Cut the crap: James O’Brien's callers are disgusted by Britain's water companies | LBC
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- MPs have been warned that “somebody is going to die” due to the state of England’s rivers.
Following reports that millions of litres of raw sewage were pumped into Lake Windermere, customers in Devon have been told by South West Water to boil their drinking water as cases of a diarrhoea-type illness caused by the parasite cryptosporidium were confirmed.
James O'Brien callers respond amid a fresh row over the quality of the country's waters.
00:00 - Caller Chris claims 'at least half' of his close friends are already suffering from diarrhoea
05:08 - Caller Louise says everybody she knows is very cross about the poo
08:39 - Caller Mark suggests renationalising the industry
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The title is misleading. It is English Water, not British. In Scotland, water is part of the council tax. Scottish Water is nationalised, and our tap water is drinkable and high quality. You can check on their website for the area where you live. The problem is that you lot voted for this by continually voting for conservatives and voting for more privatisation.
So true. I told people Privatisation was bad and was asked if I preferred Communism, like they are the only options
Well I didn't but I get your point. You've always been more sensible. Well, until that Hate Speech law thing. That was mad.
Exactly.
This
seriously thinking about moving to Scotland
The South West has always voted Tory and voted for Brexit. Now it's winning its own special Darwin Award
for falling for the lies?
Hahaaa conservatives
@@guardian100 Sir, the figures are publicly available on the Electoral Commission website. Everywhere in Devon voted for Brexit, apart from Exeter.
Here in Cornwall, the local electorate are staunch tory voters even now after 14 years of corruption! The fishing and farming communities are still voting for their own destruction.
@@guardian100 mate, you are blind or you do not have a clue about what you are talking about, either way you should reserve yourself from comments in this issue untill you educate yourself with...facts.
Sangita questioned an Israeli spokesperson, and LBC made her disappear; how SHAMEFUL! SHAME SHAME ON YOU LBC!
Hopefully she will land something better
🤣
@@bilpat5123 I am sure she will and be better off for it.
She was boring.
@@Dmanz67you must be Dman of comedy 😂
Tory Brexit Britain. Raw Tory sewage.
It is their language.
Look up the largest mass poisoning incident in British history with Camelford and tell me that privatisation is to blame.
@@hc2155 are you a professional tory rimmer or just an intern?
Nothing to do with Brexit More than 80% of the world’s sewage is discharged into the environment untreated.
Poisoning drinking water through pure negligence and greed would be a criminal act in any sane society.
It is for private individuals but not for companies or they just get token slap on wrist with fines that mean nothing much.
Who is paying for fines? I hope it shareholders not public. But first things first giving dividends to shareholders improve, maintain infrastructure wasn’t that their remit when stocks floated for the Water Board? I recall them saying water and infrastructure would be brilliant because it private 😂
Anything used by the people of any country should be nationalized. Humans and privitization are a bad mix. It'll always end in greed and suffering.
You'd think more people would have heard of the old adage "give him an inch and he'll take a mile
So how did Camelford pollution happen and get covered up under state ownership then?
@@hc2155 are you trying to compare a one off accident to systematic pollution to enhance corporate profits? Yes, it shouldn't have been covered up but that's a whole different thing to a government allowing continual pollution and not making the water companies pay to sort it out.....while also gutting the EPA who should be prosecuting these companies
@@diceman199 Lol you think that sewage treatment was better in the old days before South West Water? The state of rivers, seas and other waterways was far worse before privatisation. They used to take untreated sewage out in a barge about a mile out to sea and then just dump it there. Every single water provider whether for profit or nationalised or private has significant issues with storm overflows.
@@hc2155 except the private ones have WAY more issues. The nationalised ones do 10 x more maintenance in terms of replacing pipes, hence reducing water loss and they also build more storage.....where private water companies have built exactly ZERO more storage.
Odd how since we left the EU, despite promises that environmental regulations would be maintained, pollution incidents have gone up and the EPA have had funding gutted so they don't have the resources to police it.
The French would've been out on the streets for far less than this. Why do we accept it? It's serf culture
The British don't fight for themselves, everyone who would have done fled to America 300 years ago haha
What would you jail the water company CEOs for? No laws were broken, because the Tories removed those laws and regulations so the water companies wouldn't break them. If anyone should be jailed, it's the Tories who have signed off on laws in the full knowledge that it will cause harm to thousands of citizens who just expect their tap water to be clean.
Biological warfare against a civilian population perhaps? I'm at a loss how else you could use existing laws to hold them responsible, for the very reasons you've given.
bang on...the aim of water companies is to make money...not provide clean tap water....
i think poisoning people could be classed as criminal negligence.
Regulations aren't being enforced. Very little water quality monitoring is being done now
@@davidwarburton-burley9967 look up Cathryn Ross. Ran ofwat (the water regulator thought all this) it’s now working for Thames water. Wonder why they gave her a job
This lies at the door of Barroness Margaret Thatcher!. I haven't heard any shareholders complaining, have you?.. Privatisation working at it's best. 😂😂😂..
And in the interests of itself. Privatisation = Hello to greed and goodbye to service.
Here here - as one random protester said on tv during her funeral “she turned Britain into a grocery shop”
I don't know what they are complaining about. England voted in favour of Brexit and strongly supported the Conservatives implementation of it, now they reap what they sow.
Enough Tories, enough of these companies, take them back
We can't afford to. The money has gone abroad.
Frontier Justice it is, then.
Lol New Labour privatised just as much as the Tories ever did
@@hc2155bullshit!!! There was nothing left to privatised 😮
@@kendiamond8722 No it's not lol New Labour privatised the NHS with Public Finance Initiatives far more than any government has before or since. The debts that many hospitals have are still largely due to this.
Remember Sunaks government thinks this is okay.
Just goes to show how low this country has fallen when you can’t drink the water but have to pay through the nose for the facility.
Yes to renationalizing the company assets & operation. But, a very firm " NO!" to nationalizing the debts that the companies have built up themselves over a 35 yr ownership, from a zero base.
From what I understand that with the way the government sets up the contracts if they take it over they’ll have to pay the debts too. And you know what that’ll mean
More backhanders 😢
Everything related to human survival - shelter, water, electricity/gas, transport, healthcare, etc (and I'd argue internet access in this day and age) - should be nationlized. Basic human necessities must *not* be left in the hands of those who are seeking nothing but profit upon profit upon profit. It's a gross failure of government to do anything else.
Yes agreed. Need to cease the all or nothing type of thinking which can occur. Yes there's some things that the market does best, but some things should be ring fenced because they're necessary, as you mention.
Obviously any vaguely left learning folk want this, but shouldn't Government control of strategic things like power and water also appeal to the vaguely patriotic or even full blown "little Englander" type too?
It's as if they don't have the UK's interests or people at heart from any political perspective, and are just in it for the money, but surely that's not the case...
absolutely bang on...
Lets be selling off the water company, sounds like a great idea, what could go wrong?
I know. It's only a monopoly with no competition and nowhere for customers to go. And pitiful regulation. And a perfectly OK infrastructure to run down before we get out of Dodge. Result!
But, but, but ... the MARKET... the PRIVATE SECTOR... they will provide.
@@Nice0n3the magic of the market place.🦄🦄🦄
How about a civil prosecution?
If the government won’t hold the water companies to account, the public (who have all been effected) should.
The last time I drank tap water was before it was privatised......in 1989. I stopped giving my cat tap water to drink because even he doesn't touch it! I give him bottled water, he drinks it. Hand on heart gospel truth. It finally took 40 years for people to wake up to the fact that privatisation does not work.
Stop paying bills .when did we get so soft .
That would work if done all over the country but if you do it alone they just cut off your water supply
@@Matt.Hurley They can't do that by law.
Well start up a protest page online .take it to the shareholders . No bonuses for the next 5,year or we all stop paying bills.take the fight to them .
How do they boil their water? Using gas or electricity, adding further fuel costs for someone else’s negligence. This country is ruined by millionaires and billionaires :(
No it's the immigrants
@@chrisspencer6502 No it's the disabled
@@juergenweidner1no it's royal family
@@chrisspencer6502 which “immigrants” are running the water companies then?!
It's d whole lot of ye constant whinging at each other that's what d establishment wants 😂
So... in a cost of living crisis, a water company that has made obscene profits gives people the choice to pay extra to boil their water, or extra to travel miles to get clean stuff or get sick. This country makes me so sad.
Brexit 😂
I would criminalise it, it was a criminal act when we were in the EU and it should still be. Greed over anything else
I blame the people who voted for the torie you wanted them in so you get what they give’ POO”💩
I think that’s victim blaming. When 70% of the older generations rely on newspapers and you allow a corrupt Australian to buy all the news papers and lie to them the responsibility falls more at the liars door and the regulators door than the door of the duped
it's not just the water companies it's the government that is allowing them to do it lol
This is what when we have a country run by businessmen for the benefit of businessmen, when they are allowed to put profits before people. It's time to take back control of our country & our public services.
yeah, but please think this through to its conclusion:
1: We live in a democracy and that's not going to change, people vote to change what they don't like.
2: WE privatized the water/rail/energy and it is run for profit for shareholders rather than for purpose.
3: because profit is ultimate, maintenance and upgrades will always be negated.
4: Business becomes unsustainable and a burden on the shareholder
5: Water is nationalized and the previous shareholders haven't had to pay a penny, they only ever got profits.
6: The tax payer pays for maintenance and upgrades due to years of negligence.
7: The cost goes up due to this endeavor
8: People get upset
... ... ...
1: We live in a democracy and that's not going to change, people vote to change what they don't like.
2: WE privatized the water/rail/energy and it is run for profit for shareholders rather than for purpose.
3: because profit is ultimate, maintenance and upgrades will always be negated.
4: Business becomes unsustainable and a burden on the shareholder
5: Water is nationalized and the previous shareholders haven't had to pay a penny, they only ever got profits.
6: The tax payer pays for maintenance and upgrades due to years of negligence.
7: The cost goes up due to this endeavor
8: People get upset
... ... ...
1: We live in a democracy and that's not going to change, people vote to change what they don't like.
2: WE privatized the water/rail/energy and it is run for profit for shareholders rather than for purpose.
3: because profit is ultimate, maintenance and upgrades will always be negated.
4: Business becomes unsustainable and a burden on the shareholder
5: Water is nationalized and the previous shareholders haven't had to pay a penny, they only ever got profits.
6: The tax payer pays for maintenance and upgrades due to years of negligence.
7: The cost goes up due to this endeavor
8: People get upset
... ... ...
1: We live in a democracy and that's not going to change, people vote to change what they don't like.
2: WE privatized the water/rail/energy and it is run for profit for shareholders rather than for purpose.
3: because profit is ultimate, maintenance and upgrades will always be negated.
4: Business becomes unsustainable and a burden on the shareholder
5: Water is nationalized and the previous shareholders haven't had to pay a penny, they only ever got profits.
6: The tax payer pays for maintenance and upgrades due to years of negligence.
7: The cost goes up due to this endeavor
8: People get upset
Take back control. Heard that somewhere before...
@@fergusdenoon1255 So your conclusion is to continue to pay over our money & not get the services back in return, throwing our money away or rather donating it t to greedy individuals who are taking us all for a ride. Personally I'd rather cut our loss4s & take all our public services back into public ownership.
@@user-ol6rd7pl5t is it?
no, that's your conclusion.
my conclusion is.... renationalizing stuff, is EXACTLY what private companies want us to do.
@@fergusdenoon1255 I'm guessing you're either a shareholder or just a glutton fir punishment who likes giving their money away the greedy.
ONLY country in the world with privatised water
Even the USA wouldn't do it
Privatised polluted water 😂
Of course the board members should be fined and jailed. This would be their fate here in France which is why we all have clean water.
I've just found out that some bottled water companies in France that market their water as "Sourced from natural mountain springs mineral water" will have to change their labelling since they are treating the water before bottling as it does not meet water safety standards and after treatment is no different to tap water.
English rivers? shouldn't that be open sewers!...
Paying shareholders instead of investing in the infrastructure, which has been going on since privatisation, now the whole system is not fit for purpose.
Yes they are criminals
My water supply (Thames Water) is absolutely filthy. Within 3 or 4 uses the shower floor has black stains on it, and sometimes the water from the taps smells like rotting eggs. I tried to speak to Thames Water about it, and their response was "Get a plumber to look at it". Which as we know, isn't cheap. How about you do something at source?
OMG this sounds awful
Sounds like you are on borehole water not mains
What is the question?!?! Polluting rivers is illegal. Prosecute! If the fines are too low to mean anything, raise them. The water companies are for profit businesses. They have to use their profit to ensure the business runs efficiently. No excuses. No dividends. We don't need to pay more to get the service we all thought we were getting. They need to pay less dividends, make less profit, and do their job.
I think the problem stems from needing evidence of it happening while it's happening.
This would require water companies to report the dumping when they're doing it, not several hours after they've finished doing it.
Actually come to think of it, they probably report it several hours BEFORE they do it, just to make sure the right people are definitely looking the wrong way. Imagine if people found out that you found out there was wrong doing? You'd HAVE to do something then.
From the point of view of the water company, theyre doing everything right: making massive profits at the expense of ordinary people. Its the incentives and the structure that's messed up.
That is a contradictory comment.
@@rayglenister9799 Lol yes, I suppose you're right.
I would put water companies on a par with the post office, so yeah criminal charges need to be applied to these crooks
Ultimately the water companies will do whatever makes them the most profits. And whatever they can get away.
United Utilies have apparently made record profits. They must be saving a fortune by not using any chemicals to clean our waste water and just dump it raw into our rivers, lakes and seas.
LoL 🤣😆 conservative voters reaping the benefits of voting conservative
Please ask them would you feel save under a labour
They just say it would've been worse under Corbyn 😂
@@simonfive713 Along with "LaBoUr WoUld HavE BeEn WorSe!" and something about Tony Blair
@@BadgerBoy59 Who, strangely enough, didn't take any of our essential services back into public ownership, but did allow Murdoch to become godfather of one of his children. Labour through and through that fella.
@@lovetrainsme7970 but did preside over the lowest NHS waiting lists, the longest period of low inflation ever etc etc.
@@BadgerBoy59Blair was a neo lib just like Maggie Thatcher.
If someone died from water pollution is it corporate manslaughter ?
The government needs to get out .
Here's the thing. Nationalise all water companies with immediate effect. To shareholders... shares can go down as well as up so you get nowt. Thinking of suing? We'll introduce a law against it. If you try, unlimited fines and/or six months in prison. The debt? Written off. Whoever it's owed to (probably the banks) doesn't get it. Thinking of suing? Jail sentences for those bankers who try.
Where is Sangita?!
I don't understand how these companies are allowed to pay dividends before they fix the infrastructure!
It's called privatisation.
@@Terry-uo8gs illegal privatisation. Most PLCs need to make a profit before they are allowed to pay a dividend. Maggie Thatcher's tories modified the rules for privatised utilities!
@@michaelmccarthy9411 your spot on by 👍
If an industrial company did this they would fined!!
Surely as a private company they must be held accountable 😮
Another Brexit gain?
tomatoes growing on the beaches of Kent according to The Sun 08/05/24
@@SimonSmith-yd6tt Let them eat ketchup?
@@jimb9063 a "sauce" of pride to the Brexiteers
@@SimonSmith-yd6tt Probably best to close the food banks, they won't be needed now.
The water companies must be brought back into public ownership and every penny they have paid to there shareholders and ceos paid back.
South West Water says residents should boil their tap water as hundreds are struck down with diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pains in Devon.
Or you can all go back to your London homes.
So more sewage in the water and gas/electric bills increase or you pay for bottled water the only people losing are yet again consumers.
Thr regulator issues big fines but who pats them THE CUSTOMER through higher bills, The Regulator needs to start saying more that fines must be paid through reduced dividends of share holders and stopping the huge bonusses the directors take
only country in the world that sold its water to privatised companies!!
Bring back Sangita
Will O'Brien be "let go" for discussing the corrupt water utility companies...?
Yes arrest them all
This is yet another Brexit benefit no longer are we under Brussels' rules of water quality
Best quality water in the UK is here in Scotland, and we’ve loads of it. We don’t pay private companies for it. Remaining that way is just one of the many reasons why independence is so important. In particular the Conservatives, but Labour also cannot be relied on to keep our water safe
The Scottish don't take any 💩
🤣🤣🤣
I lived in the SW when privatisation happened
SWW had the highest bills in the country
They said it was because they "had to clean the beaches"
How's that working out?
Unbelievable.
'Water ,water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink'
is the actually quote.
The Environment Agency can but don't put a stop to this scandal ... but money talks!
How would you propose they do that? If a law set by the government was broken why wouldnt the enforcement teams prosecute them?
You can turn the tap on anywhere in Scotland and drink it without worry, in England you would be safer drinking from the toilet bowl........and this is what happens when you keep ticking tory, so stop ticking tory, then maybe one day you will be able to see a doctor or get access to clean water in your home from the tap.
French people have a backbone
Brexit has allowed raw sewage to be dumped so I guess the will of the British people must be respected.
Im happy to switch to small beer rather than water.
When you privatize things that deal with the general public, you get an administration where profits become more important than providing a secure service to the public.
👍👏👏
My water supplier - Yorkshire Water - is owned by a holdings company which is registered in Guernsey, and that is half-owned by the government of Singapore. Do you think they care about discharges of sewage at Scarborough? Our local MP, "Sir" Robert Goodwill, recently told Parliament that water quality was a "complex issue" involving farm runoff and seabird sewage. I confidently expect him to get a seat on the Board of Yorkshire Water when he stands down at the next election.
Feathering his own nest
Since water is essential for healthy life, water companies should either be run by the state and if not, they should be regulated more then most other businesses and be under criminal law if water is not safe for consumption.
I read the other day that all Britains water Companys are billions in debt, all of them yet still they take bonuses
So what will happen when the poo in the English Channel gets to France? Or across the Irish Sea to the Irish coast? Or to Holland's coast?
They can use it as fertiliser 😅
No we are safe in Ireland different currents Scotland might get it
Seize back control of water, including treatment. Just like power, and trains. Should all be nationalised and invested in by government. Raise money through fair taxation.
Surely these companies have broken their contracts. Does that not mean we, as a nation, can take back ownership of the facilities?
I cannot see how you could criminalise this unless people die through the negligence of the company.
Directors and executives of privately owned companies have a fiduciary duty to act in the interests of the company and its sharholders. Thus they need to provide value to shareholders through dividends and share value.
To stop this you either have to:
Nationalise the company;
or
Impose penalties that are heavy enough to cause a shareholder revolt due to dividends not being paid or the collapse of the share value.either of these situations are likely to result in shareholders fleeing the companyand/or creditors calling in their loans.
I'd love to hear more from caller Mark about this, he's clearly very knowledgeable about the subject.
In countries all over the world, in the 21st century, tour operators are telling anyone coming to the UK, *not* to drink water from the tap. Not to eat salads and to boil water for teeth cleaning. Don't it make yer proud to be British?
Welcome to the joys of privatisation. The fact that not a single new resvoir has been built in the decades since tells you all you need to know about these companies priorities.
Still the most brazen part of it was the official response of the water company “the water is fine so keep drinking it” before doing any checking to make sure what they were saying was even true.
Imagine something worse got through, and they just kept saying “it’s all fine”
That’s just companies all over these days. Respond first, check later.
Supplying drinkable water for people is the only reason the company exists 😂 . It has to drastically change and people be held accountable
Watched the accounts committee - Thames Water started with 1b assets, in the black, debt free. Then Privatised - today they have 19b assets, with 14.5b in debt, borrowed to pay the dividends of the shareholders in the 8 holding companies.
Funny how everyone blames privatisation but nobody remembers Camelford that took place under state-owned leadership and was far worse.
This CANNOT be allowed to continue. Customers need to withhold payment until they clean up their act OR Government needs to take the companies back into public ownership and claw back the dividends. This is outrageous behaviour from the government and the privatised water companies and it needs to stop and there must be punishment.
The film Minder on the Orient Express (Minder Christmas Special - 1985). Arthur Daly expressing concerns travelling abroad. "Yeah, but it's abroad innit? I mean, plod with guns, iffy water, sawn-off toilets". We've got the iffy water now, Arthur.
Let’s just stop paying the water bill until they stop paying themselves millions and protect our water systems
We have privatised our waters and I believe we are the only democracy (or onw of very few) to have done this. This approach to selling off our essenital services and then not regulating them must be seen within a wider context of the media telling us that people who march for their rights are bad people. The media has encouraged and supported our government in bringing out laws that make marching even more difficult. Fewer and fewer people in the UK feel that they are the sort of people who go out and march, even as we watch our rights drain away down the plug hole to join the poo in our rivers and seas.
We are going back to primitive times pay water bills by the meter and now this
I remember the 1970s sitcom "don't drink the water" the joke being how bad the water was in a backward Spain.
How things have changed!!!
I can't be too judgemental, there are parts of the rural south here in the states that after a tour by the UN itself after returning from Africa, said that it was worse then some of the worst parts of third-world countries they've seen after watching residents walk over troughs that were dug for the sewage run-iff, no running water or electricity, sleeping on dirt floors, and those hillbillies judge the homeless in LA in their shanty towns
No not put in prison - just take the companies back off them for free. They have wantonly broken rules and cost the country an enormous amount. They can pay us back by winding the companies up and giving us back our water.
A bigger scandal is that the Labour Party refuse to promise any changes. Disgusting.
If they say the water 💧 is clean? Make them drink a litre from the tap
Shareholders need to pay the price for this. I don't care that pensions hold a lot of shares in these water companies, anyone who still holds shares in them is culpable, and by extension that includes pension holders. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure their pension is invested in a way that is consistent with their own values, and if they don't do that, then they deserve to lose their money.
The cause of a previous outbreak of cryptosporidium in Oxfordshire was caused by cattle manure in the river & the water treatment could not clear it.
There will be no consequences for them, it will be the opposite. If the line goes up they will be rewarded.
Let's talk about the energy scam we are subjected to, which has raised their profits several-fold
Withhold payment en masse and see what happens
Apart from air?
Are you kidding?
Have you breathed our air lately?
It won't be long..
If this happened in a restaurant, it would be closed down immediately and those responsible persecuted. Whats happening here???
I'm surprised you believe tap water is generally safe in 2024!
The whole point of privatization was to make a quick buck, efficiency from competition an save money, but that argument fall apart when they keep getting subsidies/bailed out an their performance is getting worse.
2:09 when have British people had a reaction anything remotely like that in the last 20 years?
Same story from Southern Water in Hastings throughout the May bank holiday. No water for nearly 5 days. 2 mile walk to water point. 😩
Why does this sound like a Brexit related issue? Our water companies no longer have the same EU standards...
Bring back Sangita Myska
Do we not have a target alert system on our mobile networks that notifies us of such matters, or was that just a weird glitch one Sunday afternoon?