Wait, you're saying that British voters in 1989 couldn't reasonably have known the Conservative Party favoured water privatisation, because they wouldn't have read the small print of their manifesto? And also that voting margins and turnouts were so small that the election results might not be representative?

This was the third successive Thatcher government, after the previous two had sold off Britain's nationalised companies in aerospace, telecoms, car manufacturing, oil and natural gas [0]. It got reelected in a landslide victory with 75% turnout. [1].

And then you call someone else disingenuous?

The British people absolutely got what they wanted, and have only themselves to blame.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/29/short-...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_United_Kingdom_general_el...

Ok, well let’s say it’s what Britain voted for, even if they were generally wilfully ignorant as to what they were actually voting for.

For what it’s worth, I remember ecological campaigns against privatisation of water - I remember a greenpeace chap giving a talk at school saying it would result in sewage on beaches and in rivers - and here we are.

Information was available. A choice was made. We reap the consequences.