United Kingdom

Were you representative of a typical customer of your water company, or did you get unlucky? How was the water company in the article on leaks over the relevant period - did they improve them or not? What about their prices?

I'm not sure if you've been living under a rock for the last few years but I'm far from being the only one experiencing this type of service from water (and other monopolies, too). But you recognise that we've been "fleeced" so I guess you have some awareness.

We need a political and economic system where people are ACCOUNTABLE. Politicians who lie or carry out policies to enrich themselves or their associates at the detriment of others or businessmen who run utility companies need to face legal and financial redress. Not only should the CEO of Southern Water (for example) lose his bonus but he shoudl be personally fined for the chronic lack of water in parts of Kent in the recent months that have adversely affected people's lives (to the point of illness and death in the cases of the elderly people without water during an intensely hot 3 days).

We need a return to the types of progressive tax regimes that existed between roughly 1945 and 1970 when the burden of taxation genuinely fell on the shoulders of those who could afford it. Tax the richest and use it to bring utilities back into common ownership. We don't need CEOs on £3.3 million; we need well-paid engineers and on-the-ground hands-on managers who can run them effectively in our interests. The neoliberal koolaid has been drunk by so many that it's hard to get most people to realise there are alternatives to targets and incentives and bonuses.