public ownership

Government urged to drop ‘parasitic’ private contracts as rail fares set to soar

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar

 People using a ticket machine at Waterloo train station in London

THE government was urged to ditch “parasitic” private contracts today after it emerged that regulated train fares in England could soar by 5.8 per cent next year.

This year fares went up 4.6 per cent — one point higher than last July’s retail prices index (RPI).

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The government is set to renationalise all train operators by 2027 and integrate them into Great British Railways, a new public body which will also oversee rail infrastructure.

However GBR will continue to lease rolling stock, carriages and locomotives, from private firms. Outsourced contracts, such as those for cleaning staff, are also set to remain.

A spokesperson for rail union RMT said: “Our analysis shows that £720 million is extracted each year from our railways through rolling stock leasing, outsourcing and subcontracting.

“Eliminating that profiteering would allow fares to be cut by 6.5 per cent.

“The government has an opportunity under GBR to remove these parasitic contracts that drain resources from the network and instead offer real value for money for passengers through public ownership.”

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Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar

Continue ReadingGovernment urged to drop ‘parasitic’ private contracts as rail fares set to soar

Jeremy Corbyn: This Labour government has failed. People want real transformative politics – we will give it to them

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Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

dizzy: I’ve only quoited small parts of this article. Recommended.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/29/jeremy-corbyn-labour-failed-politics-new-party

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Only a truly democratic party can provide the space for the policies that are needed to transform society. Up and down the country, there is huge appetite for an economic reset. One that brings water, energy, rail and mail into public ownership. One that invests in welfare, not warfare. One that ends this government’s complicity in genocide and brings about justice for the Palestinian people. One that makes the wealthiest in society pay a bit more in tax to ensure that everyone can live in dignity.

This is the political vision that can inspire hope, not fear. The great dividers want you to think that migrants and minorities are responsible for the problems in our society. They’re not. Those problems are caused by a rigged economic system that protects the interests of billionaires and corporations. By scapegoating migrants and minorities for its own domestic failures, Labour has paved the path for Reform UK. This Labour government is here to appease Reform. We are here to defeat Reform. We are at a critical juncture, and we need an alternative, now.

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Think of what we could achieve together.

The future we deserve is no pipe dream. Look around you, and you will find proof that a better world is possible. We are not fighting for crumbs. We are fighting for real change – and we are never, ever going away.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/29/jeremy-corbyn-labour-failed-politics-new-party

dizzy: I need to spend time on other projects for the next few years. We need left bloggers and social media activists. It’s a hard slog to get established but go for the long term. Teams of 10 or more would be ideal because you could share the work, maybe concentrate on your own area of interest. Suggest that you change passwords regularly and drop and replace people who don’t pull their weight. In a few years, ready for the next election, you should be kicking and taking on number 10’s influence and influencers reported in this article.

Continue ReadingJeremy Corbyn: This Labour government has failed. People want real transformative politics – we will give it to them

Green Party reaction to water review

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Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to the Jon Cunliffe review into the water sector in England and Wales which calls for Ofwat to be replaced by a single regulatory body, co-leader of the Green Party, Adrian Ramsay MP, said:

“Expecting a different form of regulation to fix the water industry is, frankly, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Not only that but the majority of the public are going to be expected to pay more in bills, as we watch the industry continue to sink under the failed model of privatisation.

“The government deliberately left out the option of public ownership from the review, but that’s the only real way to get the water industry to clean up its act, end millions being siphoned off for huge CEO salaries and shareholder dividends and instead see this money invested into ending sewage dumping and fixing leaks.”

Continue ReadingGreen Party reaction to water review

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

Morning Star Editorial: Having sold out on every working-class promise, Starmer finally stoops to migrant-bashing

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Chasing racist votes Keir Starmer says that he can be just as racist and cnuty as Nigel Farage.
Chasing racist votes Keir Starmer says that he can be just as racist and cnuty as Nigel Farage.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/having-sold-out-every-working-class-promise-starmer-finally-stoops-migrant-bashing

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By pandering to racist representations of immigration and failing to explain it as the inevitable consequence of colonialism, empire and the neoliberal global order, Starmer now shares an ideological position with Nigel Farage.

The plan to end licensed immigration by people contracted to work in the care sector will intensify the crisis in the NHS and make life miserable for people in care.

Care sector employers are upset because it hits their supply of cheap labour and thus their profits.

This illustrates a feature of 21st century immigration into capitalist countries that disrupts both Farage’s narrative and Labour’s imitation of the same.

A migration-enlarged labour force increases precisely those profits — the unpaid wages that employers retain — that would be diminished if they were compelled to train locals and pay them enough to attract a sufficient supply of labour.

A sensible strategy would be to attack Farage for his support for privatisation, his opposition to employment rights, his fawning over Trump and his works, his willingness to flog off the NHS to US corporations.

The most productive approach would be to stand up for what most Reform UK voters want and which they share with most people in our country — public ownership, higher taxes on the rich and an end to the privileges of the plutocracy.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/having-sold-out-every-working-class-promise-starmer-finally-stoops-migrant-bashing

Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Having sold out on every working-class promise, Starmer finally stoops to migrant-bashing