Thames Water may be troubled but privatisation has served Britain well, argues Michael Howard

THE PRIVATISATIONBT programme of the government of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s has in many quarters been acclaimed as one of its great successes. Even the most doctrinaire socialist would pause before advocating the return of British Airways or , the former telecoms monopoly, to public ownership. The programme was seen as a British innovation that set the standard for many other countries. It was widely emulated across the developed world.More recently, however, it has come under sustained criticism. The current Conservative government has felt obliged to return some regional rail operators to the public sector because of poor service. And in recent weeks the financial problems of Thames Water, which serves 15m customers in London and the Thames Valley, have prompted heavy criticism of the privatisation in 1989 and subsequent regulation of the water industry in England and Wales.