IN the bowels of the Treasury department in our imperial capital there is a drain hatch which, if opened, allows you to see the River Fleet flowing underneath the mighty building.

The Fleet is the largest of London’s subterranean rivers, all of which today contain foul water for treatment. It has been used as a culverted sewer since the development of the present London sewerage system in the mid-19th century.

It’s only fitting then that apparently Treasury Officials, all too aware that burning or shredding documents would see them lined up for six of the best, tend to go on regular visits to the basement to accidentally drop certain documents into the Fleet in the knowledge that they will never see the light of day.

However, one day in 1994 a young official was unlucky. His tranche of documents became separated and although most made their way to the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, one broke free and drifted into the River Thames and was captured by a young nationalist parliamentary aide.

READ MORE: Tommy Robinson hides out in luxury 5-star resort amid far-right riots

It read, and I quote: “The trouble with water in Scotland is that it’s so cheap and it tastes so good. Why allow the Scots to have such high-quality water when we can make the same cutbacks we’ve had in England and sell it off to the highest bidder.”

The water authorities in England and Wales had been privatised in 1989. In 1980, investment in the water sector was just one-third of what it had been in 1970.

Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, which had been elected in 1979, had curtailed the regional water authorities’ ability to borrow money they deemed necessary for capital projects.

Thatcher prevented them from borrowing and then blamed them for not building. When the European Union introduced stricter legislation on river, bathing, coastal, and drinking water quality, the sector was in no position to meet the expenditure requirements and the UK was prosecuted for non-compliance.

The Tories originally proposed water privatisation in 1984 and again in 1986, but strong public feeling led to plans being shelved to prevent the issue influencing the 1987 election. Having won the election, the privatisation plan was brought back to life and prosecuted at pace.

Water authorities in England and Wales were privatised in 1989Water authorities in England and Wales were privatised in 1989

The newly created, privately owned water and sewerage companies paid £7.6 billion for the regional water authorities. At the same time, the government assumed responsibility for the sector’s total debts amounting to £5bn and granted the new private companies a further £1.5bn – a so-called “green dowry” – of public funds. Yes, I’m sure you can do the arithmetic on that one too.

This made England and Wales the only countries in the world to have a fully privatised water and sewage disposal system. It’s almost like this could lead to ... I don’t know, poor drinking quality and raw sewage being dumped into bathing waters

So, Thatcher having gotten her way and sold off the water of England and Wales, it turned to prime minister John Major to privatise water in Scotland.

In 1994, the UK Government brought forward plans to overhaul a number of aspects of local government in Scotland – such as creating the 32 unitary authorities we live in today – as part of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994.

READ MORE: Could Scotland experience far-right riots like in Southport?

Part II of the Act reorganised Scotland’s water supply and sewerage services, previously the responsibility of regional councils. Three water authorities were established – East of Scotland Water; West of Scotland Water; and North of Scotland Water.

The main reason for this reorganisation was to prepare for the ground for the move towards the privatisation of Scotland’s water services. However, public opinion was strongly against such a move, with successive polls showing 86%-91% of people definitively opposed.

Therefore, in an act that likely summed up why the UK Tory government wanted to break up Scotland’s regional councils, in March 1994 Strathclyde Regional Council held a postal referendum of residents on whether control of water and sewerage services should be privatised.

I was a bit too young at the time to remember it but I cannot find any contemporary accounts of efforts by the UK Government to use the courts to stop the council from holding its referendum.

This perhaps speaks to the testimony of many regional councillors over the years who told me that even the UK Government was often scared to interfere with the running of Scotland’s regional councils.

More than seven out of 10 voters returned papers – that’s a bigger turnout than we had at the General Election last month – a total of

1.2 million people, of whom 97% voted against privatisation. They were asked: “Do you agree with the government’s proposal for the future of water and sewerage services?” Only 33,956 (2.8%) voted yes, backing the government’s plans to set up quangos appointed by the Scottish Secretary to run water from April 1996.

THE “no” vote totalled 1,194,667. That was 97.2% of total votes, a percentage even higher than that recorded in opinion polling before the referendum.

The referendum result came just days before MPs started discussing the 60 water and sewerage clauses in the Local Government (Scotland) Bill. Ideal timing. At the time, Strathclyde local government restructuring committee chair Des McNulty said: “People know water is not only cheaper in Scotland but safer and best when it is run by directly elected councils rather than by private companies as in England and Wales.”

READ MORE: Humza Yousaf calls on Keir Starmer to send army amid far-right riots

He was right.

With overwhelming opposition to the privatisation plans, backed by the democratic will of the people of Strathclyde, the policy was dropped and the three Scottish water authorities were kept in public hands. In 2002 they merged to form our publicly owned Scottish Water.

Forty years ago the people of Strathclyde stood up to the might of the UK Government and as a result all of Scotland has enjoyed the fruits of a publicly owned water company ever since. It does beg the question though, if a regional council could face down Westminster then why can our Scottish Government not do similar? Alba Party believe that each and every election should be fought seeking a mandate for Scottish independence.

Ash Regan has proposed a referendum that would ask Scots if they believe their Parliament should have the powers to negotiate for and legislate for Scottish independence.

I wonder if anyone in the Scottish Government has thought of holding an all Scotland postal referendum to ask the people of Scotland: “Do you agree with the UK Supreme Court that the Scottish Parliament doesn’t have the right to ask the Scottish people if they think Scotland should be an independent country?”

Forty years on from the Strathclyde water referendum let us take inspiration out of that act of defiance of the UK Government and start to reject the authority of Westminster where it is clear it is not supported by the people of Scotland.