Pete Doherty says he would “nationalise everything” in a bid to fix Britain in an interview with Times Radio.
The Libertines frontman spoke out as Thames Water defaulted on its debts this month despite shelling out hundreds of millions to shareholders since it went into private control in 1989.
In the year to the end of March 2023, it paid out about £45 million in dividends, and the previous two years it handed out a combined £53.9 million.
That’s despite sewage overflows reaching record peaks, killing marine life in rivers and oceans and even preventing rowers in this year’s Oxford vs Cambridge boat race from jumping in the Thames due to high levels of E. coli.
Elsewhere, rapidly increasing energy prices caused by an over-reliance on imports demonstrate how privatisation has failed in that industry, and successive failures of rail operators show life outside of government control hasn’t been all its cracked up to be either.
Speaking to Times Radio, Doherty said renationalising industries would be at the heart of his efforts to fix Britain, while giving politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn a “fair crack at the whip” would also be a key priority.
Watch the interview in full below:
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