Ewan McGaughey

A fair price to the public for water nationalisation | Letter Letter: The government is wrong on the cost of bringing water back into public ownership, write Prof Becky Malby, Dr Kate Bayliss, Prof Frances Cleaver and Prof Ewan McGaughey

Letter on the true price and benefits of public water in @theguardian.com.

It’s £0 for a failed water company, not £100bn as the Treasury, Steve Reed, and water company lobbyists falsely claim.

The cost of privatisation will be £22bn extra in 5 years.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Germany is deliberately alternating between positive and negative growth each quarter just to mock those fixated on the technical definition of a recession.

Commission proposes partial suspension of Israel\'s association to Horizon Europe Today, the European Commission proposed to partially suspend Israel\'s participation to Horizon Europe.

@ec.europa.eu proposes partial suspension of Israel's association to Horizon Europe ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

EVs Surpass 60% of New Car Sales in Ethiopia: Outlook - Birr Metrics More than 60 percent of newly registered personal cars in Ethiopia in 2024 were electric vehicles (EVs), marking a major shift in the country’s transport and

EVs Surpass 60% of New Car Sales in Ethiopia in 2024. Africa is shifting away from oil faster than some countries in Western world.
birrmetrics.com/evs-surpass-...

YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel Tom Lehrer - We Will All Go Together When We Go

Tom Lehrer died today. He was one of the great comedians our culture ever produced. Without Tom, there's no Weird Al, probably no that entire branch of comedy.

He went alone and beat the odds.

youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?...

On penalties!

I love women’s football - England wins here!

Good article - though you know the latest YouGov poll actually found 82% support for public ownership of water! I made a chart on how it has risen:

Here's some more craziness from the waste of tax money in Higher Education: state R&D spending is huge, but pouring it into a collapsing system risks just pouring loads of it away. Making everything dependent on a Wild West of undergrad recruitment has gone spectacularly wrong.

It costs £0 to make a failed water co. public. Privatised water will cost £22bn in the next 5 years.

We must fulfil Keir Starmer's 2020 pledge to make water public, not be blocked by the Treasury saying there's no money. No more bailouts for shareholders, banks + polluters. @skynewsrss.bsky.social

A new water "super regulator" should have to secure profit for shareholders and banks, just like Ofwat, says the government appointed Cunliffe Review.

This isn't the change British people want: (1) clean water, (2) fair bills, (3) water in the public interest, not for private greed.

Me on SkyNews👇

1/9 Steve Reed and his £100bn: a timeline.
Steve Reed says he won’t nationalise the water industry, because it would cost £100bn.
👀So where does that figure come from?👀
He claims that it comes from his own department.
🚨But it looks like it came from the private water companies.
#ComeCleanSteve

How to Clean Up Our Water: Why Public Ownership in Law Costs Zero The Government has said it would cost £99 billion to nationalise Thames Water. The true cost in law is closer to zero.

Here you go! www.common-wealth.org/publications...

🚰🧵

We have heard a lot of claims about the potential cost of public ownership but not much on the actually existing cost of privatisation.

This chart - from Ofwat's most recent Price Review - shows the scale: £22 billion in the next five years.

Minister Steve Reed said water “pollution levels in Scotland are worse” than England yesterday, and so it makes no difference if water is publicly owned or privatised.

No Steve, that’s what water company lobbyists or failed Defra officials have fed you. Here’s the reality:

And, when they lose they pay the costs - but you’re right that the government is acting like they’re scared stupid of litigation risk. The GLS is certainly paralysed by not being sued.

Lawyers will fight over everything but when they sued over Railtrack, Northern Rock etc they failed. They will again.

Market value for Thames Water *was* about £4bn with the KKR bid. But then they dropped it as it became clear the regulator wouldn’t raise bills yet more. Really, with reasonable bills it’s zero - no room for returns with £23bn needed in repairs.

How to Clean Up Our Water: Why Public Ownership in Law Costs Zero The Government has said it would cost £99 billion to nationalise Thames Water. The true cost in law is closer to zero.

Steve Reed is right. We should focus on facts. So let's start with 8 claims made to @krishgm.bsky.social

1. The ⁠£100bn figure. This makes no sense & is not credibly evidenced. The true & fair value in law is close to zero.

Expert @ewanmg.bsky.social unpacks www.common-wealth.org/publications...

YouTube video by Jesse Welles We’re All Gonna Die

🎵Well buddy, don't go getting clever🎵

Good question. Assume for simplicity the income earned = the debt service. Then

1. It doesn't change the deficit (obviously).
2. It *does* add to the debt (if you take out a mortage to buy a property and rent it out to service the mortgage, your debt goes up!).

[1/2]

How to Clean Up Our Water: Why Public Ownership in Law Costs Zero The Government has said it would cost £99 billion to nationalise Thames Water. The true cost in law is closer to zero.

And they don’t need to add to the debt - in law secured creditors only need to receive “appropriate value”, not market value, which will be zero if they leave billions in repairs after taking billions in interest: www.common-wealth.org/publications...

I’m on @skynewsrss.bsky.social at 8pm on why the Cunliffe Review of water is old sludge in new bottles:

💰a new regulator will get a duty to secure shareholder +bank profit from our bills
❌it fails to make Thames Water lose its licence over pollution
💧it’s 465 pages yet calls for more reviews! Fail.

🚨NEWS!🚨 - The UK government has pledged to halve sewage discharges by 2030.

An admirable target, but we need action, not promises...

Our CEO, James Wallace breaks it down in an interview with BBC News 👇

What we all know - also for taking Russian help to get elected in 2016, where Mueller failed to bring any prosecution.

The reason the USA ceased to function as a polity starts with the US Supreme Court, and its stranglehold on democracy.

Hi Jim, very good. In parts 2 or 3 address do you plan to address BlackRock's control over shareholder voting policies in the thousands of companies in its portfolio? Just get in touch if so.

Will parts 2 or 3 address shareholder voting?

Universities in England at risk of long-term decline, says British Academy Outgoing president Dame Julia Black calls on ministers to overhaul their ‘confused’ approach to higher education

Meanwhile: “The Department for Education doesn’t really have much of a view of what it wants to do with higher education at all.”

Faculty and staff have a view-- imagine being asked!

www.ft.com/content/3162...