Sir Keir Starmer

• IS Sir Keir Starmer waking up, at last, (Starmer wants water supply to be run by ‘common ownership’, July 22)?

I note he doesn’t call it “renationalisation”. This shows caution which might be wise given our massively biased national press which thinks public ownership is bad.

So how about calling it “taking back control”? That seems to go down well with those Red Wall bozos who voted for Boris Johnson (I’m a northerner so I can say that).

But the statement from the company now in charge of Thames Water hit the nail on the head: “will governments prioritise water services”?

This is precisely the issue. The whole concept of privatisation came from the most short-sighted prime minister ever, present incumbent excepted, Margaret Thatcher.

It was her stupid antipathy to the concept of public services, public control, and public ownership of anything, that has undermined all our public services in the decades since she took Britain down this dark and stupid road. Her actions – and the subsequent inaction of successive governments – has resulted in the chaos that surrounds us now.

The collapse of banking and financial services was due to her removal of basic controls over their activities, while she began the undermining of the NHS and the privatisation of many of its activities (hence the local battle with American companies taking over GP surgeries).

And she, and successsive governments, happily sold off most of our country’s facilities, such as the provision of gas, electricity, the water system and our trains, to absolutely anyone, so we no longer have control of these vital services which are natural monopolies. So “competition” is meaningless.

Sadly Tony Blair’s New Labour was one of those succeeding governments and failed to stop even the Right-to-Buy scheme, one of the most iniquitous of Thatcher’s stupid policies, which has resulted in over a third of our former council-owned and run homes being in the hands of private landlords.

But at least Sir Keir now seems to be noticing how bad things are; only half a decade behind Jeremy Corbyn, and a few decades behind me! Things can only get better.

DAVID REED, NW3