Comment on Thames Water fined £122.7m in biggest ever penalty

egonallanon@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Nationalising now would cost hundreds of billions.

  Or, if you went down the banana republic route of forcibly nationalising without any compensation, and ignored the laws that currently prevent that, investment into the UK would plummet.

  Investment in the UK already took a big hit from Brexit, we don’t need to make it worse.

  The government is already the operator of last resort for the water companies. That means if the companies go bust any nobody steps in to buy them, the government takes over automatically.

  I say the government should state they won’t be bailing out these water companies if they fail. That’s how it should be for any private investment.

  When Thames and others go bust, the government steps in and takes over automatically as Operator Of Last Resort, with a tremendously lower cost to public finances.

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• HumanPenguin@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Honestly, if Honestly, if we nationalized now. The debtors would expect the gov to pay. And it would be hard to refuse. At least without harming our national credit/trust.

  Let the fuckers go bankrupt. Spend some time letting the military have to provide clean water. Aka 70s stand pipes.

  Then rebuild them as a nationalized company. This way the debtors cannot claim Thames water was anything but a dumb investment on their part.

  It is very likely the extra 3b they just borrowed was only allowed because the banks consider potential nationalisation a risk reduction strategy. Fuck letting them screw taxpayers by funding failing companies. we nationalized now. The debtors would expect the gov to pay. And it would be hard to refuse. At least without harming our national credit/trust.

  Let the fuckers go bankrupt. Spend some time letting the military have to provide clean water. Aka 70s stand pipes.

  Then rebuild them as a nationalized company. This way the debtors cannot claim Thames water was anything but a dumb investment on their part.

  It is very likely the extra 3b they just borrowed was only allowed because the banks consider potential nationalisation a risk reduction strategy. Fuck letting them screw taxpayers by funding failing companies.

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  • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The great thing about nationalizing something is you can just tell the debt collectors to fuck off.

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    • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Not if you want those debtors top invest in anything in your nation again.

      The nation is then faced with a banking industry that refuses to trust any large government projects. So we then have to find the money for any investment before building.

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      • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        If rapid emergency nationalism happens that frequently in your nation, that would be a prudent decision. Hopefully it’s not so.

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      • piccolo@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        The same investors that actively allow citizens to be poisoned for profit? Sounds like a their problem.

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• casmael@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The fact that private companies exist to sell water is clearly insane to be honest.

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  • DrCake@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Especially as there’s no competition. At least then they couldn’t just put up bills to cover it as you’d just switch, like energy.

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