- Trump state visit: PM should invite Mark Carney for official visit and to address Parliament
- Lib Dems slam “astounding” arrogance of Thames Water following hosepipe ban announcement
Trump state visit: PM should invite Mark Carney for official visit and to address Parliament
Responding to the date of Donald Trump’s state visit being confirmed, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
The Prime Minister should invite Mark Carney for an official visit to the UK just ahead of Trump’s visit, including the opportunity to address Parliament. This would send an important signal that Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Canada against Trump’s chaotic trade war.
With Trump threatening our Commonwealth partners like Canada with yet more tariffs while hitting the UK steel industry, now is the time stand firm with our allies.
Nigel Farage may want to abandon our Commonwealth allies and cosy up to his idol Trump, it just shows yet again he is a false patriot who cares more about promoting Trump at home than standing up for the UK abroad.
Lib Dems slam “astounding” arrogance of Thames Water following hosepipe ban announcement
Responding to the news that Thames Water have issued a hosepipe ban across Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Berkshire from the 22nd July, Liberal Democrat MP for Didcot & Wantage Olly Glover, whose constituency is impacted, said:
The arrogance of Thames Water is astounding. They have imposed this ban on their customers whilst continuing to charge too much for their failing services. This current period of very low rainfall underlines the importance of Thames Water improving the basics.
Their executives should not be pocketing extortionate bonuses whilst this is happening, and the least they can do is pay back these bonuses whilst this ban is in place.
Today’s news is also a reminder for why we need to scrap Ofwat, which needs to be replaced with a new regulator that is able to hold companies like Thames Water accountable for their incompetence.
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8 Comments
Beware
Olly. The Climate Crisis is coming. Some islands in the Mediterranean have empty reservoirs, aquifers empty, bore holes empty. Fires then come.
That’s what we should be campaigning on.
There is much to criticise Thames Water about, but complaining about a hosepipe ban at at time of exceptionally low rainfall and hot weather is just silly point scoring. It’s not Thames Water’s fault that rainfall has been so low. You’d think a responsible MP would be urging people to be careful with using water, while also looking into how we can improve supplies in the long term. And, as John Waller says, campaigning on the climate crisis which is likely to be the real reason that rainfall and therefore reservoir water levels are so low.
Whilst we might agree with Olly Glover about the unfairness of directors bonuses, and even go further than him and the Lib Dems in advocating that the Utilities including water supplies should be renationalised, we’d also have to agree with Simon that it makes no sense to criticise a hosepipe ban.
It is not as if we didn’t have such bans when water was nationalised. If it were to be renationalised in future, we’d still have them in times of very low rainfall.
From a socialist perspective we can make the point that hosepipe bans mainly adversely affect those fortunate enough to have very large lawns. More natural gardens tend to survive periods of drought perfectly well without the need for irrigation. Even lawns which might go brown if left un-watered in drought conditions quickly recover once normal rainfall service resumes as it surely will.
@Simon R
“There is much to criticise Thames Water about, but complaining about a hosepipe ban at at time of exceptionally low rainfall and hot weather is just silly point scoring. ”
How much of Thames Water’s problem is due to leaks from their pipes?
Follow-up:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxw2edxen9o
“Thames Water will “take at least a decade to turn around”, its boss has said, as the struggling company posted huge annual losses.
Thames reported a loss of £1.65bn for the year to March, in which its debt pile climbed to £16.8bn……..
”’…But the firm continues to face heavy criticism over its performance in recent years, following a series of sewage discharges and leaks.
In May it was handed a a £122.7m fine, the biggest ever issued by the water industry regulator Ofwat, for breaching rules on sewage spills and shareholder payouts.
Thames said the number of pollution incidents increased to 470 from 350 in the last calendar year…….”
@Nonconformistradical. I can’t see any figures specifically for Thames Water, but across England and Wales as a whole, about 20% of water is lost to leaks – or about 50 litres per person per day (Before anyone blames privatisation, that’s actually a 40% reduction in leaks since privatisation in 1989, and in Scotland where water is still nationalised, over 80 litres per person per day is lost to leaks) (Source: https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/households/supply-and-standards/leakage/). 20% of all water sounds bad but is pretty typical of Europe (Ireland loses nearly 50% of its water to leaks, while at the other end of the scale, the Netherlands loses just 5%) (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45033486). It’s debateable what level of leakage is best – there will always be some because there comes a point where eliminating all leakage costs way more than just accepting that some water will be lost.
If Olly Glover had linked the hosepipe ban to leaks, his complaint might have made at least some sense, but instead, he chose to link it to high prices. That makes no sense at all because if we reduce water prices then there’s even less money available to improve our pipes etc. to reduce leaks or to invest in more reservoir capacity!
I have no respect at all, to put it mildly, for Donald Trump…… but ……. Whether we like it or not, and I don’t, he happens to be President of probably the most powerful country in the world. We have to do business with him. I’m afraid Sir Edward’ Davey’s comments are not serious politics and show, for the second time in a week, a lack of judgement and wisdom.
Very well said Ed.