Stop voting for fucking Tories

[Slick]

My favourite reading was for the 2 days after SEPA stopped their “bathing season testing” where the results went through the roof despite it being dry

Do you think something was "let rip" knowing the official testing season was over?

Yup, that's exactly what we think. There had been pretty dry weather for a a while leading up to it.

[Slick]

My favourite reading was for the 2 days after SEPA stopped their “bathing season testing” where the results went through the roof despite it being dry

Do you think something was "let rip" knowing the official testing season was over?

Well known that this happens. Damn those cold water swimmers and other water users going into rivers and seas all year round.

This is our focus at the moment. the Scottish Bathing Season is apparently from 1st June to mid September, and so the only time the water is officially tested around here. But there are hundreds of folk in the sea over the weekends outwith these times, so we are trying to raise awareness of that and put pressure on them all.

[petej]

My favourite reading was for the 2 days after SEPA stopped their “bathing season testing” where the results went through the roof despite it being dry

Do you think something was "let rip" knowing the official testing season was over?

Yup, that's exactly what we think. There had been pretty dry weather for a a while leading up to it.

Do you collect the samples and send them to private lab for analysis?

[petej]

Do you think something was "let rip" knowing the official testing season was over?

Well known that this happens. Damn those cold water swimmers and other water users going into rivers and seas all year round.

This is our focus at the moment. the Scottish Bathing Season is apparently from 1st June to mid September, and so the only time the water is officially tested around here. But there are hundreds of folk in the sea over the weekends outwith these times, so we are trying to raise awareness of that and put pressure on them all.

I always check the surfers against sewage app prior to kitesurfing but it is noticeable that Scotland is mostly grey with not reporting unlike the red/green of England and Wales.

[Hal Jordan]

Wettest February in history. Water treatment plants (and I’m the last person to support those investor-pleasing cnuts) are overwhelmed by high water levels and dumping shite in the rivers is inevitable.

That's not last year, though, and maybe some investment in infrastructure and some actual punishments that don't make fines the cheaper option as a running cost rather than doing their fucking job properly might be in order.

Not arguing with you.

Yes you are.

[Tichtheid]

My favourite reading was for the 2 days after SEPA stopped their “bathing season testing” where the results went through the roof despite it being dry

Do you think something was "let rip" knowing the official testing season was over?

Well known that this happens. Damn those cold water swimmers and other water users going into rivers and seas all year round.

Yup, that's exactly what we think. There had been pretty dry weather for a a while leading up to it.

It's disgusting.

[Slick]

Do you think something was "let rip" knowing the official testing season was over?

Yup, that's exactly what we think. There had been pretty dry weather for a a while leading up to it.

Do you collect the samples and send them to private lab for analysis?

Yes, exactly what we do. Also just trying to involve a couple of universities up here.

[Slick]

Well known that this happens. Damn those cold water swimmers and other water users going into rivers and seas all year round.

This is our focus at the moment. the Scottish Bathing Season is apparently from 1st June to mid September, and so the only time the water is officially tested around here. But there are hundreds of folk in the sea over the weekends outwith these times, so we are trying to raise awareness of that and put pressure on them all.

I always check the surfers against sewage app prior to kitesurfing but it is noticeable that Scotland is mostly grey with not reporting unlike the red/green of England and Wales.

SAS have given us the initial seed funding to get it up and running. Only 4% of outflows are monitored in Scotland...

[sockwithaticket]

Genuinely, Slick, well done you. Sometimes what issues need are regular folk prepared to roll up their sleeves and put some work in on their own time. It's one thing to complain about what needs to be done and another to get on and do it.

Good to hear you're enjoying OG,WN too.

[Slick]

Genuinely, Slick, well done you. Sometimes what issues need are regular folk prepared to roll up their sleeves and put some work in on their own time. It's one thing to complain about what needs to be done and another to get on and do it.

Good to hear you're enjoying OG,WN too.

Thank you, really appreciate that.

[Biffer]

Jonathan Gullis is that rare creature who could manage to be an entire shower of cunts locked in a room on his own.

[Biffer]

[SaintK]

Gullis is just about everything that is wrong with the "modern" Tory party.

[Lobby]

Don't think this has been mentioned yet, but this is hilarious

"The former actor Laurence Fox will not be a candidate at the London mayoral elections after failing to fill in the nomination forms correctly."

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... nomination

[sockwithaticket]

'Mistakes' seems generous characterisation of:

election officials said nomination papers from two boroughs did not have the 10 supporters required, while three supporters from other boroughs “could not be reconciled to voter register records”.

This will be the second time he's tried and failed in the mayoral race and third failure overall.

Get the message, Lawrence.

[Tichtheid]

[tabascoboy]

Investors were due to pump in almost £4bn into the business over the next two years, but have withheld the first payment - due at the end of March - saying its turnaround plan is "uninvestible".

It is not unusual for investors to try to put pressure on the regulator, which is in the process of deciding how much water companies will be able to charge customers from 2025 to 2030.

However, at some point Thames will need to raise new money to finance the huge programme of investment that is needed and if the current shareholders - which include domestic and foreign pension funds as well as wealth funds from China and Abu Dhabi - won't inject cash, then Thames will need to find new ones.

I don't know at this point whether the problems are entirely due to Thames Water management, but once again it does look very much like relying on equity and wealth fund ownership of a vital utility isn't exactly working out as planned. Who could have foreseen that their interests wouldn't always align with those of the customers who rely on the service

[sockwithaticket]

Here's an idea, how about the shareholders who've siphoned off billions in dividends while Thames neglected infrastructure investment put some of that money back in? If not renationalise while wiping the debt. The water infrastructure was sold to these companies debt free and all they've managed to do is put them in the hole while providing a degraded service, there should be no expectation that the state bailing out an entity and reclaiming an essential utility should also cover the debts run up by the incompetents and malign actors at Thames.

I've seen it mentioned that we are the only country in the world, certainly the developed world, to have this level of privatisation in our water industry.

[tabascoboy]

The shareholders are considered untouchables...

The Tories are changing the law on water companies so that even if they fail the shareholders do not take a hit
Posted on January 25 2024

In December, I wrote here about the need for a change to the law on the insolvency of water companies.

I suggested a change that would wipe out shareholders, give loan creditors a haircut and leave essential suppliers with their payments due intact because they were essential to the ongoing supply of water in the UK.

Renationalisation was the inevitable outcome of such a scheme, but so what? Privatisation has failed.

Now, the government has slipped out new legislation to tackle this issue. I had no idea it was coming, but they obviously read the runes of forthcoming water industry failure as I did.

However, as the FT reports:

The new law provides more options for special administrators to restructure companies that are unable to repay their debts and may make it less likely that the government is forced into renationalising water utilities.

They add:

The legislation contains provisions that will allow a water monopoly to enter administration, restructure its borrowings and then exit as a “going concern”. Under the current rules, water company assets have to be sold off, and the corporate entity liquidated, if they go into administration. The new rules would allow existing shareholders to potentially retain a stake.

Unbelievably, after the failure of the water industry, the government's priority is to protect those who have created the mess that we are in.

Who will pay for that? As the FT notes again:

[A] lawyer also warned that creditors might suffer bigger losses than they might have under the current regime.

Read that as essential suppliers on whom we depend to deliver water will take the hit.

In other words, everyone who deals with water companies but those who mismanaged them will suffer. And that is all to ensure, as another lawyer told the FT, that the government does not have to take management of these companies but can leave them with the existing shareholders who have totally failed this country.

It takes staggering arrogance to present legislation so bad, but that is the only thing the Tories now have left.

I despair.

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/202 ... ake-a-hit/

[sockwithaticket]

Fuck's sake. Looks like I've got another thing to write to my MP abouut. Not that venting my spleen about government decisions to a member of the government does much of anything bar making me feel better.

[Tichtheid]

Hospital admissions for waterborne diseases in England up 60%, report shows


https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... port-shows

[C69]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

[tabascoboy]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

TBF they never said it was a good plan, and a shit plan is still a plan I guess

[fishfoodie]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

not forgetting the Courts, Education, the migrant "crisis" created to distract from the other crises, the Covid Inquiry is just getting into it's stride, the housing shortage, the fallout from Grenfell....

It's getting to the point where it's a shorter list to name whats not a complete dumpster fire after 14 years of unchecked Tory rule

[C69]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

not forgetting the Courts, Education, the migrant "crisis" created to distract from the other crises, the Covid Inquiry is just getting into it's stride, the housing shortage, the fallout from Grenfell....

It's getting to the point where it's a shorter list to name whats not a complete dumpster fire after 14 years of unchecked Tory rule

I missed out inflation, mortgage rates and of course the Energy cash machine.

[fishfoodie]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

not forgetting the Courts, Education, the migrant "crisis" created to distract from the other crises, the Covid Inquiry is just getting into it's stride, the housing shortage, the fallout from Grenfell....

It's getting to the point where it's a shorter list to name whats not a complete dumpster fire after 14 years of unchecked Tory rule

I missed out inflation, mortgage rates and of course the Energy cash machine.

and then there's that whole climate thing......

[Biffer]

Cambridge win the boat race after Oxford crew suffer from E Coli from rowing through sewage

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rowing/68699476

[fishfoodie]

Cambridge win the boat race after Oxford crew suffer from E Coli from rowing through sewage

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rowing/68699476

No need to go to India on a gap year to get Typhoid or Cholera anymore, now you can get it in London !

Will other countries now have to update their travel guidelines & start recommending vaccinations prior to travel to the UK ?

[petej]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

not forgetting the Courts, Education, the migrant "crisis" created to distract from the other crises, the Covid Inquiry is just getting into it's stride, the housing shortage, the fallout from Grenfell....

It's getting to the point where it's a shorter list to name whats not a complete dumpster fire after 14 years of unchecked Tory rule

What are the list of successes for Tories when not restrained by being in the coalition?

Edit: I guess they would include brexit but that is like claiming credit for pouring raw sewage everywhere.

[Sandstorm]

Cambridge win the boat race after Oxford crew suffer from E Coli from rowing through sewage

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rowing/68699476

No need to go to India on a gap year to get Typhoid or Cholera anymore, now you can get it in London !

Will other countries now have to update their travel guidelines & start recommending vaccinations prior to travel to the UK ?

Force the water company boards to drink their own river water every day.

[C69]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

not forgetting the Courts, Education, the migrant "crisis" created to distract from the other crises, the Covid Inquiry is just getting into it's stride, the housing shortage, the fallout from Grenfell....

It's getting to the point where it's a shorter list to name whats not a complete dumpster fire after 14 years of unchecked Tory rule

What are the list of successes for Tories when not restrained by being in the coalition?

Edit: I guess they would include brexit but that is like claiming credit for pouring raw sewage everywhere.

Well we have left the EU but the consequences have not been a success.
Teachers are voting to strike over pay and the Jnr Doctors are still in dispute.
The govt has delayed the pay offer for April to NHS staff and they probably will be in dispute near election time.
It's not going to get any better. I think the PO scandal will tie in a few Tory politicians.
Thoan a few more defections to Reform may make the 100 MPs projected by pollsters seem realistic.
If the spineless bastards do actually move to Reform then it may well be a sizemic shift in UK politics.

[tabascoboy]

What a brainiac, I mean clearly Brexit hasn't been a complete shitshow already...

[dpedin]

So roads, education, the NHS, local services, policing and water are a basket case.
And we are now in recession.
That's some fucking plan.

not forgetting the Courts, Education, the migrant "crisis" created to distract from the other crises, the Covid Inquiry is just getting into it's stride, the housing shortage, the fallout from Grenfell....

It's getting to the point where it's a shorter list to name whats not a complete dumpster fire after 14 years of unchecked Tory rule

What are the list of successes for Tories when not restrained by being in the coalition?

Edit: I guess they would include brexit but that is like claiming credit for pouring raw sewage everywhere.

For a few the last 15 years has been a great time for some ie shareholders in banks, water companies, railways and train leasing companies, oil and gas companies, etc. It has essentially been a giveaway of state assets and wealth to a small number of already well off/rich folk. We have seen a period of deregulation and free market economics which has essentially shown that both have failed the UK in spades. For the vast majority of the UK we are now poorer, sicker, working longer, living in shittier housing and likely to live shorter, less healthy, and more unhappy lives. The UK version of capitalism has failed miserably and the only saving grace is the Tories didnt deregulate guns or health (they are trying desperately to privatize the NHS) otherwise we would have ended up like a poorer version of the US.

I have no idea why many think the Tories have done a 'good job' and will still vote for them at the next election. I appreciate there is a hard core of racist xenophobes who are delighted they 'delivered' Brexit, the biggest example of self harm the UK has ever inflicted on itself, and will vote for whoever shags the Union Jack the hardest, but even they in their quieter moments must know the least 15 years has been a disaster?

[SaintK]

This is going as well as expected

A UK military base due to accommodate up to 2,000 asylum seekers under controversial plans has been found to be contaminated with ground gases and unexploded ordnance, according to government documents.

RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire is one of three mass accommodation sites earmarked by the Home Office to house asylum seekers as a supposedly cheaper alternative to hotels.

Ministers had initially planned to have 3,000 asylum seekers accommodated on three sites – the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, the Wethersfield former military base in Essex and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire – by the end of 2023. But there are fewer than 1,000 people on the Bibby Stockholm and at Wethersfield and none at Scampton, though the first 60 asylum seekers are due to arrive there in the coming weeks.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ ... olnshire

[Biffer]

not forgetting the Courts, Education, the migrant "crisis" created to distract from the other crises, the Covid Inquiry is just getting into it's stride, the housing shortage, the fallout from Grenfell....

It's getting to the point where it's a shorter list to name whats not a complete dumpster fire after 14 years of unchecked Tory rule

What are the list of successes for Tories when not restrained by being in the coalition?

Edit: I guess they would include brexit but that is like claiming credit for pouring raw sewage everywhere.

For a few the last 15 years has been a great time for some ie shareholders in banks, water companies, railways and train leasing companies, oil and gas companies, etc. It has essentially been a giveaway of state assets and wealth to a small number of already well off/rich folk. We have seen a period of deregulation and free market economics which has essentially shown that both have failed the UK in spades. For the vast majority of the UK we are now poorer, sicker, working longer, living in shittier housing and likely to live shorter, less healthy, and more unhappy lives. The UK version of capitalism has failed miserably and the only saving grace is the Tories didnt deregulate guns or health (they are trying desperately to privatize the NHS) otherwise we would have ended up like a poorer version of the US.

I have no idea why many think the Tories have done a 'good job' and will still vote for them at the next election. I appreciate there is a hard core of racist xenophobes who are delighted they 'delivered' Brexit, the biggest example of self harm the UK has ever inflicted on itself, and will vote for whoever shags the Union Jack the hardest, but even they in their quieter moments must know the least 15 years has been a disaster?

Some of them have it in their heads that it would have been even worse under Labour
Some of them only care about how much they are taxed
Some of them genuinely don't see the link between the tax they pay and the roads, hospitals nd schools in their community
Some of them have picked up the US thing of describing everything as socialism
Some of them are racist
Some of them are genuinely selfish and don't care about what happens to others
Some of them are just fucking stuoid
Some of them are ideologues.

Think that's most of them.

Edit, forgot one. Some of them are of an age where they're r first experience of adulthood was the seventies industrial decline followed by Thatcher making a lot of people in the middle and lower middle class wealthier. They swore never to vote Labour again and bought fully in to the Tories. And they still cling to it

[fishfoodie]

Worst.Aprils.Fools.Evvva !

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... h-sleeping

Who would ever believe Tory MPs revolting against an opportunity to punch down ????

[Uncle fester]

An interesting dive into the weird wacky world of GB News.
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/idea ... ws-gb-news

[tabascoboy]

Worst.Aprils.Fools.Evvva !

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... h-sleeping

Who would ever believe Tory MPs revolting against an opportunity to punch down ????

Coming next: the return of Victorian Workhouses!

[Hal Jordan]

Worst.Aprils.Fools.Evvva !

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... h-sleeping

Who would ever believe Tory MPs revolting against an opportunity to punch down ????

A legacy from Cruella, I believe. All the hallmarks of her performative cruelty and utter lack of empathy.

[SaintK]

Nimbyism at its finest from a current cabinet minister
Hopefully it will cost him his seat.