Water rates skirmish - The pace of reform is uninspiring

Yesterday’s Cabinet skirmish over water charges, if that is what it really was, can be interpreted in several ways.

One view, maybe the cynical one, is that it was a contrived episode to try to reassure Labour loyalists before next month’s elections that the junior coalition partner is still fighting the good fight, that the party is defending the interests of its core constituency in the face of a wave of new domestic charges. After all, the issue can hardly have come as a surprise to Labour and the charges suggested have been, more or less, in the public domain for some time.

Even if that assessment is accurate it seems unlikely that Government will be able to, or would want to, go into local or European elections without having finalised details on water charges. To do so would leave it vulnerable to a litany of charges, a lack of transparency and inefficiency amongst them.