When Margaret Thatcher made England and Wales the only countries in the world with fully privatised water, the naysayers argued it was a terrible idea.
Laura, check this out: a rancher in Montana was sued for collecting rainwater from his gutters into a barrel. Evidently, rain is actually owned by the state…. 🙄
Least you'll get the chance to test out the existence of a snowflake-police terrorism unit. Our here in the desiccated west, we don't even get the opportunity.
It's illegal to have catchment in several other states as well. Go figure. Kinda like leasing an oil well for less than the cost of a closet size apartment in a house on the same land.
And watch out for those snowflakes! Longer jail time since they're frozen.
Correct on the states. They want to corporatize the entire country. The little town I lived in back east privatized trash removal and you had to buy a sticker for $100/yr. I took about 5,-20 bags a year. So $10-20 a bag. Yoo hoo!
Bill payers just don't get how hard it is to make money from something that falls from the sky for free. It's so difficult that they need to pay both the fines for poor performance and the dividends and bonuses for... er, poor performance.
Glad to see your outstanding journalism turning up in my stack feed once again. I need a laugh a day to keep from crying, and have missed your insights. 🙂
Yes, to rivers, too, particularly through storm overflows during heavy storms. It's supposed to be regulated, only happen when sewers are overwhelmed, but seems to happen too often.
Seems to me that I recall some Olympic swimmers getting sick from swimming off the coast there a few years back.
I’ve swam off the west coast of Ireland several times during visits there and never encountered a single fece (or whatever the singular of “feces” is!)
Turd, popped into my head! I once visited a Welsh beach and on the sands were tampons! It's not just poo, but other things too, wet wipes, condoms. Our beaches and the water get rated on cleanliness, so you can check the area out before you go. As Laura has pointed out, our bills go up to pay shareholders (foreign) rather than invest in fixing the problems.
Oh gods Markker! I can imagine popping out of the water with a used condom on one’s head… 😭😭😭
Since I live in the Midwest, I can’t attest to the cleanliness of our Oceanside beaches. The Great Lakes however are wonderful, if you can stand the low water temps!
I once toe dipped in Lake Tahoe, very cold indeed, and did one of those white water rafting thrills there, too. Never again! My husband thought I'd enjoy it, well, I did at the start!
Hi Markker, my late brother lived in Colorado and once asked me if I wanted to go rafting. My niece had been a whitewater rafting guide and calmly explained to me the possible dangers (like getting your head bashed against a rock!) I politely declined, lol.
Know what we do here? Tie a few inflatable rafts together and go cruising down a river! Last time I did, it was with a bunch of drunken bikers…which made it interesting 😁
I keep pointing out that money/profit creates more problems than solved by a factor of 100 or more. And that that tool is not only dangerous (promoting psychopaths to the top as it does), but archaic, as well.
I just don't know why they don't just do some cloud seeding and make it rain?! Between midnight and 5am, leaving clear, blue, sunny skies during daylight ours, for us all to enjoy.
This has some interesting humour however it’s a bit of a pain that a promising start had a relapse into very British approach to national differences across the UK.
Privatize the profits - socialiaze the losses.
Wash, rinse, repeat
It works - for the rulers, and in the uk, the rulers are the only ones who matter.
Not the rulers, per se; the people who have bought the rulers, and to whom they report.
Laura, check this out: a rancher in Montana was sued for collecting rainwater from his gutters into a barrel. Evidently, rain is actually owned by the state…. 🙄
I hear the voice of Klaus Schwab, gyp: "Be happy, own nothing".
😂
I wonder if I can’t catch a snowflake on my tongue come winter….
Least you'll get the chance to test out the existence of a snowflake-police terrorism unit. Our here in the desiccated west, we don't even get the opportunity.
It's illegal to have catchment in several other states as well. Go figure. Kinda like leasing an oil well for less than the cost of a closet size apartment in a house on the same land.
And watch out for those snowflakes! Longer jail time since they're frozen.
Toma, let me guess: those states are all west of the Mississippi…
But heck. If both England and my state Michigan are in a drought, that’s bad news! We may have to desalinate an ocean or two!
Maybe if I just stick my tongue out the door this winter…
Correct on the states. They want to corporatize the entire country. The little town I lived in back east privatized trash removal and you had to buy a sticker for $100/yr. I took about 5,-20 bags a year. So $10-20 a bag. Yoo hoo!
Toma, makes ya just wanna dump it by the side of the road!—-and I’m willing to bet a lot of people (not you!) did so.
I could send one….
It's not just that state. I think it is the entire USA. At very least it is law in multiple states that you can't collect rainwater.
Bill payers just don't get how hard it is to make money from something that falls from the sky for free. It's so difficult that they need to pay both the fines for poor performance and the dividends and bonuses for... er, poor performance.
About sums things up. Leaks losing millions of litres of clean treated water is "acceptable"' hose-pipe is a big No, No!
This is literally "the enshitification of everything."
Late-stage capitalism. Thank GOD the rich people are making tons of money! What would the world be like if they only had normal amounts of money!
Wait, I remember that. Hey, it wasn't bad at all.
You are a consummate practitioner of parrhesia just like Aristophanes.
Yes, she does indeed speak truth to Power!
The disease of capitalism shows its latest accomplishment in the UK. Here's to more privatization, and to hell with most of us!
"A thin grey fog hung over the city, and the streets were very cold; for summer was in England." - Kipling, The Light that Failed, 1890
Glad to see your outstanding journalism turning up in my stack feed once again. I need a laugh a day to keep from crying, and have missed your insights. 🙂
Laura are you pullin my leg? Does England really discharge sewage into the ocean???
Yes, to rivers, too, particularly through storm overflows during heavy storms. It's supposed to be regulated, only happen when sewers are overwhelmed, but seems to happen too often.
And it has been happening more and more after going into private ownership
Hi Markker,
Seems to me that I recall some Olympic swimmers getting sick from swimming off the coast there a few years back.
I’ve swam off the west coast of Ireland several times during visits there and never encountered a single fece (or whatever the singular of “feces” is!)
Turd, popped into my head! I once visited a Welsh beach and on the sands were tampons! It's not just poo, but other things too, wet wipes, condoms. Our beaches and the water get rated on cleanliness, so you can check the area out before you go. As Laura has pointed out, our bills go up to pay shareholders (foreign) rather than invest in fixing the problems.
Oh gods Markker! I can imagine popping out of the water with a used condom on one’s head… 😭😭😭
Since I live in the Midwest, I can’t attest to the cleanliness of our Oceanside beaches. The Great Lakes however are wonderful, if you can stand the low water temps!
I once toe dipped in Lake Tahoe, very cold indeed, and did one of those white water rafting thrills there, too. Never again! My husband thought I'd enjoy it, well, I did at the start!
Hi Markker, my late brother lived in Colorado and once asked me if I wanted to go rafting. My niece had been a whitewater rafting guide and calmly explained to me the possible dangers (like getting your head bashed against a rock!) I politely declined, lol.
Know what we do here? Tie a few inflatable rafts together and go cruising down a river! Last time I did, it was with a bunch of drunken bikers…which made it interesting 😁
I keep pointing out that money/profit creates more problems than solved by a factor of 100 or more. And that that tool is not only dangerous (promoting psychopaths to the top as it does), but archaic, as well.
The Problems in Profit (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/the-problems-in-profit
"You are therefore banned from gardening and bathing your children so that data centres don’t go without."
Heaven forbid that data centers ever go without water! Data centers are worth millions of clean children and watered gardens COMBINED. *satire*
😂😂😂 Hilarious and true. Thank you for educational and chuckle-inducing commentaries!
I just don't know why they don't just do some cloud seeding and make it rain?! Between midnight and 5am, leaving clear, blue, sunny skies during daylight ours, for us all to enjoy.
This has some interesting humour however it’s a bit of a pain that a promising start had a relapse into very British approach to national differences across the UK.
{...turds are now a common sight at our beaches...}
A rather uncommon way to describe dark-skinned immigrants ... 🤔🤔🤔