Foreign Intervention, Nationalisation of Water

Foreign Intervention

The Libyan Desert, Sunset, 

William Blake Richmond (1842-1921)

Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY-NC-ND]

… So I return to Libya. In that single sentence from Cameron’s 2011 victory speech in Benghazi – “Your city was an inspiration to the world as you threw off a dictator and chose freedom” – we can find the answer to the question “why then, the debacle of the new Libya?” Our prime minister was making two assertions. First, “you threw off a dictator”. This was true. Second, “you chose freedom”. This was false.

The cheering mob had not “chosen” freedom.  They’d chosen only to be rid of somebody. They weren’t focusing on the future. It would not be long before some of them would “choose” one militia, some another, and many, terrified choose to cower. Some would even be missing their former dictator. It was not they but we, their supposed liberators, France and Britain, who had chosen freedom for them. It never took root.

…Foreign intervention tends to succeed when in support of an identifiable leader or existing administration; and tends to fail when in support of an abstract ideal. You can help a leader with bombs but it is much harder to help an idea. First, then, find the leader.

Too many neo-conservative interventions over the past two decades have proceeded under the banner of an idea: “freedom”, “democracy”, “justice”, or “human rights”. Militarily successful in the short-term, they have killed the offending despot, but then foundered for want of any popular local leadership to carry the baton.

…How many times do we have to ask the same questions before embarking on these adventures? We know who and what we’re trying to remove but have we good intelligence and a clear idea about who and what will replace them? Who are we hoping to support? What are their names, please – tell me something about them. Are they well placed as potential leaders? How popular are they with their own people? What are the chances of uniting their countries behind them?

And I’m afraid that on every occasion our governments haven’t had the least idea. “Cometh the hour,” they’ve airily assumed, “cometh the leader.”

(Matthew Parris, The Times, 2019)

Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya - are these countries better off now than before?

Nationalisation

Grange by Derwentwater, Cumbria, Robert Gwelo Goodman (1871-1939)

Photo Credit: Atkinson Art Gallery Collection [CC BY-NC-SA]

The Labour party’s plans to renationalise water companies in England could cost the government as little as £14.5bn, according to research.

Labour, which has promised to take the privatised utility companies back under state control, favours basing shareholder compensation for the renationalisation on book value.

…Moody’s the rating agency, estimated the book value of the 15 English water companies’ shareholder equity at £14.5bn. This is much less than an industry-funded estimate by the Social Market Foundation, a think tank, which suggested a cost of £44bn to compensate shareholders based on market value, rising to a total of £90bn if the companies’ debt was included.

…Water UK, which represents the companies, said Labour’s plans added up to a “multibillion-pound nationalisation bill for taxpayers instead of spending that money on people’s real priorities such as hospitals and schools.”

Labour has proposed renationalising the water companies after they were criticised across the political spectrum for prioritising dividends and executive pay over preventing leaks and improving water quality.

(The Financial Times, 2019)