It's three minutes after 10. And before we get stuck into the conversation about world affairs,

I did find myself yesterday thinking about the water companies in the context of the story about vets.

And that might sound a little odd. But I just want to get this in front of you before I forget or before it slips off my personal radar.

And the reason why they've had to cap prescription charges for vets is the same reason why we're so angry with water companies.

It's what happens when private capital, private venture, venture capitalists, move into previously quite well-regulated and well-run areas

and prioritise taking money out of things over everything else.

I don't need a PhD in economics to understand what happens if you buy something and your concern,

your motivation is not to make sure that the sewers work or that everything has improved or that the water will never

stop coming out of our taps. Your priority is to make as much money as possible. You don't buy a chain

of vets or you don't start buying up local vets that were previously family run in order to indulge your

passion for caring for kittens or your tendency for tortoises, you do it because you see an

opportunity to make a ton of money. And that's why you start ramping up prices as high as you can.

And that's why you postpone repairs and maintenance on waterways and sewers because you're literally

sitting around a table with people being offered a choice.

Should we take this money for ourselves or shall we spend it on fixing sewers?

And you now live in a society where everybody in that room says,

shut up, we'd take it for ourselves, of course.

And then a few years down the line, ITV or Channel 4 make a drama

about what an absolute scandal it is and we all get very, very upset and we wonder why we weren't

aware of it sooner. Well, you choose not to be. You choose not to be aware of it sooner. You choose

to ignore the voices telling you that, um, so-called think tanks on Tufton Street dedicated to

deregulation and, um, and rampant profiteering are polluting

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