Common Wealth ✓
@Cmmonwealth · joined 01 Apr 2019
A think tank designing ownership models for a democratic and sustainable economy.
22 548Followers
2 606Following
10 167Posts total
267.5KViews on collected posts
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“Arconic, whose flammable cladding encased the tower, has done more to compensate its shareholders than the survivors and the bereaved”.
Our report on corporate accountability after Grenfell — Unpunished and Undeterred — covered in @prospect_uk
https://t.co/yNViYtkWqa
1K views · 35 likes
· 17 reposts · 1 replies
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“This isn’t something in the distant past, it’s something that we’re all living with today”
Eleanor Shearer on @LBC discussing Jamaica’s petition over slavery reparations and the enduring effects of the British Empire. https://t.co/suhFpHDc7q
768 views · 6 likes
· 6 reposts · 1 replies
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2:08
@Cmmonwealth @guardian £205m in shareholder loan interest since 2020 at rates of 8-14%. Money intended for vulnerable children that never reached a single placement.
9 views · 0 likes
· 0 reposts · 0 replies
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“The system is failing these vulnerable kids, who have become the new cash cow for unscrupulous business opportunists”
Andrea Egan on our new briefing 👇
https://t.co/8kfEf0xT7E
718 views · 8 likes
· 1 reposts · 0 replies
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“Profiteering from children’s social care is nothing short of obscene. Decades of outsourcing mean essential services funded by taxpayers are being treated as a goldmine by investors”
Andrea Egan on our analysis in @guardian 👇
https://t.co/mw2crEhcRB
1.7K views · 38 likes
· 33 reposts · 1 replies
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@Cmmonwealth I failed my 11+ in 1959
Left school at 16 with a GCE in technical drawing
Me and all my mates all began apprenticeships
4 years later we were skilled workers and able to buy houses costing only 3 times our annual salaries
Then came Margaret #Thatcher
#privatisation #
491 views · 20 likes
· 8 reposts · 2 replies
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GIF
Today, it’s the defenders of privatisation who are clinging to an out-of-date ideology. They’re out of touch & out of time.
Let’s end the rip-off & take back our future.
Explore our new project — Who Owns Britain? — at the link below.
https://t.co/PscWIxUGW6
2.5K views · 92 likes
· 48 reposts · 5 replies
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The privateers promised a miracle: competition, lower bills & better services.
Instead we got inefficient monopolies, rising costs & worsening outcomes as ordinary people struggle to afford essentials.
The dream of privatisation has turned into the nightmare of Rip-Off Britain.
1.6K views · 63 likes
· 26 reposts · 1 replies
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Nearly half the bus industry’s income comes from public subsidy, but commercial routes have fallen by 20% since 2019, due to inefficient market coordination.
Before deregulation, more profitable routes could cross-subsidise others, benefiting women, the young & the poor. https
1.9K views · 59 likes
· 28 reposts · 1 replies
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In energy, electricity generators enjoyed pre-tax margins of 32% in 2024, which could have been reduced with a more rational wholesale market and balancing mechanism.
1.7K views · 52 likes
· 23 reposts · 2 replies
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Privatisation broke up public services.
Take transport. The separation of the train operators and the rolling stock companies has undermined coordination between them, requiring extensive and expensive state intervention to make them function.
1.6K views · 48 likes
· 23 reposts · 1 replies
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We estimate that the additional operating costs of the passenger rail system, attributable to privatisation, from 1997 to 2020, totalled £79bn.
15.1K views · 78 likes
· 35 reposts · 2 replies
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As well as inequality, privatisation has caused widespread dysfunctionality.
Fragmentation, market power, duplication and regulatory bureaucracy have created operational inefficiencies and extra costs.
1.5K views · 50 likes
· 22 reposts · 1 replies
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Consider the scale of subsidy that is backstopped by the public.
Around half of the income of the bus and rail industries comes from direct or indirect government support.
Those industries rely on public money and still distribute dividends even when they make a loss. https://t
1.6K views · 51 likes
· 29 reposts · 1 replies
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Let’s unpack some examples.
In 2024, nearly a quarter (£416) of the average energy bill was taken as profit.
In 2023, the nine biggest electricity generators and networks spent £8bn on dividends, buybacks and interest payments. https://t.co/E5ypREykDH
1.8K views · 60 likes
· 37 reposts · 1 replies
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Almost a third of the typical water bill now goes to investors in the form of dividends and interest payments.
During the last decade the rail companies have regularly paid out more than 100% of their post-tax profits in dividends.
1.8K views · 62 likes
· 36 reposts · 1 replies
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Every time we pay a utility bill or transport fare, money is redistributed upwards from ordinary people to investors.
Privatisation is an inequality machine.
1.6K views · 68 likes
· 31 reposts · 1 replies
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Privatisation drove a profound change in how we invest in our essential services and infrastructure.
From physical engineering to financial engineering.
From asset building to asset sweating.
From investing to extracting.
2.6K views · 67 likes
· 24 reposts · 1 replies
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We are captive customers who pay a double “privatisation premium” — making essentials more expensive than they need to be.
First, our bills are higher to fund shareholder payouts & expensive interest repayments.
And second, as taxpayers, public subsidy backstops private profit.
3K views · 72 likes
· 32 reposts · 1 replies
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Underinvestment is a feature not a bug:
Private companies face higher borrowing costs. They delay investment to boost profits. Game-playing with regulators creates bureaucratic delays.
Companies take on too much debt, often to reward investors, and now lack investment capacity.
2.6K views · 63 likes
· 30 reposts · 1 replies
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The water sector has taken out more debt than Ofwat recommends every year since 2002, leaving them overleveraged and fragile.
But not a single major reservoir has been built since the water industry was privatised. https://t.co/fr4l1HIKL7
3.8K views · 82 likes
· 50 reposts · 1 replies
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The results of chronic under-investment are all around us.
Leaking sewage. Among the most expensive energy in Europe. Unreliable public transport. Creaking infrastructure. Unaffordable essentials.
A feeling the country is in decline.
2.7K views · 78 likes
· 40 reposts · 1 replies
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Privatisation has reduced investment in essential services.
The energy sector invested twice as much under public ownership compared to the privatised era (as a % of GDP).
Energy networks routinely charge for investment that never materialises. https://t.co/eZrtRZpOIa
3.4K views · 82 likes
· 46 reposts · 1 replies
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We were promised that this unprecedented sell-off would create a shareholder democracy.
Instead, essential services we once held in common — energy, water, transport — are in the hands of asset managers, foreign governments and private equity giants.
3.2K views · 108 likes
· 50 reposts · 3 replies
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As a result, each year, billions of pounds leak out of essential services to investors.
Almost £200bn has been paid to the shareholders of privatised water, energy, mail and transport companies since the 1990s.
That money could have been used to improve services and cut bills.
3.5K views · 102 likes
· 48 reposts · 1 replies
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The services we rely on are owned by an array of private interests you’ve probably never even heard of.
CK Hutchinson. Daniel Křetínský. Macquarie. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Bharti Televentures. Vanguard. First Manhattan Company. The Princely Family of Liechtenstein.
3.3K views · 77 likes
· 38 reposts · 2 replies
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The decline remains shocking.
The UK shed public wealth at 7.4% of national income per year from 1981 to 1996.
Gross public wealth fell from the highest in the G7 to the lowest, where it has stayed ever since. https://t.co/OaPfB8MYAe
9.4K views · 110 likes
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Its scale was unprecedented.
Post-1980, the only advanced economies that experienced a faster and deeper decline in public wealth were those affected by the “shock therapy” of the post-Soviet transition.
Britain’s public wealth collapsed.
4.2K views · 95 likes
· 35 reposts · 2 replies
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Welcome to Rip-Off Britain.
A country remade by privatisation.
Our latest project — Who Owns Britain? — explores how a radical experiment transformed our society and shapes your life.
🧵 https://t.co/pUhPKQXMZI
188.7K views · 1.1K likes
· 724 reposts · 32 replies
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1:12
Against accounts of the same size
5 posts from the last 90 days, next to the 10K–100K follower range. right around the median for its follower range.
Median views768this account968median for 10K–100K
Reach, %3.41%this account3.43%median for 10K–100K
Engagement, %1.82%this account1.91%median for 10K–100K
| Metric | This account | Median for 10K–100K | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median views per post | 768 | 968 | 0.79× |
| Reach (views ÷ followers) | 3.41% | 3.43% | 0.99× |
| Engagement rate | 1.82% | 1.91% | 0.96× |
Others in this range → Compare with another account → How these benchmarks are built →
Growth & engagement
How the posts we collected actually performed: views and reaction rate post by post, what the audience did with them, and where the follower count goes.
Views per post
1.6K16 Sep
1.5K
15.1K
1.6K
1.7K
1.9K
1.6K
2.5K
491
1.7K3 Sep
718
9
7688 Sep
1K
Last 14 collected posts, oldest on the left. The scale is logarithmic: one post can outrun the rest a hundred times over.
Engagement rate per post
5.18%16 Sep
5.00%
0.79%
4.61%
4.65%
4.76%
5.70%
5.86%
6.31%
4.21%3 Sep
1.39%
0.00%
1.82%8 Sep
5.20%
Reactions — likes, reposts, replies and quotes — divided by views. Median for 10K–100K accounts is 1.91%.
What the audience does
Likes57.0%2 802 in total
Reposts32.3%1 589 in total
Replies1.4%69 in total
Quotes2.2%108 in total
Bookmarks7.0%344 in total
Share of every reaction we collected for this account. Replies mean argument, reposts mean endorsement, bookmarks mean the post was worth keeping.
The follower curve appears once this account has two daily snapshots — we take one a day, and this one is on its first.
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