Max Spokes

Environment Researcher, Barry Gardiner MP.
All views are strictly my own.

[Max Spokes @MaxSpokes13]

Had so much fun digging through the treasure trove of ZSL Library resources.
Thanks so much to Ann and Emma who were so useful and accommodating, and thanks @s_pooley for some particularly provocative conversations!

[ZSL Library @ZSLLibrary]

'Alfred Russel Wallace and #colonialism' is a new #blog on our new #Website. It was written by @MaxSpokes13 who carried out research in #ZSLLibrary & #Archives as part of a (Hidden) History of ZSL project in co-operation with @ZSLScience's RENO Group: https://t.co/g6vC0GdcnV

[Carbon Brief @CarbonBrief]

In this issue:

🔥 Europe and North America experienced wildfires fuelled by extreme heat.
🌡️ More than 1,000 UK heat deaths have been attributed to climate change.
📆 Key dates for next week and pick of the job vacancies.

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

🚨@andyburnham is expected to take Thames Water into Special Administration today

Bad news for those who have taken £12 billion out of the company in dividends. Wonderful news for ordinary households!

Anything less than permanent public ownership as a next step would be a grave betrayal

[Matt Oliver @mattotele]

NEW: Ministers have been told that 1.1m of Labour's promised 1.5m homes are currently undeliverable because there is not enough water to supply them.

Water companies made the warning in a briefing document last week which also claims official forecasts on water consumption are wildly over-optimistic and do not account for rising demand from data centres.

It's a major headache for Andy Burnham as he takes over as Prime Minister with plans for a big government house building programme.

Link to full story below:

[Max Spokes @MaxSpokes13]

@prafulnargund Lots of people in Westminster are calling for municipal ownership and yet this never seems to get a mention either
Always frightening people off public ownership by using 'nationalisation' when the European experience of undoing water privatisation has been municipals, not co-ops

[James Meadway @meadwaj]

This is the real reason to nationalise water - not to undo the mistake of privatisation, but because as the climate and nature crises worsen, the privatised system is less and less able to cope. (We’ll find the same pattern repeating in other essential supplies.)

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

This latest National Risk Register tells a remarkable story.

Every year the list of threats grows more interconnected. Climate, cyber, water, AI, democracy and infrastructure are no longer separate problems but parts of the same system. Yet our state is still organised as if each sits in its own departmental silo.

However, the most striking thing to note are the key changes between the 2025 and 2026 risk registers.

The emphasis on ‘efficiency’ has all but gone and is now replaced by ‘resilience’.

The govt knows what’s coming: interconnected democratic, climatic & ecological crises, with the potentially added destructive force multiplier of cyber-attacks on critical national infrastructure.

The politicians that think you can salami-slice public infrastructure and social spend to ‘defend’ the country are guilty of Maginot-line thinking in age of blitzkeieg. We need to do both.

This means the challenge of the next decade isn’t simply managing crises. It’s building a democratic, productive-state, capable of producing resilience before those crises arrive.

Because unfortunately, they will.

[Max Spokes @MaxSpokes13]

@asthmalunguk @CleanAirLondon @HealthyAirUK @RCPCHtweets @CleanAirFund @globalactplan @RCPhysicians @EllaRobertaFdn

[Barry Gardiner MP @BarryGardiner]

With air pollution killing as many as 43,000 people a year, you would think a New Clean Air Act would be a priority for a new government.

Particularly as achieving World Health Organisation guidelines is estimated to save the country £27Billion a year!

[Barry Gardiner MP @BarryGardiner]

With air pollution killing as many as 43,000 people a year, you would think a New Clean Air Act would be a priority for a new government.

Particularly as achieving World Health Organisation guidelines is estimated to save the country £27Billion a year!

[Barry Gardiner MP @BarryGardiner]

Tony Blair’s @InstituteGC published his damning assessment of the “soft left” Labour Party.
He thinks we should abandon clean energy for cheap energy and jump on board the high tech AI revolution.

Today @mainstreamlbr published my Response to Blair.

[Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @MayorofLondon]

I’m issuing a high air pollution alert for London on Monday 22 June. Hot, sunny weather and pollution from continental Europe are expected to raise ozone levels. Please help protect yourself and others, especially vulnerable people, by reducing car journeys and avoiding engine idling.

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

No messing! @barrygardiner cuts to the chase on Thames Water.

Shareholders should not receive any compensation: and Government has the power to do it.

Sign our petition if you agree Thames Water should be taken into public ownership. https://t.co/RlXaNn4RpL

[Barry Gardiner MP @BarryGardiner]

On @thameswater government is eventually moving in the right direction.

BUT much too slowly!
The Water Special Measures Act provides the mechanism to put Thames into a Special Administration Regime
It currently meets the threshold for both a performance and insolvency SAR
DO IT

[Clean Air in London @CleanAirLondon]

@metoffice @UKHSA @EmmaforWycombe @jamesmurray_ldn @MayorofLondon Major #AirPollution episode expected to start by Sat 13 June 2026. Will @metoffice @UKHSA @MayorofLondon share #CodeAmber 6/10🟠 warnings and worse?

[Windrush WASP @WindrushWasp]

Oops! Ofwat lets the cat out of the bag..

Welsh Water has agreed £45 M will be paid from its profits..

Welsh Water is described as a not for profit organisation.

Have they by any chance been conning the public?

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

South West Water's criminal offence made hundreds of people sick

Shareholders' NET EXTRACTION £5 BILLION from 1990-2023

A £1.85m fine is irrelevant, pocket change

Make them put lack of investment on balance sheet as a liability

Then PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

https://t.co/raoj30ycHO

[Max Spokes @MaxSpokes13]

#DirtyBusiness revolving door latest:
David Black, former Chief at Ofwat, now advising regulated industry firms with ex-Thames regulation chief as his boss...
In this fortnight's
@Feargal_Sharkey @WindrushWasp
@We_OwnIt @PrivateEyeNews

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

Disgraceful - take South East Water into PUBLIC OWNERSHIP NOW

They are not fulfilling their statutory duty to provide water, can be taken into special administration

Sign to show Environment Secretary @EmmaforWycombe you agree https://t.co/4eLNr53WFu

https://t.co/mxnneYXnPG

[Windrush WASP @WindrushWasp]

Whenever the taps run dry, the empty promises and ineptitude of government are not far away.
How many people will have to die before government acts to stop the big money driving the privatised water scam?
It is a serious cost-benefit question that must have been considered by @DefraGovUK . Any answers? One? ten?
The video explains the position.

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

Across the water sector, 3 billion litres of water are lost daily through leaky pipes

That's because - for years - water companies have chosen shareholder payouts over investment in infrastructure

What we're seeing at South East Water is a privatisation problem

[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.