Liquid Assets

Westminster, which has no particular objection to placing our armed services at the disposal of Halliburton or our news media in the pocket of Rupert Murdoch, may possibly have some vague worries about the take-over of a major water company by a Hong Kong magnate. Northumbria Water is based in County Durham and supplies water to unemployed people in the north-east, so it is unlikely that many Conservatives would have heard of it but for the saving fact that the company owns Essex and Suffolk Water as well. The magnate in question, Li Ka-shing, already owns chunks of Southern Water, Cambridge Water and Northern Gas, so a further large acquisition might have to be given the Jeremy C Hunt treatment, just for the sake of appearing to keep up appearances, before being waved through. The biggest shareholder in Northumbria Water at the moment is the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and we all know how Westminster feels about teachers and their pensions. By contrast, Li lives in Hong Kong, which most of the Cabinet probably think still belongs to Britain.