FlyTheNest

If you believe only the state should provide services such as energy and water, nationalisation is obviously the only way to go. And one benefit is undeniable – the state can borrow more cheaply.

Sir Jon Cunliffe’s report on the water industry found no one model of ownership was universally the best.

But note that Sir Jon Cunliffe’s Independent Water Commission, whose report forms the basis of the intended clean water bill flagged in the king’s speech, “compared outcomes in countries reasonably similar to England and Wales” and said its analysis “has not demonstrated any one model is universally better than another”. It thought “strong and evidence-based regulation is critical in ensuring customers and the environment are protected, regardless of ownership model”.

It is why, one suspects, the initial stage of Burnham’s 10-year plan for more “public control” may end up being a rejigged version of what Starmer’s government already intends. By way of reminder, the clean water bill’s ambition is to “shift the sector away from a system where water companies mark their own homework by putting in place stronger, active supervision and oversight through a powerful new regulator capable of integrated management of the water system”.

Sir Jon Cunliffe’s Independent Water Commission, whose report forms the basis of the intended clean water bill flagged in the king’s speech, “compared outcomes in countries reasonably similar to England and Wales” and said its analysis “has not demonstrated any one model is universally better than another”.

Minister and MP ‘furious’ over cuts to road projects to fund defence plan

gilsey wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2026 10:04 am

Sir Jon Cunliffe’s Independent Water Commission, whose report forms the basis of the intended clean water bill flagged in the king’s speech, “compared outcomes in countries reasonably similar to England and Wales” and said its analysis “has not demonstrated any one model is universally better than another”.

We've been told many times that we're the only country to have privatised water, so what was he comparing it with? Suppose I should read the report.

The 2008 municipal elections provided Bertrand Delanoë, who was running for reelection, with an opening to make a solemn commitment to citizens to switch back to
totally public management of water services if he were to be re­elected. This is exactly
what happened. The contracts were due to end in 2009, and the whole system needed to
be restructured, and implemented in an eighteen­month transition period, which is a very
short time­frame indeed.

Many people thought that the commitment by the Town Hall was a mere electoral promise. Until the very end, the private companies thought that the Paris Town Hall
would not go through with their commitment. When they realised after the elections, that
this would not be the case, they tried to make the best of a bad situation, and stated that
this was a purely political decision that had no bearing on the water services per se or the
way in which they had been managed by private enterprise.

The negotiations between the companies and the Town Hall ­ that covered a wide range of subjects: personnel information systems, real estate, goods that were being handed back, the water meters...­ were more or less difficult, depending on the case. Although the private enterprises were not obstructing the remunicipalisation, they were not exactly facilitating things either, and sometimes held back information.

"" Speaking from a hotel across the street from Independence Hall, David Blight, a professor of American history at Yale University, said: “I don’t feel celebratory at all. I don’t know how to explain [Trump’s] vanity projects any better than anybody else. This is who he is. He’s not unlike Mussolini, who wanted to leave his mark all over Rome. It’s like theatre of the absurd.”

Blight and others draw a contrast with the bicentennial of 1976 when, amid a glut of commemorative merchandise, New York hosted a floating parade of 16 tall ships and more than 100 smaller vessels from around the world, including the Soviet Union. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, boasting an array of planes and rockets, from the Wright brothers’ flyer to the Apollo 11 command module, opened on the National Mall. Gerald Ford, then the president, did not make the celebration about himself. ""