Water is a public good, not a commodity. Today there will be a hearing in the European Parliament on the European Citizens Initiative – Right to Water (watch it live online). Nearly two million people signed this initiative across Europe, asking the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation as recognised by the United Nations, and promoting the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all. Continue reading
Tagged with Utilities
The case for public ownership
The public’s demand for re-nationalisation is steadily growing, partly because the record of privatised companies has been so poor, partly because the excuse of globalisation is now seen not to betoken greater efficiency but rather funnelling increasing assets to the very rich and undermining job security for workers, and partly the big new outsourcing companies have so blatantly abandoned the national interest in pursuit of gross profiteering. Continue reading
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Water companies are as bad as Starbucks, Google & Amazon
The banks forced a £800bn bailout on the taxpayer after the derivatives crash, as well as manipulating Libor to enhance their profits or hide their weakness, and now are enmeshed in £10-15bn repayment to clients for their PPI mis-selling scandal. The Big 6 energy companies are likely (though of course they deny it) fiddling the wholesale market pricing-fixing scheme to inflate their profits further, already at £15bn a year. Continue reading
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Some basic demands the left must start to make
Ever since the inception of New Labour, the left in Britain has been characterised by timidity when faced with an electorate ready to embrace change. The reluctance to break with a right-wing status quo has not been confined solely to the British labour movement either, but has become a commonplace right across the contemporary European left. This is at least partly why on the back of the biggest crisis of capitalism since the 1930s the left is in the doldrums almost everywhere, despite the fact that it was the failure of right-wing orthodoxy that got us into the mess we find ourselves in today. Continue reading
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The utilities – almost as bad as the banks
There are three good reasons to hate the utility companies. They raise prices as soon as wholesale markets rise, but when wholesale prices fall they delay a response and then don’t pass on more than a fraction of the wholesale price reduction. They act like a cartel, and keep their bills so confusing and complicated as to defeat the ostensible aim of competition. And they have far too cosy a relationship with their regulator, Ofgem, which seems much more concerned about the reputation of the market than about the customers many of whom are now freezing. This is market failure on a grand scale. Many people now loathe the gas and electricity providers as much as the banks. Continue reading
