Right, so Labour have just voted with the Tories in a measure which will fundamentally impact the ability for OFWAT to fine water companies who continue to pollute our rivers, lakes and seas as we know they have been doing with impunity since EU water cleanliness legislation got dumped following Brexit. We know the Tories have had no interest in addressing this situation because stuff the environment when the economy is flatlining, what we need to see is profit, profit, profit to bring their economic output up, even if that means their outflow contains a lot more nastiness. This is all a part of the government’s desperate last gasp of this administrations ability before they get bounced out of power to promote growth and somehow snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and Labour, instead of standing up for the environment, have instead helped them do this. Why? Because Starmer is apparently too scared to oppose it. What a leader in waiting eh?
Right, so Rishi Sunak has built himself up a not at all undeserved reputation for not giving the slightest whiff of a care for the environment and for climate change, the biggest crises of our time, because they require long term thinking to solve. That isn’t the same as kicking the can down the road to the 2050s or 2060s to deal with the likes of river pollution as their current thinking is, that means starting now and not expecting a quick fix, but the only quick fix Sunak is interested in is how to maximise economic output and to hell with the consequences and this is the perfect case in point.
You see Sunak’s bunch of ecological extremists have pushed through a duty on the water regulator OFWAT, which will change it’s remit in how it handles water companies. Basically these water companies will now be incentivised to put profit over reducing sewage pollution, what the Tories are calling their Growth Duty, prioritising profits over all else and when we’re all sick and tired of the mess and ecological and environmental damage being done by these sewage spills, it is mad to think the Tories fancy this as a vote winner, but they aren’t looking at the environmental impact, they’re looking ahead to what they hope will be more favourable growth figures. Growth, growth, growth, its an obsession, its impossible to deliver infinitely and at the expense of the environment, with the long term damage this short term thinking will do, it will just cost billions more in the future to put right.
Well the Lib Dems, yes remember them? They do still exist, well they forced a vote yesterday at time of writing, the draft Economic Growth (Regulatory Functions)(Amendment) Order 2024, to try and amend the line in the Order reading ‘have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth’ within OFWATs remit, the line which effectively changes the watchdog’s priority when cracking down on water companies and they lost, 395 votes to just 50. Just 50 MPs stood up and stood by the environment and this didn’t include a single Tory or a single Labour member.
The ramifications of this change seem obvious to me. Where rampant pollution has happened previously, where the equivalent of slapped wrist fines have been meted out, adding up to a not inconsiderable £100m in cut water bills because of it, instead of addressing that, the Tories are now engineering things so that OFWAT puts greater emphasis on the economic impact to water companies if they are caught polluting and may be as a result of that less inclined than they even were before, to hand out further fines. If OFWAT were regarded as toothless before, this move renders them jawless now along with it.
Here’s an excerpt citing the environmentalist viewpoint of this move:
‘Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “The growth duty once again privileges business bottom lines over nature. Public demand and environmental need are totally clear – Ofwat should be promoting investment in nature and ensuring polluters pay.
“A new duty that obliges the regulator to think twice before taking environmental action is headed entirely in the wrong direction. Parliamentarians are right to oppose this backward step.
“The real economically responsible action is to protect the natural assets we depend on. Political parties should commit instead to a new green duty on regulators to ensure they take action to stop climate change and restore nature.”’
What are the point of having these watchdogs, these quangoes, non governmental departments, whatever the given watchdog in anything might be, if they are being charged to turn a blind eye? We all lose out, so Sunak, might get some kind of last minute boost and also be able to point to the drop in fines and say clearly this must mean the water companies are cleaning up, when actually the complete opposite might be the truth of the matter.
Now Labour could have stood against this. Sure, the Tories have a working majority still, they likely couldn’t stop it, but they would be on the right side of the argument, so what excuse is given for them to have sided with the Tories instead of siding with the environment, with clean water and holding private water companies accountable for the damage they keep doing? Well apparently, they were too scared to.
Keir Starmer is yet again running scared that the Tories might say something mean about him and in this case, they decided, in a move that absolutely should nail on in even the most ardent of Labour supporters minds, that they are just the Tory Party B Team now, are equally as skewed in their priorities and absolutely won’t be doing much different to what is happening now under Sunak and Co, because Labour backed this policy on the basis that they didn’t want to be seen as anti-growth.
Red Tories voting with Blue Tories to wreck the environment in the name of profit. I wonder if outspoken water campaigner Feargal Sharkey will be doing another ring-round for the Labour Party after this?
Green Party peer Jenny Jones summed this legislation up when it came up in the Lord’s the other week when she said:
‘We have torrents of sewage pouring into our rivers, onto our coastline, into our chalk streams. But instead of stopping it, this proposal aims to increase it and instead of giving Ofwat tougher powers to regulate the water industry…Ofwat are now being told that economic growth is more important than clean water.’
She is absolutely right. There is no excuse for Labour adopting the same position as the Tories on this, you expect them to be money grabbing parasites, Labour are supposed to be better, not just as bad, but to be just as bad for no better reason than being scared of being criticised – and it isn’t the first time I’ve had this argument regarding Labour and especially Keir Starmer, afraid to rock the boat in case the Tories pick on him, well, you’re in the wrong job if criticism scares you, because if he becomes PM he’ll collapse within a week!
My God, it was less than a month ago, 29th March, that Starmer was saying that Labour would put sewage dumping water companies into special measures and then he goes and votes like this? Just shows what he says and does are always two different things.
The Tories will always be mean, they are the nasty party, but so is Labour now and for the most pathetic of reasons. If Tory scorn scares them so much, they will run the country as if the Tories never left.
Of course if we get real about this though, it’s only certain criticism they will fear and it will be over the economy, because of course whoever is winning the argument on the economy is going to be the party heading for power. That is how it has always worked. Right now, Labour can’t lose it seems, that massive polling lead of theirs, why should they fear criticism from the has been Tories who will soon get annihilated when Sunak finds his spine and calls the election? Perhaps their lead isn’t as solid as they imply at times and certainly pulling stunts like this, siding with the Tories, well that should be punished in my view. They should be more afraid of supporting them on anything, than being seen as a worse economic option, but then perhaps it isn’t a matter of votes, but of donors and if Labour are seen as being anti business, anti-growth, now reliant on donors as the party is, they might lose them and then where will they be, as un popular as Starmer is, his Party having spurned and purged so much of it’s active membership?
Fundamentally I think this is nearer the mark. Starmer’s party is now as bought and paid for as Sunak’s is and therefore cannot afford to act in our interests even as they court our votes. I shan’t be wasting my vote on either party, I’ve never voted Tory and I never will, regardless of the colour of rosette they wear. The only Party that is going to prioritise the environment and our waterways, renationalising these blasted companies, taking back control of our water and making sure it gets cleaned up, is the Greens and that’s where my vote will be going.
Renationalisation of water isn’t simply an economically sensible decision, though the outlay could be significant, because again we have to look long term about this, it will take time to fix what the Tories have destroyed, there is a moral case for it, to not renationalise is completely amoral, as this video recommendation will set out the stall of, my recommended next watch for you and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.