Members tell Thames Water: the end, and Healey's Budget gets a thumbs-down

If there was one thing refnation members could agree on yesterday, it was that Thames Water has had its chances. The call to put it into special administration won overwhelmingly, and even the No side wanted the owners punished, its sharpest line a plea to "put the zombie down" rather than keep feeding it taxpayer rescues. When your opponents are arguing about the method of the funeral, the verdict is not in doubt.

The verdicts

The Budget took a beating. Members comfortably rejected the idea that Healey's first Budget is good for the UK economy, and even its defenders could only muster that it was "very lackluster but better than the alternatives." The sharpest No line likened it to a work meeting that ended with a book-token.

The Budget's individual measures fared better than the whole. Members comfortably backed a one-off £100 energy bills payment for council tax bands A to D, though its most-respected case barely mentioned the £100, preferring to call for nationalised energy, and the No side dismissed the payment as a gimmick. Members also comfortably backed the extra £10bn for Ukraine, despite a No side that kept returning to one line: "We're on our arses, and he's giving money away."

On the environment, members comfortably kept the rule that new housing must leave nature 10% better off, voting against scrapping it. The top-rated case called it "a bare minimum safeguard against market greed", while Yes voters dismissed the figure as made up.

Three results were closer. Members narrowly backed unpaid community work for asylum seekers who arrived illegally, though its own supporters argued mostly for removal, with work as the fallback. Two results shared the day's closest margin: members only just carried the Chancellor's decision to raise income tax on landlords' rental income again, with the sharpest lines coming from the No side, including a landlord conceding it is "a stealth tax on renters". And members only just backed holding parents criminally and financially responsible for crimes by their under-16s, with many No voters conceding the financial half of the case and balking at criminal liability.

A fresh ballot opens today, and the votes keep building your profile.

Have your say

Every verdict above was decided by people like you. See the full results →

Today's referendums are already live. Cast your vote — or create an account and be counted.