What austerity do we really have though, apart from in sound bites that is?
Inn principle I'm for the Government owning water, sewage, electric, gas and the rail. The problem is Nationalisng such industries leads to them being very inefficient and we end up paying more.
Dividends may be being paid Mickey, but being private keeps costs down so the net cost to us the tax payer is probably less than if Nationalised with strikes, ransom, sill wages and poor management.
OG, unless you prefer a Stalinist State9which some of your posts seem to imply) you cannot just grab business and property from individuals. Apart from the fact probably the majority of people own some of these utilities via pensions it wrecks investment coming into the country, breeds resentment and leads to civil unrest. Marxism does not work.