But, once in a while, a situation arises that you can't put down on a shelf and come back to later.  An example of that is water.

Water - the basic human and life requirement.  Water should never be treated as a luxury.  It is a resource that unites us all.  We depend on it from the first to last days of our lives.  Species live in it.

And yet, some people think the wealthy should own it, make a profit from it and exploit the population who use it.  They are the water companies.

Since Thatcher's (i) disastrous policy of privatising publicly owned utilities, the water companies have not served the general public, only their shareholders.  The latest company to screw the public is Thames Water (ii).  As reported in the Morning Star 10 August 2026 (iii), they gave a £1m 'signing on fee' to Steve Buck, it's finance head.  It should come as no surprise, as the Guardian 10 August 2026 (iv) reports.  Parliament have served the companies well, but not the public.  It's all very well that the government says the payment is unacceptable, as reported in the Guardian 10 August 2026 (v), but it happened.  They hold parliament, and by extension the public, in contempt.

We have a situation where the private utility companies have raked in money for their shareholders, to the extent of leaving the waters full of shit.  The investors are running scared, as the Guardian 21 July 2026 reports (vi).

(i) Wikipedia:  Margaret Thatcher

(ii) Wikipedia:  Thames Water

(iii) Morning Star 10 August 2026:  Outrage as Thames Water hands finance officer £1m sign-on fee  

(v) The Guardian 10 August 2026:  Thames Water’s £1m payout to finance chief is ‘unacceptable’, says government department

(vi) The Guardian 21 July 2026:  Thames Water investors offer ‘golden share’ in bid to head off nationalisation