Two stories really stand out in the news this morning.
The first is on sewage. Those on Twitter will have seen many angry tweets over the weekend referring to the Tory MPs who allowed raw sewage to be pumped into rivers and onto beaches. It seems shit really upsets people.
So too does the destruction of our leisure time, when the traditional day by the seaside is dead to people. And there is also the environmental cost. We already had the worst water quality in Europe:
I suspect we are doing much worse now. The UK's attitude towards deregulation is, to be blunt, destroying us.
The other that stood out was a Guardian story noting that there might be 165,000 vacancies in care homes. As a result many elderly people are not getting even the most basic care that they need. And this is before energy price rises ensure that these homes cease to be economically viable. This is, of course, a problem almost entirely created by Brexit.
In their different ways, the stories deliver the same message. The belief of some in the Uk in our so-called exceptional status, that they thought put us outside the mainstream, is literally doing that. But there is no gain. There is only loss. And it will get worse.
I would like to say I know where this ends, but with Liz Truss due to be prime minister I can offer no hope. She is the ultimate believer in the small state, which is the very last thing this country needs at present. When what is so obviously required is a bigger, more flexible, more open and more inclusive state to address the issues that we face we are going to get nothing of the sort.
I used to think we were in trouble. It is much worse now.
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The tories know the cost of human life, they just don’t care about the value.
And no doubt you’ve seen the further story on sewage being pumped into the sea: that many of the devices that are supposed to monitor this are either out of action for some/most of the time or not even fitted. I wonder why?
Of course, the government and the water companies know that they only have to keep their heads down for a couple more weeks and the summer holidays will be over, the weather will be cooler, and only a few hardy souls will still be swimming in the sea, so this particular issue effectively disappears from view – literally. It’s the same every year. And with the Environment Agency (EA) so under resourced it struggles to do almost anything of significance anymore, and Ofwat effectively set up to provide a support and cover function for the water companies, I don’t see anything changing anytime soon. Indeed, with the planned cuts to the Civil Service still to come things can – and will – only get worse at the EA.
So you’re correct: we are in trouble and it’s set to get much, much worse.
What has been occurring in our water and waste supply has been festering for years. I remember being at Staithes on the East Coast and asking a wildlife officer why she was wearing wellingtons. She was quite forthcoming and suggested that after a morning crabbing with the kids as they were then, we all wash our hands thoroughly afterwards.
Alan Budd who was I think one of Thatcher’s economic advisors, thought that privatisation would bring in more resources to public services yet has conceded in a recent documentary that there has been more wealth extraction instead from the assets they got at bargain basement prices.
Let us hope that the Thatcherite scales start to fall out of peoples eyes.
Privatisation can only work if it is set up to balance needs. Evidently it was not set up like that because the private sector knew that the Government was cynically expecting the private sector to provide the investment the Government had not put in due to the false link between taxes and Government expenditure and the need to woo voters with low taxes. I see this sort of thing in contract management too where more risk is shoved onto contractors who know that this is what is happening and price accordingly.
That’s all I see- cynicism. And it stinks as badly as the beaches at Staithes sometimes did when we decided to go for an ice cream instead.
What a country. What a system.
But overall, what stupidity.
As for our elderly – the Government cannot cynically nudge people into caring jobs that do not pay well even if they choose to starve them into these jobs as it seems they want to do. People are not stupid and most will not help someone go to the loo for less than minimum wage and even more. And why should they?
What I am beginning to see is stand off between the public and the State over pay. Even Rees-Mogg is reduced to agreeing with Truss in frustration because people know they are being ripped off and won’t be bullied into poorly paid work. I hope it turns into an electoral evisceration for this bunch – but it’s going to be very painful as the Tories are extremists and won’t budge.
Hello Richard, just a thankyou note for all your hard work and analysis of the world situation. But, I must admit I’m concerned for your health, please take it a bit more easy on yourself, take care, Mel (france)
I am trying to
Been to the doctor this morning….
Richard I feel extremely depressed about the ugly state of this country. I read your posts and worry that you are going to wear yourself absolutely out, but it is also so valuable to know that there are people worrying, caring and feeling the fury that I do. Decades ago I got an honours degree in German. Nowadays I kick myself so hard that I didn’t flee to Europe (where I loved living before I got locked into domesticity on English soil.)…But I wouldn’t have believed in the past that it could get so bad here. Unique in Europe. My son has sensibly gone to make his life in the EU. BUT I MISS HIM! Take care of yourself.
It is tough being here now…
“In their different ways, the stories deliver the same message. The belief of some in the Uk in our so-called exceptional status, that they thought put us outside the mainstream, is literally doing that. But there is no gain. There is only loss. And it will get worse.”
This is a hang over from imperialistic thinking. When the UK was the hub of a global empire it was indeed exceptional. However bad poverty was in the UK, in its colonies and overseas possessions it was far worse. The free trade which, as Rees-Mogg observed, the UK thrived on in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was free only for our point of view, I doubt if it would have seemed the same to India whose textiles industry was destroyed or by the Chinese who were forced to import opium.
We can no longer solve problems here by causing problems elsewhere and until we can get over the fact that although we are by global standards a very wealthy country, we are, nevertheless a very small country, we will not find ways of solving them.
Blaming it on brexit just lets the tories off the hook. I doubt even the lib dems would have made such a mess of things if they’d been in charge, but of course, that’s damning the tories with faint praise.
But Brexit and the Tories are synonymous