Striking image, but the truth is that politicians of all parties are currently talking shite about sewage.
You cannot of late escape the sudden interest in an issue that we have been dealing with for some time regards the failure of the privatised water industry to stop the pollution of controlled waters with raw sewage. Unfortunately, it seems that only when political characters start throwing turds at one another in a blame game of pass the poo parcel that the media become interested in the issue, except their interest is in the politics of it rather than the real problems that it causes like the bird deaths in Smethwick.
The Labour Party appear to have launched a cascade of memes and accusations about how this very longstanding issue is a Tory cause like the one above, and yet appear to forget that they had a decade in power between 1997- 2010 when successive general elections resulted in majorities of: 1997 (179), 2001 (167), 2005 (66) for them, and yet they made no attempt to renationalise this industry or hold it to any form of account during their years in power. Let us also remember that the first 13 years of the useless Environment Agency failed regulator also occurred on their watch.
Why then should we believe anything that they spout when in doing so the entire focus appears to be to blame their political rivals, rather than the water companies and their abysmal fat cat CEO’s like Liv Garfield? When is Garfield ever put under any real pressure from either Government or shadow Government. She just isn’t, and that is the point.
Severn Trent Water and their staff have persistently lied about issues in this part of the world and the fact that “avian botulsim” was really just botulism caused by their network failures over many years. This is not a political issue, and nor should anyone have the temerity to claim that it is the fault of another political actor. WHY FOR EXAMPLE, HAS THE MP FOR THIS AREA, JOHN SPELLAR, FAILED TO EVER MENTION SEVERN TRENT WATER POLLUTED LAKES IN HIS OWN CONSTITUENCY, AND FAILED TO EVER CONDEMN THIS ACT BUT SOMEHOW BLAMES THE TORIES GENERALLY FOR THIS ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE? THE LOGIC IS SHITE AND IT IS ALSO LAZY.
All very well, but not a single local Labour politician IN SANDWELL have condemned Severn Trent Water publicly or pressed them through legal means for compensation.
For these reasons I do not trust politicians. Full stop. Until they grasp that brownfield building is the cause of the issues surrounding failure of capacity in the water industry networks, until they stop doing corrupt deals with companies who leave behind polluted land like that at Friar Park for the tax payer to clean up and then turn them into more homes to pollute the network then I will not be voting for any of them, they can fuck off.
The media can also fuck off, especially the Express and Star who persistently offered not a shred of criticism of the polluter and printed their lies without scrutiny, but when a politician speaks, it is somehow more relevant than those who are actually having to save lives on the ground because of their failure to act. The sewage “crisis” is very reminiscent of the toxic dumping cyanide “crisis” of the early 1970’s in the way in which the media are behaving. I have looked at some of this on our sister blog. One wonders that any knee jerk reactions of promised legislations or policy to stop water companies dumping sewage will similarly fail in every regard to solve the problem.
The latest Rivers Trust mapping report makes depressing reading in Spellar’s constituency and are relevant to previous issues we have mentioned of raw sewage polluting the Smethwick parks and water courses which feed them.
Permit number: T/09/35149/O
In 2022, this sewer storm overflow spilled 27 times for a total of 0.58 hours , discharging into the Stony Lane Brook.
Permit number: T/09/30212/O
In 2022, this sewer storm overflow spilled 5 times for a total of 3.14 hours , discharging into the Stoney Brook Via Sws.
Permit number: T/08/35704/O
In 2022, this sewer storm overflow spilled 11 times for a total of 71.45 hours , discharging into the Thimblemill Brook
Nothing will change on May 4th or at the next General Election either, it is all just a pile of steaming shit and hot air and political sewage.
Politicians are more concerned with wiping the backsides of the privatised water industry. Pucker up.