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Privatisation of utilities wrong
We keep hearing from various posters that the privatisation of utilities was a mistake - will this weeks experience in NI make them reconsider?
are just some of the quotes today about the water problems in NI - one of only 2 regions that remained in State control after the privatisation in the rest of the UK.
Hardly a beacon for State control of utilities...:(
"36,000 people who have been without running water for days"
"people have been without water for 11 days"
"water "black outs" where householders' supplies are interrupted for a period of six to eight hours"
"Years of underinvestment"
"drinking water crisis is in danger of developing into a major health emergency"
"We inherited a poor water infrastructure "
are just some of the quotes today about the water problems in NI - one of only 2 regions that remained in State control after the privatisation in the rest of the UK.
Hardly a beacon for State control of utilities...:(
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Good job the airports are private
Oh, hang on. They did.
But that is my point - we keep getting told that Nationalised utilities provide better service when the plain facts are that they dont.
They still suffer from neglect of investment and bad nmanagement in exactly the same way as privatised companies and their fees are no less.
At least with privatisation the government got a windfall which helped to offset some other taxes.
You're like a bloody broken record! :rolleyes:
Or in this case a winter.
Northern Ireland experienced exceptional weather this winter the worst for generations.
That, and underinvestment resulted in the present situation.
This does not make the case for either public or private utilities.
It would have happened even if the N.I. water supply was in private hands.
Bad management is bad management whoever does it.
And this:
But if the service to the comsumer is no good what is the point?
Or doesn't the consumer matter? - well come to think of it, remebering back to the days of mass nationalisation, no the consumer didn't matter
I agree, I remember years and years and years of burst water pipes before our water was privatised and things are far better now especially since regulation and the legal obligation of water companies to replace and repair underground pipes.
I don 't understand what you mean. What is wrong with regulating any service which affects public health and well being?
"Ofwat (The Water Services Regulation Authority) is the economic regulator of the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales. We are here to make sure that the companies provide household and business customers with a good quality service and value for money."
If "public health" is so important then why aren't fast food outlets legally required to provide healthy food.
As for the OP - I see the publicly owned Scottish Water is sending water to NI.
http://www.niwater.com/whoweare.asp
Which I think is the point the OP was making and that some did not get.
I dont think it is - Typhoid is a Notifiable Disease and as such you can forceably be segregated and/or treated from the community
Surely that cannot be true?, what if in the Free Market people as you say accept a lower standard of supply, but others don't, and don't want themselves/family made ill by inferior water, how does the Free Market handle that scenario?
You are obviously joking surely?
But as we are keep getting told government regulation is intrinsically wrong and that the Free Market will solve all problems.
Therefore why require Typhoid to be legally notifiable? Surely the Free Market would solve the problem?
Really? I now have a choice of which electricity company I use, and can choose to go with the cheaper one. Same with my gas. And I have a much wider choice of telecoms / broadband suppliers with much more varied service.
Don't kid yourself that the prices would have been cheaper if they'd still been nationalised monopolies. With no competition to drive an improvement in service, increased efficiency, or a reduction in price, we wouldn't even get the paltry savings and deals that we do at the moment.
Unless, of course, those nationalised suppliers kept prices artificially down by sucking more money from the tax coffers to service their public sector pay increments and gilt-edged pensions...
Told by whom?
Only an idiot would recomment letting the water supply be unregulated.
I would also think that water companies are legally obliged to send pure water to consumers, seem to recall an instance some time ago where a tanker driver mistakenly added to much of a chemical to the water supply (Cornwall I think) and the company were heavily fined