, is England becoming a third world country ?
Kenneth Rapley replied on Permalink
No, it already is a third world country. It no longer has many assets left and therefore does not have the ability to secure loans. Secured loans are far cheaper than unsecured loans.It has a very small manufacturing base and therefore has very little to sell apart from service contracts and financial services. Both of these are easily duplicated by foreign interests if they so desire to do so.
David replied on Permalink
When there is no financial or economical or strategical reason to privatise a public service, then the continued pursuit of such can only amount to it falling into the catagory of being a mental illness.
Philip Dawes replied on Permalink
England, America's puppet and servant in so many ways, has given its vital public services to private enterprises, whose interests are entirely profit-making at the expense of the services. Public services rightly belong to the people, not for-profit bodies.
Paul replied on Permalink
Totally agree. We should remember the mantra of Thatcher and most Tories that "Public is bad and private is good" so why did we sell all of these private utilities to foreign state owned companies!!!! Also, why was Osbourne so keen to enlist the Chinese Dictatorship Government help?? with Hinckley Nuclear Power Station which is truly absurd on so many fronts.
This present shambles of a government? is still at it, awarding major contracts with companies that have failed to perform, after awarding contracts to companies that had effectively failed. What on Earth is going on and how do they keep getting away with it?
John Turner Temple replied on Permalink
Water electric gas public transport NHS none of these should be in private hands,
These are the life organs of society and not for the wealthy to make a quick buck on
Terry lynch replied on Permalink
It’s just another way for the government to take more money from the ordinary working public. They’re just making themselves and their friends richer and richer and this means the latitude of the public gets more and more confined . We are becoming a nazi governed state where the rich keep everything and the poor become nothing more than slave Labour .
Joanna Wright replied on Permalink
Water is the basis of all life, how can we even think money should be made out of such a basic requirement.
Pat Meddle replied on Permalink
The privatisation of our water companies is absurd. Since privatisation, money is not invested in reservoirs to the same degree(these cost money and the main priority to a private company is to it's shareholders).3,300,000,000 litres of water (apparently the equivalent of 120 olympic size swimming pools)are lost every day due to poor maintenance in England and Wales. Thames Water were fined £20m after pumping 1.9 billion litres of untreated sewage into the River Thames, and it wasn't because they hadn't been advised about it. The list could go on of course.
david bullar replied on Permalink
Water is the most fundamental Utility, nobody can live without it. It was the basis on which many of our towns and cities were founded. It certainly should not be in the private ownership of the wealthy. The distribution of it is a costly business hence Roman Aquaducts but it should certainly be a public enterprise. Experience has shown that Private Enterprise will distribute water (and gas and Electricity) how when and where it likes. for the benefit of its private 'owners'. Public ownership may be a bit less efficient, but for water it is vital.
Dave Voisey replied on Permalink
basic essentials for a normal life should not be in private hands. Power - Water - Travel - Basic infrastructur ( Roads, Airports, Shopping Malls, Ports, etc. ) There's a certain government who would privatize AIR if they could work out how to do it!
Nicky Sargeant replied on Permalink
Essential services must be in public ownership
Paul Cairns replied on Permalink
You are all missing the point. The next 'wheeze' will be to privatise the atmosphere so the new owners can sell citizens breathing licences. For example a 'Platinum-Executive Breath' will get you the freshest Highland breeze - while those who cannot afford a licence of any kind will be allowed to inhale the exhaust fumes of the wealthy. Seems a good plan with plenty of opportunities for market differentiation etc etc
Helen Shepherd replied on Permalink
I have long been appalled a the privatisation of our utilities. We have been told it is a Euro directive but the French don't have foreign owned utilities and il bet Germany hasn't either! Lets get all our utilities back!!
Barry Turnock replied on Permalink
All our present problems stem from the Thatcher years, it was her government that started the big sell off and this is the result of her policies,as previous contributors have stated the only people to benefit are the shareholders and the CEOs.
David Riley replied on Permalink
Water, like electricity and gas and the railways are run by foreign firms and some as in the railways are state owned. None pay corporation tax in this country- why? Like so many cases which this Government support they are tax scams to make some people rich.
margaret replied on Permalink
Where did the lie that it was an Eu directive originate? It was Margaret Thatcher who instigated the fiasco of privatisation of utilities. Another Tory own goal
David Kitson replied on Permalink
BBC Countryfile has exposed the water companies for discharging untreated sewage through overflows into the river system on a regular basis. These overflows are supposedly only for emergency use - once or twice a year after severe storms - but they are clearly used almost weekly. The problem is made worse by the fact that adequate monitoring is not in place, and the water companies are well behind in there obligation to install the monitoring by 2020. Like all the privatised industries, they don't give a damn about anything but making money.
Linda Gibbon replied on Permalink
Pleas ensure water is provided not for profit, but efficiently for everybody
Anthony Haslam replied on Permalink
It is obscene that the essentials of life are exploited by private companies for profit! it is time for the government stopped providing foreign aid to other countries and started concentrating on our own essentials like water, energy, NHS and taking back control of these out of control companies usually foreign owned and taking hugh profits at our expense!!!!!
Zoe McBride replied on Permalink
Foreign companies should not be allowed to profiteer on the essential utilities of other countries. British utilities should be re-nationalised so that the profits stay in Britain, to support services and infrastructure for the British people. Why, in the face of the continual harsh slashing of essential health and social care services, is foreign profiteering of public assets being allowed to continue?
Mike Hope replied on Permalink
ALL public services, including water, need to be run by the state and not by private companies. This is primarily because good public services are essential to any quality of life we aspire to. They need to be coordinated and properly integrated, and above all be efficient for our use and needs. This is something the private sector can never deliver. They fragment, they filter off profits for themselves, and because of the logic of capitalism they buy and sell these public assets for private profit - which also blurs the lines of democratic accountability. So that's the case for public ownership. However, I'm SHOCKED at the nasty nationalistic anti-foreigner tone of many of the posts on here. It needs to stop, or we will be shooting ourselves in our feet. We oppose ALL private corporations trying to control public services, whether run by British capitalists or foreign ones. All these people are our enemies, infact espeecially the British ones, who think that they can wave the union jack and dog-whistle our loyalty. Remember - we have more in common with ordinary foreign folk than we ever do with British bosses. And it for this reason that the UK needs to be forced to stop exporting its nasty failed privatisation models to other countries, who also need to develop good public ownership models. So no more reactionary nationalistic clap-trap please!
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