Picture from Daily Express PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sat, May 16, 2015
SNP and David Cameron entered into a 'joint objective' deal to create a UK water market together, that now includes Scotland's water, via David Cameron's Water Act which got Royal ascent on 14th May 2014, at the same time Nicola and Alex where touring Scotland claiming they wanted to split from the UK and don't do deals with Tories.
This despite the fact In August 2012, John Swinney, the Scottish National Party Finance Secretary told the BBC and the Scottish Public "there was no way" Scottish Water would be privatised. At the same time SNP leader Alex Salmond declared: “Scottish water needs investment not privatisation. Privatisation is nothing more than an ideological red herring.”
And the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, asserted from the party conference platform when she was deputy leader “Only independence will ensure that, in future, Scotland’s resources are invested for the benefit of Scotland’s people”
All these speeches obscured one very inconvenient truth – the SNP party had already voted in 2005 for the Labour/Lib Dem led administration's Water Services etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 to privatise Scotland’s water by setting up a private water market in Scotland in 2008 (along with Labour, Lib Dem Tories and Green parties) with only Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party voting against to try to protect Scotland's water from privatisation.
The wonderful plan to ensure Scotland's resources are used for the benefit of Scotland's people was to create a private water market for Scotland's water where private water companies in England could divert the retail money for Scotland's water into their coffers for all non domestic customers including schools and hospitals.
The Scottish government website, “Scotland On Tap” states the Scottish Government has allowed private water companies in Scotland and England to compete for business customers in Scotland”. It goes on to say “the new system is similar to the energy sector, where a range of suppliers provide services without actually producing the energy themselves”
This meant Scottish Water could no longer bill their non-domestic customers for the water and services they provide and instead had to set up a private company, Business Stream to do it instead with the private companies meant to pay Scottish Water the wholesale cost of the water out of the revenues they collected. Ronnie Mercer, then chairman of both the public arm, Scottish Water, and private arm, Business Stream, explained
“Strictly speaking Scottish Water continues to supply everyone, no matter who their licenced provider is. Business Stream and its competitors (private English water companies and new Scottish private water companies) provide metering, billing, customer service and so on, but Scottish Water provides the water”.
Very, very careful to keep the word privatisation out of it – strictly speaking.
What he also does not say is Scottish Taxpayers via the public part of the company are forced to pay for the METERS which decide how much private Water companies get paid for the water and sewerage services provided by the public company Scottish Water
Buried deep in the revenues index of Scottish Water’s 2015/21 plan on page 151 it is revealed Scottish Water forecasts
“that between 2015 and 2021 we will undertake a total of 18,000 first time meter installation at an estimated cost of £9.1 million (to the public part of the company) The costs may vary depending on the type of meter selected and the specific configurations of the property for installation”
Within 18 months of the privatised water market being introduced in Scotland three English companies got licences to compete for Scottish Water’s revenues.
Osprey Water, which is part of the Anglian Water Group, got the licence to compete on day one. Another English private water company Aquavitae also got a license to potentially divert Scottish Water's revenues' into it's own coffers, but weeks later the company was stripped of it's water license in England as it had went into administration.
Within just five weeks the new Scottish private water market for non-domestic customers was reported to be in chaos despite WICS claiming this market would be good for business. In July 2008 WICS the water market ‘regulator’ in Scotland claimed they were moving to strip Aquavitae of its license in Scotland only issued in April. But by January 2009 WICS were forced to make a statement as the new market was in turmoil as it still did not know, six months later, if Aquavitae had been stripped of their license or not.
Jeremy Atkinson, chief executive of CMA Scotland, which manages the switching process, said: "At the moment we have no evidence of any breaches of the market code by any of the licensed companies."
Yet in November 2008 WICS were forced to admit the market controls were not adequate and as a result ‘they are aware that Aquavitae did not pay its wholesale charges to Scottish Water and .. they consider it possible that Aquavitae’s financial difficulties would also have led to a failure to pay CMA charges’.
Prior to this, in June 2008 the lawyer for the administrator even had the cheek to write to WICS to ask if there was a possibility WICS could refund the ‘substantial sum’ the company paid for its Scottish water license - despite the fact the company took money for Scotland’s water and never paid Scottish Water for it under the Scottish Government/WICS ‘market’ in SNP control with Utility Week magazine stating ‘industry sources suggest the fundamental problem behind the company’s failure was its reliance on the debt market, which left it exposed when borrowing costs rocketed during the current banking crisis’ So how did the SNP Government, WICS and the CMA fix their private water market which was still in total chaos?
In the meantime, the director of Aquavitae, set up another private ‘water’ company in England called Aimera and soon after applied for and received another Water License in Scotland from WICS again in April 2009 – as a way to fix the chaos - despite his previous company being stripped of licenses in Scotland and England and failing to pay Scottish Water for water they provided and the CMA proving what chaos this new private water market under SNP control was in - after they gave the impression for votes water would not be privatised in Scotland.
Scottish Water continued to dominate the market, holding on to 95% of the market as the Scottish Government did not want customers to know about the market after Scottish Water sent letters to customers stating it was only a change of letterhead.
By 2013 my employer only found out a private water market existed in Scotland after they changed premises and they had a problem with the water. They contacted Business Stream, the letterhead change, who told them it's nothing to do with them they must contact Scottish Water. My employer was confused as they thought Business Stream and Scottish Water were the same as they were told it was just a change of letterhead - and only after lots of confusion did they know that a private water market even existed - that's how secret the new private water market that had been in operation for 5 years was - a business customer in Scotland still knew nothing about it five years after it had been formed.
So why keep it secret from the very customers they claimed were meant to benefit from it?
With no new entrants since 2009, suddenly in 2012, once SNP had a majority in the Scottish parliament, some of the world’s biggest private water privateers , Severn Trent, Thames Water, Veolia and United Utilities flooded into Scotland for licences in the private Scottish water market for non domestic customers which many non domestic customers knew nothing about.
After four years, what was changing, what did the big private English water companies know that Scotland's people and many non-domestic customers did not?
Getting all Scottish Water's retail revenues was not enough for the private English Water companies - Westminster wanted them to get the wholesale revenues as well as the retail revenues - all the money for Scotland's water used by any business in Scotland and for all the water piped down to England too.
And so David Cameron asked the SNP government were they willing to do this for him - and they agreed but they both had to figure out a way to achieve this without the people of Scotland being aware and so they decided to give Scotland an independence referendum - as a distraction to their deal.
And that is why the big English Water companies flooded into Scotland in 2012 for water licenses as all this insider dealing was going on.
By November 2013 Nicola Sturgeon drew up and lodged the paperwork to give David Cameron power to include Scotland’s water in a new UK wide seamless cross-border water market which the board of Scottish Water claim is wonderful news.
Using the referendum to say publicly over and over again the SNP party don’t do deals with the Westminster Tories and want to be independent from the UK while in private at the same time they created a UK wide private water market with the Westminster Tories – with Nicola Sturgeon personally lodging the paperwork seeking permission for David Cameron to change Scots law to do it.
In Clause 9 of the Legislative Consent Motion the then deputy First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon lodged, which gave Cameron the power to change Scots devolved law Nicola states
"The Scottish Government welcomes the UK Government’s intention to take a similar approach to retail competition for non-domestic water customers as the one already in place in Scotland and have agreed a joint objective of creating a seamless Scottish-English retail market. The Bill facilitates this by enabling provision to be made so that where a new entrant applies for a licence in England and Wales, it can also be treated as an application for the equivalent licence in Scotland (and vice versa). This will benefit both Scottish and English customers"
And the explanatory notes of Westminster's Water Act (2014) which got Royal Ascent on 14th May 2014, during the referendum, confirming Nicola Sturgeon's LCM allowed Westminster to change Scot's law to create the UK water market with Note 7 stating
"To facilitate a cross-border retail market between England and Wales and Scotland the Act amends the WIA and equivalent Scots Law. This will allow Ofwat and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) to accept a single application for water and sewerage licences in each jurisdiction."
When I challenged Nicola Sturgeon to her face during a YES rally in her home town three months after she created the UK water market with David Cameron after she claimed at the rally "she wanted to split from the UK" and "didn't do deals with Tories" she tried to hide behind the claim for the audience Labour privatised Scotalnd's water and I said yes I know in 2005 and you voted with them.
As I challenged Nicola that was not the question asked and she struggled to figure out a way to stop the conversation, in a desperate attempt to stop the audience finding out more about this deal Nicola did with David Cameron for out water, Nicola said I need to move on, wait at the end and let's talk about it.
So I waited and after we agreed we would talk after Nicola got her photo taken, instead after the photograph was taken she turned her back on me, got her entourage to surround her and walked up the hall. I followed and stood waiting patiently in her line of site as she, for ten minutes shook hands with people, refusing to look me in the face - and then she fled the hall.
The Deputy First Minister of Scotland running away from a Yes voter in her own home town just because she was asked about her SNP flagship policy to allow David Cameron to absorb Scotland's private water market into his new UK Water market.
I went to ask Nicola direct as I had already attended another Yes rally in Ayr, hosted by SNP government ministers Fiona Hyslop and Humza Yousaf (I and most of my family are Yes voters) and asked these two SNP ministers to explain their flagship policy to create a UK water market with David Cameron during the referendum without our knowledge, behind our back - they refused to answer any questions and said they would reply by email.
The reply came by email on 25th August from Simon Elder in the "Strategy and Constitution Directorate of the Elections and Constitution Divison stating look in the independence white paper as he stated he was instructed to replay on behalf of the ministers- the answer nothing to do with the question asked why did you just create a UK water market with David Cameron as the reply stated
"Scotland already has responsibility for economic regulation in the water and sewerage sector, and we have an extremely good track record. For example: the average household bill for water services in Scotland for 2013/14 is £54 cheaper than in England or Wales and standards of service are amongst the highest in the UK. the Scottish Parliament, in what was a world first, introduced retail competition for non-domestic customers. Two thirds of business customers now have lower bills as a result.”
And just weeks ago, nearly 2 years after all this became law, when I challenged Chick Broadie, an SNP list MSP for my area, who had taken charge of a radio phone in in my town, about Nicola Sturgeon lodging the LCM to allow David Cameron to merge the Scottish private water market into his UK water market he said water has always been a UK market, just like gas and electricity.
But, after I pointed out after a referendum in Strathclyde voted 97% no to Thatcher privatising Scotland's water resulted in Scotland getting devolution to ensure Westminster could never touch our water, and the 2005 Water law established only a Scottish private water market - he was forced to backtrack and admit that yes the LCM lodged by Nicola Sturgeon did help establish the UK water market controlled by Westminster in which Scotland's water market was now absorbed.
SNP MSP's and the Westminster parliament together making a mockery of the referendum as they create a UK market together, making a mockery of devolution, by NIcola handing Cameron power to change our water laws, and making a mockery of everyone in the UK at the general election with the joint objective scam claiming SNP don’t do deals with the Tories and want to split from the UK while creating a UK market with Cameron.
Scotland’s water sold down the Thames river by it's own SNP government, leaving Scotland and it’s parliament up the creek without a paddle.
Why does a party claim they want independence from the UK while at the same time creating a UK water market with David Cameron if it really wanted independence from the UK - this proves SNP never wanted independence and the referendum was just a distraction devised by Cameron and SNP while they created their UK water market together.
And as part of the deal SNP agreed that Cameron could force Scottish Water to not only face English water companies diverting the retail profits for Scotland’s water into their coffers – SNP agreed with Cameron in their ‘joint objective’ to say all Scotland’s wholesale water revenues can also, by 2019, be diverted into private English water companies coffers too which is why in the Scottish Water 2015/21 plan it states all Scottish Household water bills are at risk – as household bills will have to increase as Scottish Water has no way to predict how bad the losses will be.
Between the 2005 act to create the Scottish private water market and the SNP backed 2014 Westminster Water act this means any amount of Scotland’s water can be shipped down to England (to fracking areas that are short of water) and private English water companies can get the wholesale and the retail value and Scottish Water get not one penny and with competition laws relaxed for water as part of the water act, the big English water companies are starting to merge to create water giants to muscle Scottish Water out of the market.
This will mean not only are Scottish households likely to be left as the only people funding the entire water and sewerage infrastructure for the whole of Scotland but are likely to start experiencing water shortages as Scotland’s water and the revenues for it all flow down to England- as Cameron stated water is not for life but for the ‘economy’ with SNP stating Scotland’s water is for frackers across the UK not for the Whisky Industry, Scottish farmers or any other business in the Scottish economy that face water restrictions under their Water Resources Scotland Act 2013 – all done by as much stealth as possible while diverting Scotland's water revenues down south).
A quick glance at the SNP’s “Hydro Nation” plan states the SNP government intend to “commercialise” Scotland’s water with proposals to start transporting massive amounts of Scotland’s water to England which would tie in nicely with Ministers gaining new powers to choose who extracts the water and how much water they can extract. In August 2012, the SNP’s John Swinney told the Good Morning Scotland programme: "There is a very direct economic impact by having a clear and appropriate governance framework in place that keeps Scottish Water in the public sector delivering for the people for Scotland."
Yet Alex Neil’s SNP Water Resources (Scotland) Bill 2013 combined with Scotland’s 2005 water bill and Westminster’s 2014 Water act combined are all deliberately designed to tear up this very framework which ensures Scottish Water stays in the public sector and profits from Scotland’s water resources.
Buried deep in the Scottish Water 2015/21 plan indexes – where in the Revenues index page 169 it is revealed Scottish Water (the public company) has LOST £55 million MORE THAN EXPECTED because of the private water market set up Scottish MSP's - that when Scottish Water still had 95% of the "market"
After bundling together over 100 public sector contracts for over 15,000 public sector buildings for the first time to allow just two contracts for all of them and repeatedly delaying the announcement who the SNP government was awarding the prize to , in October 2015 SNP ministers repeatedly claimed they decided to award English based water company Anglian Water the contract as it would save Scotland's public sector £5million a year more than the Scottish Water tender.
Keith Brown claimed "The firm's bid was £5million per year lower than its nearest rival, understood to be Scottish Water Business Stream, and new water efficiencies could push total savings to £10million per year."
But Utility Week trade magazine's article "Let battle commence: Anglian wins the public service water battle" on 9th October 2015 told a completely different story than SNP ministers as they revealed the figures SNP did not give the public.
This story revealed "The Scottish government, after a long and protracted tender process, which was originally due to finish in March and suffered three delays, has named Anglian Water Business as the “most competitive bidder” for a potential four year, £320 million contract to supply the public sector with water and wastewater services."
"The offer put forward by Anglian sets outs £40 million worth of savings - immediate savings of £5 million per year and further yearly savings of £5 million from water efficiency measures. This trumped Business Stream’s offer of a potential £36 million of savings over the same four year period.
The story went on to reveal "Losing the contract is set to make a significant dent in Business Stream profits. The company posted revenues of £320 million in 2014/15, so losing £73 million a year - which the previous contract was worth per year - wipes out more than 20 per cent of its revenues at a stroke.
So on top of the more than £55million revenues lost before this, SNP bundled together over 100 public sector contracts purely to give Anglian Water £73 million annually of Scottish Water's revenues based on misrepresenting the truth about the difference between the Scottish Water and the Anglian tenders as there was not £20 million difference over 4 years but a possible £4 million difference with no guarantee Anglian would actually make that £1million annual difference saving as it is just "potential" further savings.
Add the fact this article reveals this could also result in job losses in Scottish Water as a result and it adds up to Scotland being cheated out of jobs and water revenues based on facts SNP ministers refused to tell the people while the English water companies get them via their trade magazine.
Did SNP ministers falsely inflate the savings by 400% to divert 20% of Scottish Water's annual business revenues into an English water companies coffers as Utility Week magazine figures suggest ?
And the Scottish public has much more to worry about, if they only knew, as the English based companies are starting to award their English based water companies the contracts for their operations in Scotland, following Nicola Sturgeon's lead.
While most of the news media in Scotland said nothing, the trade magazine Utility Week revealed in December 2015 Tesco, the largest commercial customer in Scotland has now opted to pay English water company United Utilities for all the water and sewerage services provided by Scottish Water for all 281 stores and distribution centres in Scotland.
United Utilities said the contract “sends a strong message to the market about the quality of service we can provide.” - what service - Scottish water provides the infrastructure and the water and sewerage services while United Utilities sends a bill and gives water saving advise and collects the money and from 2019 can keep the wholesale revenues too via SNP's deal with Cameron to pretend there is competition which is just a way to divert money from public sector companies into private sector coffers.
And Utility Week reveals just days ago, on 18th March 2016, another English private water giants Thames Water has now doubled it's market share in Scotland.
As Alex Salmond said in 2012, privatisation is a red herring. Why privatise the public company when you can just bankrupt it by diverting all it's revenues to English water companies coffers instead - as the former chair of Scottish Water said the more the "competitors" the more likely the public company is to just disappear - leaving all the revenues for Scotland's water - retail and wholesale - forever to flow into English coffers once Scottish Water disappears.
But the water privatisation story does not end there, as SNP, despite their promises before the last Scottish elections have effectively privatised Scottish Water.
SNP’s Water Resources (Scotland) Act 2013 changes everything as the explanatory notes reveal on page 3 “Provision is also made for the Scottish Ministers to give grants or to lend directly to subsidiaries of Scottish Water, and for the water and sewerage undertaking established by Scottish Water to be able to borrow from the Scottish Ministers or any other person.
SNP have appointed a banker, Lady Susan Rice to be the new chair of Scottish Water. as of 1st June 2015 and if the board, led by this banker, choose not to borrow from the government and instead borrow from Banks and foreign Hedge Funds, the end result will be private “investors” gaining major influence over Scottish Water as they become the main creditor instead of the Scottish Government - effective privatisation.
And as SNP also changed Scots law to say the private arm of Scottish Water and all the other little sub companies can now borrow from the Scottish people – so the public part borrows at great expense from banks while the private arm now gets to borrows cheap from Scottish Taxpayers.
The Water Resources (Scotland) Act 2013 also gave power to SNP ministers to decide who gets to extract Scotland’s water – with the SNP placing water limits on the entire Scottish Economy from 2013 with this bill putting water restrictions on even the whisky industry and farmers but making fracking, underground coal gasification and coal bed methane extraction - the entire unconventional gas extraction industry exempt.
Are the whisky industry and farming and the rest of the Scottish economy's water needs being sacrificed by SNP to conserve water so Scotland can be fracked - when questioned the official Scottish Government response "we cannot give you that legal advise".
The SNP Water Resources (Scotland) 2013 act, Section 2 clause 7 (4) states clearly that ‘mining’ i.e. fracking, UCG and CBM miners are exempt from water limits.
The unconventional gas industry say they have the full support of the SNP government and they know thanks to the SNP they can use as much water as they like once SNP secure victory in the upcoming May election and let them start fracking after SNP lulling Scotland into a false sense of security using the moratorium - put in place for the election period to give the impression Scotland is protected from fracking at the same time guaranteeing frackers water for life but farmers’ livestock and animals in Edinburgh Zoo and the Whisky Industry and golf clubs and every other non-domestic customer in Scotland are under water curfew forever by SNP's 2013 "law".
In the same way they gave the impression Scotland's water would not be privatised in the run up to the last elections that swept them to power so they give the impression they can be trusted on fracking too.
In an attempt to stop the public realising SNP have placed water restrictions on all of Scotland, the SNP government attempted to use National Security to stop the Herald revealing in January 2015 that their new water limits were placed on the Whisky Industry, Farmers and even golf clubs and Edinburgh Zoo were being lambasted by the SNP government via SEPA for using more water than SNP said they were now allowed to use, despite the fact 2014 was the wettest year in Scotland’s history since records began 104 years ago.
And it is not just frackers in Scotland who will be given water priority as the 2005 privatisation bill also allows MSP's to ship our water down to frackers in England with English water companies getting the retail revenues for the water with the SNP deal with Cameron over the Westminster Water Act giving the private English water companies the opportunity to refuse to pay Scottish Water the wholesale value of the water too by 2019.
This could leave Scotland with not only major water shortages but only fracked polluted water left across the central belt of Scotland - as the SNP and Cameron agreed the English economy water needs must have priority over everything - even Scotland's water needs.
And worse the Scottish Government agreed to the Westminster Tory plan that the new UK cross-border private water market is to be totally unregulated and free to charge as much as it likes for water, as is made clear on the website of the new Utilities Compliance Assurance Body (that replaces regulation) where it states
"The Code of Conduct will be based on transparency of pricing. Companies can make whatever profit they wish, however their pricing structure will need to be explained to the customer in a clear and transparent manner. The Code of Conduct which may also be used in the electricity and gas markets was consulted on at UCAB 2015 Conference on Water Competition Assurance on March 17th 2015 in London. Conference programme with presentation slides can be viewed below. "
So not only will the extortionists charge as much as they like for water but gas and electricity regulation to be sacrificed on the alter of international greed too.
So in this new 'joint objective" unregulated SNP/Westminster UK wide private cross border water market, controlled by nothing but a "code of conduct" - it would appear the only way the Scottish Nation will continue to profit from their resources is to make Scottish Water and Scotland independent of Westminster and the SNP government and all the parties who colluded together to distract Scotland with a referendum SNP had no intention of winning – so the SNP could create a UK wide private water market with David Cameron.
Can Scotland get control of their water back and make it completely public again?
Water is exempt from privatisation by EU law which is why so many other EU countries have not privatised their water, yet SNP, Labour, Tory, Lib Dem Scottish Greens united against the people and Scottish Water to create a private water market in Scotland, keeping it secret as much as possible it would seem from most Scottish Water non domestic customers, why by 2013 only 5% had switched, until it could be handed to Cameron to be merged into his UK cross border private water market – with SNP leading the charge by misleading the public over the Anglian contract to divert 20% of Scottish Water’s annual business revenues into private English water companies hands in one go, with Tesco quickly following and Thames Water boasting they’ve exceeded their expectations and already doubled their share of the market for Scotland’s water revenues to be diverted into English coffers thanks to the Scottish Government - nothing to do with the EU just the Scottish and Westminster parliaments colluding to con Scotland out of our water and our water revenues by as much stealth as possible.
And so YES voters find, like William Wallace, while they fought for independence, their leaders were the whole time colluding with the English leaders to betray the people and sell Scotland down the river as independence was never the leadership’s goal –with SNP and Better together in it together the whole time – leading YES and NO voters a merry dance while they stripped Scotland of the water independence devolution had afforded it – with all of them pretending Scotland will get more powers when in fact the MSP’s just trade them away behind Scotland’s back any time they feel like it.
Proving only independence can protect Scotland from being asset stripped by the career politicians in Scotland happy to betray devolution and their own country of birth and all its people – SNP, Scottish Labour, Scottish Lib Dems, Scottish Tories and Scottish Greens all guilty of what must be considered theft – taking something that belongs to someone else to deprive them of the benefits they are entitled to – our Water.
The worst of it being in the upcoming Scottish elections there is NO OPPOSITION to these parties in first past the post election in May - the parties who have united against Scotland and the interests of Scotland – as they made sure when they set up the devolved parliament the other parties would have to find enough money to stand at first past the post and the regional list vote meaning the big four parties are guaranteed cartel control once again.
As these MSP’s voted earlier this year to give themselves an extra year of power when they voted to delay the 2020 Scottish Elections to 2021 – Scotland’s people have a concrete case to recall parliament and demand they delay the Scottish elections until October – to allow the people to decide what has to be done about this water shocker treachery – and allow the people to decide if any of these parties and any of these MSP's are allowed to stand at all - recall their candidacy now - after they betrayed Scotland so badly – and allow the people time to put forward their own replacement candidates – with no charge for those standing – to replace the corrupt party system and MSP's that has defrauded Scotland of their right to control their own water and the right to collect all the revenues as we did right up to 1st April 2008.