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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Fergal Sharkey is right

42 replies

FergalforPM · 18/05/2023 21:38

and we were told we'd stop the shit flowing into rivers and the sea by allowing the Tories to privatise the water monopoly.

And so we shouldn't be being asked to PAY AGAIN.

We paid the bigger bills, paid for the bonuses and share dividends and obscene executive salaries. We paid the salaries of OFFWAT. They still kept tipping shit into rivers and now they say we have pay again for the clean up they didn't do?
They can fuck off.

OP posts:
Ukholidaysaregreat · 18/05/2023 21:40

Correct. Cheeky bastards.

Ladyglittersparkleseriously · 18/05/2023 21:41

YANBU. A good heart these days IS hard to find. Especially in the Tory party.

PtarmisanCheese · 18/05/2023 21:42

YANBU, but I’m disappointed that the thing he was right about wasn’t the fact that a good heart these days is hard to find.

PtarmisanCheese · 18/05/2023 21:42

Bugger, you beat me to it 😂

MindPalace · 18/05/2023 21:43

I was going to agree like pp that a good heart is indeed hard to find, as I thought this was going to be about relationships, but I agree with you anyway.

Loria · 18/05/2023 21:44

I dunno what feargals said (apart from that a good heart is hard to find) but yea like fuck should we be giving over any extra money to a bunch of suits who we've already paid loads to do a job but who've fucked it up. They should be giving us money in compensation for having our seas and rivers (and streets, when the drains overflow 🤢 ) full of shit.

Sissynova · 18/05/2023 21:44

What a surprise, privatising basic utilities isn’t for the benefit of the people??
What? Shocking!

And yet people will still argue for it.

cocoloco117 · 18/05/2023 21:44

No shit and don’t know why anyone would need Fergal Sharkey to explain it to them, surely anyone with half a brain cell can see what those shitheads have been up to. Same formula will be applied to the NHS just watch this space.

JennyForeigner · 18/05/2023 21:45

They can indeed, fuck off.

WednesdaysPlaits · 18/05/2023 21:45

Also thought this was about good hearts..

Loria · 18/05/2023 21:47

We need your man who sprayed that bank with a lorry load of shit on the case. Get him to go to the CEO of every water company.

Alternatively we should all go round to each CEO's house and have a big shit-in on their lawns.

Oblahdeeoblahdoe · 18/05/2023 21:48

Ww should withold our direct debits. What a bloody cheek!

Original poster
FergalforPM · 18/05/2023 21:48

peaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the musician was reacting to an apology from water companies for polluting England’s rivers.

"What I'm actually hearing is no apology for the fact we've paid them for a service we haven't got,” he said.
"They are now suggesting that we should pay them a second time for a service we haven't had."

There were 301,091 sewage spills in 2022 in England, an average of 824 a day, according to Environment Agency figures.

"We should have an apology for the suggestion they are going to put bills up by £10 billion for their incompetence and their greed,” he added.
"This is nothing to celebrate whatsoever. What they should be saying is, 'we messed this up, we're terribly sorry, we're going to compensate you all, £10 billion, it is the least we could do for our customers, give you a refund'.
"That we could all get behind. This is just another outbreak of moral panic due to the pressure and scrutiny they are coming under."

OP posts:
GabrielleLegs · 18/05/2023 21:55

Fergal is right.

mumda · 18/05/2023 21:56

What was the population when the majority of the sewers were built?
When did we last build a reservoir?

WarningToTheCurious · 18/05/2023 21:59

Ruth Kelly on R4 this morning was a disgrace. “We hear you and we’re very sorry at this literal shit show, but we have been meeting the stupidly low targets that we’ve been set so it’s all good. Oh, and we are going to upgrade the infrastructure so aren’t we wonderful (but you the customer are going to pay for it).”

Meanwhile …

The English companies’ net debt was £56.2 billion last year as regulator Ofwat warned about concerns of the financial resilience of the sector.

Since privatisation, in 1989, some £50 billion has been paid out in dividends.

https://www.waternewseurope.com/privatised-water-companies-awash-with-debt-in-england-and-wales-as-dividends-flow-to-shareholders/

HopelesslyOptimistic · 18/05/2023 22:04

How do we as a country say no. Or as someone else has said fuck right off. People how do we as a collective refuse, genuine question.

drpet49 · 18/05/2023 22:05

Ladyglittersparkleseriously · 18/05/2023 21:41

YANBU. A good heart these days IS hard to find. Especially in the Tory party.

😂

Loria · 18/05/2023 22:06

Even voting labour won't solve it. They've already said they won't renationalise.

Showdogworkingdog · 18/05/2023 22:36

I met him at a work do years ago, long before he became a shit campaigner. One doddery old senior manager kept calling him Shergal, that was embarrassing. I was talking to him at the lunch break, he was eating a chicken nugget and I got a bit splattered with it as he was talking enthusiastically to me. Lovely chap though.

He’s also dead right, water companies are the ultimate CFs. Privatisation was supposed to allow them to make profit in return for investing in the infrastructure but all they’ve ever done is cream the profits. Bastards.

Loria · 18/05/2023 22:55

I would love to have seen Shergar Farkey eating a chicken nugget!

Original poster
FergalforPM · 19/05/2023 10:08

HopelesslyOptimistic · 18/05/2023 22:04

How do we as a country say no. Or as someone else has said fuck right off. People how do we as a collective refuse, genuine question.

This is a good question, I'd love to know the answer. I am old enough to remember that swine Nicholas Ridley being asked where the competition would be in the water industry "Perrier?" was his sneering contemptuous reply.

OP posts:
x2boys · 19/05/2023 10:33

Is he a fisherman or something now ?
I did see I him,in tv talking about the state of our rivers age,s ago
I now have a good heart these days is hard to find ,so please be gentle with this heat of mine in my head ,so thanks for that Op😂

PinkRobotDuck · 19/05/2023 10:37

Don’t pay the water rates