January 25.
Isn't it time that we exploded the myth that somehow privatisation of
water and sewerage won't cost us, the public, anything?
Private money does not come out of thin air. Anyone who invests money
in anything expects to get that money back along with as big a profit as
possible.
The reality is that privatisation will cost the public very dear
indeed. Because ultimately the public, as consumers, will pay for every
penny of private money, not just for the required investment to bring
water services up to EC standards, but also for the large profits and
the huge salaries the chiefs of these privatised utilities enjoy giving
themselves while putting the workers out of a job.
Privatisation is not designed to help the people. It is designed to
help the Tories and their friends make a lot of money at the expense of
the people.
We have democratic control over local authorities and they are
accountable to the people. Private companies are not. Similarly,
non-elected bodies appointed by the Secretary of State are not
accountable to the people and the people have no control over them. They
are unacceptable.
Water is an essential public service. It was the introduction of
public water and sewerage services that did so much to improve public
health.
The water and sewerage services belong to the people, and must be
retained as a public service under local authority control.
Dr Flora Isles,
Gardenhurst,
Newbigging,
By Dundee.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article