As the Guardian has reported today:
Andy Burnham has told officials to rip up their plans for how to fix Thames Water and present him with more radical options for what to do with the stricken company. Here are some ideas the prime minister is being urged to consider.
Emergency legislation
Burnham must introduce emergency legislation immediately to protect the supply of water for the public, said Richard Murphy, tax accountant and the brains behind Corbynomics.
A new state-owned company, with a management team in waiting and all the necessary steps ready to take over the existing company's systems, has to be put in place now.
“A prime minister who cannot deliver water to maybe a quarter of the UK's population would not be someone to be trusted with anything else. Andy Burnham has no choice but to address this matter, now,” said Murphy.
The 1971 nationalisation of the Rolls-Royce aeronautical engineering company, to protect the national interest after it collapsed into receivership, could be used as a blueprint. A similar national emergency exists now to protect the supply of water, Murphy said.
Murphy said that, in essence, Thames Water was financially insolvent, with real doubt about whether it could survive into 2027. It was failing in its regulatory obligations, including to maintain clean water supplies and keep rivers and beaches clean.
Emergency legislation should ensure that the nationalisation is of the assets and undertakings of Thames Water, and not of the company itself. All financial liabilities of Thames Water would be left for the old company to settle. The government should not acquire them.
The new company needed to be structured within days, said Murphy. “There is no time to wait.”
Yesterday's blog on this issue seems to have been noticed. Read the whole blog to fill in the details on what I had to say.
It's just a shame they got the description of me so wrong. We are not in 2016 now.
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The distinction between taking over the operating assets and inheriting the old company’s financial liabilities is crucial. The Rolls-Royce precedent also makes the emergency legislation proposal feel concrete rather than abstract.
Thank you.
And that’s it? They have to get the 2016 bit in of course – you know, just to keep in with the rabid centrists and Zionists who populate the rag.
All I see is another failed institution riven by vested interests and false intellectual left-ism. They won’t be getting my money any time soon.
Still, it’s better than nothing Richard and that in itself is very welcome. Thanks for sharing.
I discussed this with Jacqueline. She said “But no one reads the Guardian”. A double put down.
Some of us do. I was very pleased to see your proposal got top billing!
Thank you
Dear Richard
It’s not not that nobody reads the Guardian anymore, that may well be true, and for good reason, it’s that the Guardian is reading you, which is true and for good reason.
Thought for the day
Congratulations on being listened to. Let’s hope someone in Burnham’s office passes on your recommendations.
I can hope
I wonder if the Guardian included your telephone number and that you were willing to give up writing your final solution for a day or two to help.
Batman to the rescue, but you’ve got to send the bat signal.
They did not.
I hope they print a retraction. about the link with Corbyn. Will you ask them?
I can’t be bothered. Do you think I should?
There is no need to disavow a brief spell advising Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.
The fact is that we now know the level of lying and subterfuge that went into undermining Corbyn as leader of the opposition because of the potential threat he posed to the existing neoliberal order. The same is now happening to Zach Polanski for exactly the same real reason.
I just think that the mention of a Corbyn link is a pathetic or naive attempt to besmirch your solid credentials to speak about the Thames Water situation.
It was very odd….
Congratulations!
I’d be happy to be called “the brains behind” anything. Brains are one of the resources the governent HAS run out of.
🙂
Google told me
Press Gazette ranks The Guardian 5th overall among national newsbrands with 722.1 million total monthly minutes. [1]
Daily Reach: The Guardian achieves 5.2 million daily readers, making it the top quality newsbrand for daily reach since PAMCo’s inception
It is widely read in the US -though it might carry this story
I also found that its readership is generally well educated.
Less so for the Sun and Mail. They are more interested in Harry and Megan so don’t dismiss it.
Thank you
Hi
Well done for being noticed.
Hopefully the taxpayer will not be subsidising a failed Tory project.