We are now being reminded in an increasingly shrill manner by Nanny and her chums in the water companies that we are facing a drought.
The region that is expected to be worst hit is the South East.
I am more than supportive of efforts to ensure that we save water, and don't waste this scarce resource. There may of course be a few questions that could be thrown at Nanny and the water companies, as to why the water delivery system in the UK is so leaky and as to whether more could have been done earlier to avert this situation.
However, what sticks in the throat is Nanny's desire to get us to report each other for using hose pipes etc. More than 1,600 neighbours have reported each other for breaking hosepipe bans in the South East.
Southern Water, which serves two million customers, said 1,533 had reported people for breaking the ban which was imposed last summer.
Proactively encouraging people to spy and report on each other is reminiscent of Nazi and Stalinist dictatorships.
Britain should be above such behaviour.
I thought the water companies upped all the charges about 10 years ago, shortly after privatisation at any rate, on the pretext of needing to fix lots of 'leaky old Victorian era pipes' and create a water distribution system fit for the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteAre they now saying that they spent the cash but did not do the work? Or is the 20th century tecnology used not as good as the 19th century technology which preceded it?
Up here in the midlands there sems to be plenty of water. My garden grass (I hesitate to call it a lawn) is soggy enough that any amount of walking on it. mowing for example, is enough to turn some patches into mud.
I must review the terms of the contract I have with the water company. Being charged for both delivery of water via pipes and removal of water via drainage seems very much like a 'heads they win, tails you lose' situation. And the soggy ground suggests I am not getting good value on the 'removal' side. In which case I would rather they did not remove any of it at all without paying me for it.
You state "Proactively encouraging people to spy and report on each other is reminiscent of Nazi and Stalinist dictatorships".
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the host of lawyers, accountants, estate agents, insurance salesmen, book-keepers and the like who are legally obliged to report anyone to the new SOCA for all suspicions of having any proceeds of any crime, even 1 penny!!
Oh the insidiousness of it all, but this is what we all get with bankrupt, incompetent and apparently corrupt Government and senior politicians!!
Welcome back spiv - suitably toasted I trust?
ReplyDeletePresumably the SOCA rules would allow us to point the finger at all politicians and the entire EU bureacracy and have a pretty good chance of having a charge stick.
What an interesting thought. That could clog things up a bit.
I like the idea that one might have a go at both Prodi and Berlusconi for example and, on the Berlusconi front, by implacation, one would have Mr. B'liar as well.
Maybe the laws of unintended consequences could work in our favour for once?
Yes, toasted, relaxed and ready to vent further disapproval of our politicians.
ReplyDeleteSeems that whilst away I missed some fun - advisors being arrested, further ministerial accusations etc etc.
What a shower they all are, I must say!!
I've just been reading an item about the implementation of the national ANPR system (Automatic Number Plate Recognition for those who may have been out of touch for a while) and how this will be logging all vehicle movements and storing the details for 5 years.
ReplyDeleteI expect this will make the UK a crime free society - unless of course you are a criminal or by some means untraceable. Since such an idea is clearly absurd once we all have ID cards I therefore predict that we will become the crimeless capital of Europe.
Apart, that is, from our love of gardens and the desire to keep them green ("Dave" and Zac would surely approve?) even in conditions of drought.
So, with the police forces left with nothing to do in the newly crime free society I can see them turning to deploying sprinkler cameras - one in every garden - and water butt detection equipment on the basis the the water companies might see the retention of water from the roof of a property as theft of their water rights.
In the meantime I guess they will just have to resort to trawling Google Earth to spot gardens that look too green and therefore represent targets for undercover surveillance preparatory to a dawn raid.
I wonder if it is possible to emigrate to somewhere more congenial? What's the price of property like in Siberia - anyone know?