28.03.1996

Boycott the bills

Sink the quangos

Momentum behind the Hands Off our Water campaign is growing as April 1 approaches. This date is significant for all of Scotland as that is when the new water bills are sent out.

The Tories’ dogmatic obsession with privatisation still pervades the British economy. Water services in England and Wales have already been removed from public control. Now, if they get their way, Scotland will receive the same treatment.

The three new unelected water authority quangos are the first step to full scale privatisation. In an attempt to ensure the quangos’ success the Tories have thrown money at them - £789 million to be precise. Of this, £700 million has been used to wipe out water authority debt, described by the Scottish Office as a “technical adjustment”. The other £89 million is a sweetener to keep sewerage bills down in the first year of quangoisation. This is while the same government has slashed council spending by over £300 million.

So while control of water has been taken away from local authorities, Labour and SNP councils will continue to do the Tories’ dirty work for them. In this case they will act as agents for the water boards, sending out water bills along with council tax bills, and then they will be responsible for collecting the payments.

The fight against quangoisation and privatisation of water is just beginning. The HOW demonstration on March 30 is the start of what needs to become a mass movement across Scotland. Like the campaign against the Poll Tax, there is real potential to ‘Boycott the Bills’.  We need to build a mass campaign of non-payment in every working class area in Scotland to make this creeping privatisation un-workable.

Andy McLean