Ian Blakemore

Work @IUK_Connect, play at everything else.
Love #food #Yorkshire #change. 2023 #allotment adventure begins.... All tweets are mine and not my employers etc.

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Privatised water is such an obvious scam that it's achieved the impossible: getting 82% of Brits to agree on something.

The only issue to score higher was the public’s desire for Tony Blair to stick to retirement.

[Windrush WASP @WindrushWasp]

The lights are coming on for the highest signing constituencies.

Have you signed for a referendum to decide who should own our water yet?

Live map on the link.

https://t.co/p7dZoNJONr

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Fergal explaining in under 30 seconds what govt has spent two years telling us is impossible.

From nationalisation we'd then make the transition to a genuinely, publicly owned, mutualised model.

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

Since water privatisation, the shareholders have invested LESS THAN NOTHING of their own money in the companies 👇👇👇

@UniofGreenwich research shows why we need PUBLIC OWNERSHIP NOW

https://t.co/7ZWKfkgkIm

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Excellent, and when is the first water company executive going to be arrested?

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Don't believe the spin. Sewage spills are down to water companies, whatever the weather.

And dry spills can be worse: more concentrated, more damaging.

So the root problem of privatisation remains.

The public is paying to clean up our water. We should own it.

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

"High bills, impossible debts, filthy rivers, minimal investment and no resilience: that is the gift of privatisation...Ultimately, as we now discover in the case of Thames Water, it becomes our problem."

If you agree that Thames Water should not be allowed to rip us off while polluting our waterways with illegal sewage, sign our petition:

https://t.co/yEE99VIylu

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

This is difficult to watch, it's embarrassing, it's enraging, it's shameful.

Emma Reynolds the Secretary of State for the Environment and David Hill the head of water at Defra appeared before MPs on Tuesday where they repeated the same old lie, that water company shareholders invest their money in the companies and we, the bill payers, pay them back over 10, 15, 20, 30 years.

Even Ofwat have owned up, that's a lie the £104 billion "private sector investment" is coming directly out of your pockets, your bank account. For God sake just tell the truth.

Barry Gardiner, you're a star. 👏👏👏

[Susie Dent @susie_dent]

Word of the Day is a reminder of ‘snerdling’: 19th-century dialect for snuggling beneath the covers for as long as possible.

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

Reform UK once promised to nationalise utilities 💧💡

But we've just downgraded them on our party scorecard as their position has changed 👇

Reform voters overwhelmingly back public ownership (87% for water, 75% for energy) so they deserve to know

https://t.co/umM5SzQjwn

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

Penny farthing race in 1928. Brilliantly bonkers.

[Resolution Foundation @resfoundation]

Council Tax has become increasingly regressive.

It now takes nearly 5% of income from the poorest families but barely 1% from the richest. For many, it's become a grinding monthly obligation to rival the Poll Tax.

[Ian Blakemore @IanBlakemore8]

Return the Water Industry to Public Ownership - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/MnTppiKg6F via @UKChange

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

"Consider this fact: England...is pretty much the only country in the world whose entire water industry is fully privatised". Spot on from Graham Hiscott in The Daily Mirror.

Watch Channel 4's 'Dirty Business' tonight and see where 40 years of water privatisation has taken us. It's brilliant, and you'll be outraged.

https://t.co/mQ0CYsh6YD

[Paul Powlesland @paulpowlesland]

A new public fountain has appeared in central London, but look closer & you’ll see that it’s a actually a fountain of filth. The water is black, the human victims of the sewage crisis are vomitting streams of liquid, whilst surmounted by a smug water executive with a briefcase stuffed with cash.

The fountain commemorates one of the biggest environmental crimes in British history, where water companies stole tens of billions of pounds that was supposed to be spent on our sewage system, gave it to shareholders and executives and illegally poured billions of lites of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas instead. The channel 4 docudrama about the sewage crisis, #dirtybusiness, starts at 9pm tonight. Watch it, get sad, get angry and then join the thousands of people around the country demanding an end to the sewage crisis.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Channel 4’s Dirty Business is a clarion call to nationalise the water industry."

And that is the bit that terrorises government, the ostrich like refusal to deal with reality, the abused victim, Stockholm syndrome like obsession with not doing anything that might upset the bond markets, the inability to face up to the truth it's time we take the water industry back into public ownership.

https://t.co/JdTDIABsSM

[Paul Powlesland @paulpowlesland]

Last night I joined sewage activists from across the country to watch the premiere of ‘Dirty Business’, Channels 4’s new docudrama about Britain’s sewage crisis & the ordinary people who have tried to stop it. Out of anyone in the country, the people in that cinema knew the true disgusting reality of illegal sewage dumping in this country & yet by the end of the first episode many people were in tears. Seeing the human cost, the injustice, corruption & cover up laid bare was powerfully moving & made me more committed than ever to play my part in ending this scandal.

There’s a good chance that ‘Dirty Business’ will do for sewage what ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ did for the Post Masters scandal. I urge you to watch it (the first episode is on Monday night on Channel 4) to take it in, & to join with the people across the country who are determined to bring the sewage saga to a close.

https://t.co/ZZ844pFSCd

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

HOLY SHIT and I don't say that very often...

At the behest of the water industry the Department for Works and Pensions has deducted £22.4 MILLION from people's Universal Credit payments simply to pay arrears to water companies.

The arrogance and greed of these companies knows no bounds exploiting the most vulnerable in society and who the hell in DWP authorised this nonsense?

https://t.co/HxVToqA903

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

What does it actually take for a water company to lose their operating licence?

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 The clearest, most devastating summary of Brexit’s damage which answers every remaining excuse.

Brexit caused a slow economic bleed:
•GDP is 6–8% smaller than it would have been by 2025: worse than forecast.
•Investment is down 18% compared to similar economies.
•Employment and productivity are 4% lower.
•The damage accumulated year after year, driven by uncertainty, friction and lost integration.

Nearly 1 in 10 CFOs spent 6+ hours a week dealing with Brexit fallout for years. Huge amount of time/money preparing for economic sabotage.

👀The killer finding 👉firms most exposed to the EU:
😩 Were the fastest growing before Brexit
😥 Became the most damaged after Brexit

Brexit punished Britain’s most productive, outward-facing businesses, the exact engines of growth.

Brexit is a rare modern case study of a rich country which proves deliberately raising barriers and the result is:
•Lower growth
•Lower productivity
•Lower wages
•Permanent relative decline

⚠️ A BIG warning for any country flirting with economic nationalism, trade wars, or sovereignty over integration.