Feargal Sharkey
@Feargal_Sharkey
National Spokesperson for the Borsetshire Clean Water Action Group.
Feargal's Big Dummy's Guide to Sewage Dumping updated 22/12/2023.
"Why is Steve Reed agreeing to cut sewage dumping by half, why not by two turds…" It's not me....it was a friend... 😎
The most annoying part is this outcome was clear from its terms of reference and we have a bunch of big, well funded environmental NGOs to thank for helping government spin this trick on the public while the grass roots still try to save us from another 10 years of this scam
"The Cunliffe Report is a joke. It protects water profiteers, screws over billpayers, and will do little to reduce pollution in our rivers and coastlines. The only solution is for water to be taken into public ownership" My new column for @theipaper inews.co.uk/opinion/the-cu…
Glad to hear that @SteveReedMP has a meeting this afternoon with the CEOs of water companies. Perhaps he'll be issuing a statement afterwards justifying why most are paid £500k + for essentially not managing to guarantee water supply or keep poo out of our seas and rivers..?
"This is the greatest song ever written." youtube.com/watch?v=sQDP4W…
Fascinating thread, the insiders view of Ofwat, regulation and the water industry.
I spent a year at Ofwat back in 2013 working on price controls I’m not remotely surprised it’s being abolished - what I saw astonished me 🧵 theguardian.com/business/2025/…
Over 33 hours of sewage releases in Whitstable yesterday from @SouthernWater, due to too much rain. As that happened, they were implementing a hosepipe ban for one million people across the south-east due to not enough rain. What a brilliant system.
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Steve Reed is right. We should focus on facts. So let's start with eight claims made to @krishgm 1. The £100bn figure. This makes no sense and is not credibly evidenced. The true and fair value in law is close to zero. Legal expert @ewan_mg unpacks common-wealth.org/perspectives/h…
I love the analogy. 👏👏👏
The liability that comes with these water companies is the problem. Remember when government privatised these assets 30 years ago they were selling a rusty old Cortina with no MOT, wanted them off the state balance sheet. Nothing's changed except the liability has got bigger.
Successive Governments have presided over low investment in water infrastructure. Yes water companies are to blame for sweating assets and siphoning cash to shareholders but Governments have been highly active in prioritising low bills. This is the consequence.
"Downing Street later insisted that Mr Reed is doing 'an excellent job'." @DailyMail And we all know what that's code for.
Not from the water companies eh? Interesting, because that's exactly where Baroness Hayman, Defra spokesperson in the House of Lords, told parliament last year where the number did come from. Oops! x.com/Feargal_Sharke…
Clive Lewis: Why is public ownership not good enough for water? Steve Reed: "We have to take a rational & not an ideological approach... it would cost £100b... not a figure from the water companies, but from officials in my department..."
BLUSH!
Very good summary of the water report by @Feargal_Sharkey. Unless you address root causes, all you are doing is leaving the taxpayer to cough up for an unfixed mess. Literally throwing good money after bad.
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🚰"It is time for the @GOVUK to take control and stand up for the public interest. Our energy and water needs to be brought back into public ownership." @UniteSharon #Nationalise #nationalisewater
Left: Steve Reed, "Nationalising water companies would cost £100 billion, we'd have to take it from the NHS and Education, and it would take years of legal wrangling" Right: Feargal Sharkey explains how to nationalise water companies without costing the taxpayer a penny
Steve Reed falsely claims he got Thames Water to “stand down” their retention payments. This is false. They paid out millions in the first tranche and the second and third are simply paused & Thames expects to pay it as they are not performance related theguardian.com/environment/20…
"People are saying to 𝙮𝙤𝙪 it's unacceptable money - you can't say it back to them, you've got to act on it!" Environment Sec. @SteveReedMP agrees water bosses’ pay is outrageous, but what will 𝘩𝘦 do about it? @maitlis | @jonsopel
Wasn't the bonus ban supposed to put an end to all of this nonsense? Oh?!
Exclusive: Twenty MPs have accused Southern Water CEO of ‘pure greed’ and urged him to refuse a pay hike that would take his salary to £1.4m “Decline this disgraceful payment for failure”.
"Cunliffe report won’t make one atom of the UK’s water any cleaner." Me, in today's @thetimes thetimes.com/uk/environment…
