tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092460524833585582.post5238766702686227668..comments2010-01-09T09:58:36.075+00:00Comments on Socialist Democracy Blog: Households facing higher water charges after “miscalculation”SD webmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01246472542984375931noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092460524833585582.post-9672098876054555162008-02-28T22:42:00.000+00:002008-02-28T22:42:00.000+00:00I think youv’e got this one wrong. It seems to me...I think youv’e got this one wrong. It seems to me that the company really has made a cock-up rather than been involved in a conspiracy. First the information was leaked – clearly demonstrated by the poor media management=t by Northern Ireland Water Ltd. Second they haven’t even been able to say how much the miscalculation is and whether they have stopped miscalculating! Their excuses really have been pathetic. They have blamed the old Water Service and their shiny new ‘GoCo’ is sorting things out – except they haven’t yet sorted it out despite the millions and millions spent on private consultants. The other rather inconvenient fact is that the nobs at the top, including the Chief Executive and Finance director didn’t beam down from Mars on 1 April when the new company was created. They were in the same roles in the old Water Service.<BR/><BR/>The dismay of the politicians is genuine precisely because they know they are going to introduce water charges but this potential future price hike will make it a bit more uncomfortable for them. They know they were all elected in opposition to charges but they have bought into running the North essentially the way it is and therefore must introduce them. An additional problem is that they made so much of the recent budget – additional money for Health and housing - by stretching it almost to breaking point and this stretches it even more since the Department of Regional Development will have to bail the company out in some way or other we will probably never find out. Prepare to be told the problem was never that big.<BR/><BR/>One thing you’re dead right about though. This has focused debate about how much charges for domestic customers might be which means the debate is about how much we will pay – not whether we should pay charges at all. In this way the fighting between the company, politicians, Sinn Fein minister at the DRD and the Consumer Council etc. is all a squabble of those on the same side and by appearing to be about what is fair – and being all the more convincing because they really all are sincere because they don’t see further than the capitalist framework – what has just happened will make the introduction of charges easier not harder without a mass campaign of opposition to take advantage of their mess. This is precisely what the Consumer Council lamented - ‘confidence in the whole process has been dented’ they have said. The failure to build such a campaign has therefore caused us all to miss a real opportunity to weaken the whole process.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com