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Thames Water paid £1m-plus to private intelligence agency part-owned by Starmer adviser (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by TheDwZ@lemmy.world to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[–] TheDwZ@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Superb reporting from The Guardian 👏

From those who don't know Haykluyt, it's basically a private intelligence agency. Their clients are multinationals, billionaires and wealthy individuals seeking to sabotage enemies or gather extremely sensitive information.

They call themselves "strategic advisory" but make no mistake, these people are spooks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakluyt_%26_Company#Activities

Hayklut's chairman, Lord Paul Deighton, is probably one the most connected man in Britain.

He is the chairman of Goldman Sachs in London

He is a close friend of David Cameron.

He sits in the House of Lords.

He is the current chair of The Economist.

Deighton was also the guy in charge of PPE contracts during Covid:

Lord Deighton has helped the government award billions of dollars in contracts –– including hundreds of millions to several companies where he has financial interests or personal connections.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/17/world/europe/britain-covid-contracts.html

______________________

The fact private water companies are hiring spooks to oppose nationalization is alarming.

[–] oeuf@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 days ago

It's almost unbelievable how grotesque this situation is.

£20 billion in the hole, after paying dividends and bonuses, poisoning national waters and not fixing leaks and you can still find £130 million to pay spies, one if whom is already the Prime Minister's bumchum, to try and stop the government nationalising you before the situation gets even worse.

Not sure whether I'm more disgusted at Thames Water or the government tbh.

How are Labour supposed to get the 'highest growth in the G7' while at the same time protecting the most outrageously failing companies?

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

They should have spent that money on fixing their infrastructure instead.