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Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund

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https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/dystopia-uk-genocidal-raf-squadron-targeted-by-palestine-action-is-owned-by-a-hedge-fund-and-leased-by-the-raf/

If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again.

The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund.

Through a chain of seven cutout companies, which I will take you through, the direct ownership is with Airtanker Ltd, which gives its address as RAF Brize Norton. It owns, maintains and operates the RAF’s Voyager refuelling aircraft, which have been providing mid-air refuelling to the Israeli Defence Forces as well as carrying, in their cargo role, munitions to the IDF.

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Airtanker Ltd screenshot
Airtanker Ltd screenshot

Airtanker Ltd states that five of the Voyager aircraft while available to the RAF: “can also be made available to other parties. This can include providing military capability to other nations…”.

Whether the aircraft have been operated by the RAF on behalf of the Israelis, or whether they have been “provided to” the IDF direct, is an interesting question. Is this designed to build in plausible deniability for the UK government?

Eight of the Voyager Aircraft though fully painted in RAF livery, actually are the property of Airtanker Ltd.

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The RAF’s Voyager aircraft are effectively being provided under the Private Finance Initiative. Exactly how much money the hedge fund managers and this string of companies are taking out of the defence budget is hard to know.

One particularly surprising fact is that it is plain that the private companies are also providing the RAF ground crew. Who employs the flight crews is not entirely clear.

That such an obviously rotten and corrupt arrangement exists in the RAF I had no idea. Some British military personnel are in fact contracted mercenaries. It gives new context to the active RAF involvement in the Genocide in Gaza.

Palestine Action’s excellent act of resistance in vandalising this Hedge Fund Air Force has brought all of this to our attention. Which is yet a further reason to be grateful to Palestine Action.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/dystopia-uk-genocidal-raf-squadron-targeted-by-palestine-action-is-owned-by-a-hedge-fund-and-leased-by-the-raf/

Continue ReadingDystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund

Public ownership of England’s water companies could cost close to zero, says thinktank

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/09/water-companies-public-ownership-could-cost-close-to-zero-says-common-wealth-thinktank

Thames Water’s £20bn debt reduces its value, argues thinktank, Common Wealth. Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

[Guardian] Exclusive: Common Wealth report argues debt, pollution and underinvestment justify process known as special administration

Ministers could bring water companies into public ownership for minimal cost through a process designed to safeguard vital public services when the companies running them are failing, a thinktank report has argued.

According to the report by Common Wealth, ministers could use a process known as special administration to take over a company like Thames Water and, rather than transfer it to another private company, keep it under permanent public ownership.

Writing for the thinktank, Ewan McGaughey, professor of law at King’s College London, said that while a figure of £99bn was commonly cited as the cost of taking over the industry in England, this was based on an estimate from a thinktank paid for by water companies.

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The actual market value of water companies, the report argued, seems to be lower, with the US private equity company KKR offering a £4bn injection of equity to take over Thames Water, when its supposed regulatory capital value is nearer £20bn.

A Thames Water van parked in London

It goes on to say that when debt levels of water companies are taken into account, for example Thames Water is about £20bn in debt, it would be possible for the government to argue that their appropriate value in law was notably less, even close to zero.

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Original article at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/09/water-companies-public-ownership-could-cost-close-to-zero-says-common-wealth-thinktank

Continue ReadingPublic ownership of England’s water companies could cost close to zero, says thinktank

Water firms banned from handing bonuses to bosses

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/water-firms-banned-handing-bonuses-bosses

 A tanker from Thames Water

SIX water companies have been banned from paying bonuses to senior bosses under new rules that came into force today.

Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, Anglian Water, Wessex Water, United Utilities and Southern Water were all included in the ban, which covers the 2024-25 financial year.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed warned companies would be “extremely foolish” to try getting around the new ban by increasing salaries.

He warned water companies should avoid moves that would lose the “confidence” of customers and said there was a need to “rebuild their broken relationship.”

“Customers are furious at the fact that they’re seeing local waterways being polluted, but bosses taking multimillion-pound bonuses,” he told Times Radio.

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Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/water-firms-banned-handing-bonuses-bosses

Continue ReadingWater firms banned from handing bonuses to bosses

Morning Star Editorial: Even record-breaking fines won’t touch Thames Water. Nationalise it

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/even-record-breaking-fines-wont-touch-thames-water-nationalise-it

 A worker from Thames Water delivering a temporary water supply from a tanker to the village of Northend in Oxfordshire

THAMES Water’s record fines for sewage spills and improper dividends only underline our inability to hold water companies to account.

Water regulator Ofwat is hardly blameless when it comes to the supplier’s crippling debts, amassed by unscrupulous transnational corporations to shower their shareholders in cash — safe in the knowledge that when an essential service goes bust, it’s the British public that foots the bill.

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Ofwat is a captured regulator, and not just because chairman Iain Coucher (who made a fortune in another publicly subsidised privatised service, the railway, and who has named his extensive Sound of Jura estate Iainland) has been caught enjoying the hospitality of the water companies (as has Steve Reed).

Its negotiations with water firms on price hikes have allowed steep rises in household bills despite the rotten state of the network, which they say they have to pay to repair, being the direct result of their own mismanagement.

As Weston has himself made clear before parliamentary committees, making a privatised water firm pay for its crimes will simply see investors pull out, forcing the government to rescue it. Fines for bad behaviour are just one of the recognised business costs they weigh against the greater cost of water companies investing in infrastructure and repairs, or delivering a value-for-money service.

Designing elaborate regulatory regimes to stop capitalists behaving like capitalists hasn’t worked any better for water than it has for energy. It’s a con, and the only way to ensure our water supply is managed in the public interest is to take it into public hands.

See the original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/even-record-breaking-fines-wont-touch-thames-water-nationalise-it

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Even record-breaking fines won’t touch Thames Water. Nationalise it

Minister hails ‘remarkable turnaround’ of renationalised train operator

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/minister-hails-remarkable-turnaround-renationalised-train-operator

 A TransPennine Express train at Leeds train station, April, 2019

A TRAIN operator renationalised two years ago has performed a “remarkable turnaround,” the rail minister said today.

Lord Hendy described TransPennine Express (TPE) as “the blueprint for Great British Railways (GBR).”

TPE was brought back into public ownership in May 2023 under the Tories due to poor performance.

Since then, cancellations have fallen by 75 per cent and passenger journeys have increased by 42 per cent.

Now operated by the Department for Transport Operator (DFTO), the service generated £1.4 billion during 2023-24.

Britain’s train services were privatised in the mid-1990s.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/minister-hails-remarkable-turnaround-renationalised-train-operator

Continue ReadingMinister hails ‘remarkable turnaround’ of renationalised train operator