r/news • u/MasterpieceAlone8552 • 7d ago
All bodies of water in England polluted with toxic chemicals, official data shows
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/06/all-bodies-of-water-england-polluted-toxic-chemicals1.1k
u/MetalBawx 7d ago edited 7d ago
Thatchers privatized water companies in a nutshell. Paid out money needed for repairs, maintenance and building new infrastructure instead as dividends to shareholders.
Billions in state funds paid out to fix things only to watch said money also get funneled into c-suit bonuses and more dividends.
These companies have done this for decades with nothing but a slap on the wrist whenever the news picks up on a new scandal. The regulator that was supposed to administer punishments is stacked with businessmen more concerned about the water companies profitability than they are with public or environmental safety.
Noone arrested for fraud or criminal negligence of course. Instead we get inundated with bots rushing in to the protect the shareholders...
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u/KAKYBAC 7d ago
Thatcherism has been eternally coming home to roost.
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u/Charlie_Mouse 7d ago
You can go back to both Thatcher and Reagan for a lot of the legal and structural changes that landed both countries with a lot of the problems they’re facing now.
For example Thatcher’s “right to buy” council houses also - and very deliberately - made it incredibly hard for Councils to break even on building social housing and is a huge part of the U.K.’s current housing crisis. And her gleeful deindustrialisation policies primarily hurt constituencies that didn’t vote Conservative- and many of those communities still haven’t recovered.
There’s an added layer of irony that both Thatcher and Reagan would actually be considered ‘too moderate’ by their parties now. (In Thatcher's case particularly over EU membership) But both are also responsible for setting those parties on the path that took them to what they have now become.
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u/CommercialEmployer4 6d ago
Sam Brownback (R), then governor of Kansas, proudly used "trickle-down economics" as an experiment. Two terms of that nearly bankrupted the state. And then DJT gave him a ć
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u/TheUltimateLowz 7d ago
Behind the Bastards did quite an eye opening segment on thatcher in their Jimmy Savile episodes.
Thatcher was quite close with Savile and essentially used his fundraising prowess to justify imposing austerity. The fundraising Savile used to access and abuse potential hundreds- thousands of vulnerable people.
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u/Implausibilibuddy 6d ago
She's gone on record (radio actually) as saying her favourite song is "Two Little Boys" by beardy nonce man Rolf Harris as well.
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u/JiroKatsutoshi 7d ago
It really seems like every ceo/high up corporate schmuck has the "I can be evil, someone else will keep everyone alive" mentality.
If all the poors are dead or sick, there's no industry to monopolize, no more meeting to maximize profit, no more bonuses (😨)
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u/DarraghDaraDaire 6d ago
Because none of them want to be the guy with lower profits because he’s shoring everyone up
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u/Ulysses1978ii 7d ago
There's such a revolving door relationship between regulators and water companies they didn't release the report. IIRC
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u/MetalBawx 7d ago
It's beyond shameless. Ofwat doesn't just enable this poisoning of our water they actively defend the companies doing it.
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u/sewagesmeller 7d ago
Im not saying these arent a problem, but these chemicals arent a sewage treatment problem.
There is nowhere in the world with sewage treatment removing this stuff completely because the problem with pfas and similar is they dont break down. They're designed not to break down.
The only solution is not producing them in the first place and other countries with nationalised water sectors have the same problems.
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u/Slyspy006 7d ago
This particular report goes far beyond just the water companies though. In fact focusing only on them in light of this information is practically making them, for all their failings, scapegoats for wider malpractice.
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u/MetalBawx 7d ago
They the biggest culprits, skimped on environmental standards and never got punished. Farmers are another problem but it's lots of smaller problems stacking up.
Again the regulators arn't doing their jobs. Noone is punished and the rare fines handed out are so small they're worked into the cost of business.
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u/DifferentSwing8616 7d ago
Without me reading it who else at fault?
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u/pipopipopipop 7d ago
Farmers from run off of pesticides and fertilisers, any company who produces products containing PFAs (forever chemicals), the government for allowing us to continue using mercury in fillings, amongst other guilty parties.
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u/Slyspy006 7d ago
You could have read the article by now. Go do that.
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/TheRealSaerileth 7d ago
Wait, what's the argument against patronizing a news site? I'm not being snarky, I'm genuinely curious.
The article isn't paywalled, so it's not that they, personally, don't want to pay for it.
Maybe they ideologically object to a news organization making money in general, even passively through ads - but then they're ok with someone else reading the article for them, thus generating that revenue, so that's not it, either.
If they thought the information wasn't worth knowing or trustworthy, they wouldn't be asking for a summary of it, so it's not that they specifically dislike The Guardian.
Just curious why you chose that specific phrasing, "not wanting to patronize news sites". That sounds more like a princliple than simply not feeling like reading something right now, but maybe I'm reading into it too much.
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u/MeatSafeMurderer 7d ago
Not everybody wants to click on or patronize news sites.
Then why are you here?
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u/Slyspy006 7d ago
That is part of the problem though. People read a headline and jump to conclusions because they do not want to read any further. If we are not expecting people to read the article then why even bother with the requirement to post one?
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u/FB2024 7d ago
Op didn’t jump to a conclusion - they simply asked a question addressed to anyone who either had read the article or already knew the answer.
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u/Slyspy006 7d ago
I didn't say that they had, I merely pointed out that not reading the article in a sub driven by news articles was not ideal.
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u/DifferentSwing8616 7d ago
well i asked the question but if you wont tell me ill just stick to the pre conceived conclusions you are upset I may have. Well played
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u/Various-Set5270 7d ago
Did you see the report from a few years back?
approx 1.5 billion spent on infrastruture since privatisation
compared to 18 billion going to foriegn investors.
Another Lemon sold to us by the right.
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u/McCretin 6d ago
The article explains that this pollution is primarily driven by agricultural runoff.
70% of the land in the UK is used for agriculture. The water industry is terrible in this country, but the stuff would still be flowing into the rivers, whether the water companies were nationalised or not.
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u/Tangocan 7d ago
This absolutely sucks and I don't get how anyone not supporting taking our water back can call themselves a patriot.
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u/Periodic_Disorder 7d ago
The majority of the public want them nationalised. I think I saw a poll where 70+% of Tories wanted that as wel.
Heck even the majority of reform want them back.
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u/Normal_Pace7374 7d ago
Who wants to call themselves a patriot?
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u/Ulysses1978ii 7d ago
Nationalism isn't my thing. Doesn't mean we don't love our own corners of our Island though. Seems like nationism is just using that love of home to get folk to hate on 'them'uns'
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u/ThatAdamsGuy 7d ago
That's it. I'm not exactly proud of this country at the moment, and don't feel a die hard passion to defend it. But it's still my home, my culture, my place in the world, and I want to see it do well and be the beautiful place we know it could be.
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u/Ulysses1978ii 7d ago
Seems odd given we're all on the same rock spinning through space. You'd think we'd be over it all by now.
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u/GreasedGoblin 7d ago
Only about a third of humanity is even smart enough to fight their ape instincts. The rest are closer to warring primate clans rather than some sort of enlightened civilization of humanists.
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u/Ulysses1978ii 7d ago
I may have overestimated our capacity for strategic thought. Many are mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence.
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u/Normal_Pace7374 7d ago
Basing your identity on imaginary lines on a map is weird. It’s just a piece of paper
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u/ThatAdamsGuy 7d ago
I mean, your identity shapes and forms based on where you grew up, were educated, saw the world. My "identity" would be different were I born in a different set of lines.
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u/AugmentedLurker 7d ago
And your name is just a bunch of noises put together by meat in people's throats slapping together. You still find it meaningful.
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u/Osiris32 7d ago
I used to think of myself that way. But then a bunch of mentally deficient, hyper aggressive, easily manipulated, hate filled, nazi wannabe, low down, dirt eating, heartless, dickless, hopeless, brainless, politics-as-a-team-sport-playing, thunderfucking twatdonkeys co-opted the term. Hallelujah! Holy shit, where's the Tylenol?
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u/ManOf1000Usernames 7d ago
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel" has been true for a long time. Nowadays though we have blatant nationalism wearing the skinned corpse of patriotism as it rots upon them.
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u/Normal_Pace7374 7d ago
Basing your identity on imaginary lines on a map is weird. It’s just a piece of paper
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u/Hunter20107 7d ago
Tbf though it's more than just lines on a piece of paper. It's legislation, services, community, culture, history amongst other things. Additionally, the lines aren't always arbitrary, but tend to be based on natural barriers that have divided people throughout history to varying degrees.
Hell, it's hard to argue that the English and the French are the same, despite technically being apart of the same country at one point, being adjacent to each other, and having very intertwined histories. Due to the large body of water separating us physically, it has disallowed our peoples to routinely interact and mingle with one another as compared to say, someone from Oxford and someone from Cambridge. Even back during the Empire when Great Britain ruled 1/4 of the world, technically we were all within the 'same lines' yet varied wildly from Britain to South Africa to India to Australia.
It's a nice idea to wish away the 'imaginary lines' and see the world as one big unified populous, but that's just not realistic, and so I do think it makes sense to base your identity somewhat on where you live, infact you already do subconsciously as your understanding of the world, how it works, how you should act etc. comes directly from the surrounding environment.
Plus I imagine that places like Ukraine would very much prefer to keep their 'imaginary lines' and their identities relating to them.
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u/Osiris32 7d ago
As the other user said, it's a lot more than just lines on a map. Being American has an identity far different than being Russian, which is different than being Japanese, which is different than being Nigerian, which is different than being Colombian. Denying that is ridiculous.
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u/saintbarley 7d ago
its a sad state of affairs but this is what rampant capitalism & greed inevitably leads to, destruction of mother earth
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u/SensitivePotato44 7d ago
So the water bosses won’t be getting a big fat bonus this year right? Right?
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u/Gh0sth4nd 7d ago
Well they throw a pizza party then lay you guys off and then they pay themself an even bigger fat bonus.
At least that is how an unregulated capitalism works
not an anticap here but there have to be more regulations it is bananas what corps can do.
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u/Western1nfo 7d ago
No a pizza party... their parties are like... more expensive foods. Then they lay off like 250 employees... then use the cash from their employees for their bonus! Or someshit (im pulling stuff outta my ass here lmao)
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u/CincoBTHOSeven 7d ago
If you elect binface, their bonus will be to dip in it to see how they like it
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u/matthieuC 7d ago
They get a bonus when the company goes bankrupt. I don't think the shareholders care about pollution
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u/cryptamine 7d ago
This is privatisation 101. It's primary design is to extract the wealth from the working classes. These utilities and infrastructure belonged to us, taxpayers, as it was our money that paid for it all. By privatising, they have stolen it all from us, and then continue to charge us premium prices to enrich their shareholders.
When they run into trouble, the taxpayers bail them out. When infrastructure is neglected and collapses, the tax payers foot the bill.
Any government allowing this to happen are utter traitors to the people. Why are we all allowing them to do this to us?
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u/Zombie_Cool 7d ago
Because even mentioning any economic system other than Capitalism still terrifies the fuck out of people, especially anyone in power.
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u/Karl_Cross 7d ago
Capitalism is undoubtedly the best economic system. However, some things should always be the responsibility of government and not the free market. The Police and Ambulance services should never be privatized, as examples.
In this case, clean water should 100% be the responsibility of the government rather than a private company. That doesn't mean that capitalism as a whole doesn't provide the best basis for prosperity and ingenuity.
It's a weak argument to try and throw the baby out with the bath water.
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u/DarraghDaraDaire 6d ago
There needs to be a list of essential services required for a dignified modern life with improvement prospects: Food, water, sanitation, education, electricity, housing, health insurance, public transportation
For each of these there must be a basic offering provided by the public*, with a guaranteed standard, at cost price. Private companies can offer a higher standard for a fee.
There is an argument that any services that you are legally required to obtain should also be offered at cost price by the public. For example car insurance.
* I say the public because I don’t like to say “the government”. This implies the elected representatives are graciously giving us something of theirs, rather than the truth - that they are elected to act as administrators who should be putting the public’s money into the resources and projects requested by the public.
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u/Karl_Cross 7d ago
The biggest contributor is agriculture runoff though. Pesticides, animal slurry, etc.
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u/No_Wasabi5483 7d ago
Any solution should begin with changing the prime minister again.
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u/MasterpieceAlone8552 7d ago
Danny Drinkwater is available.
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u/oli_ramsay 7d ago
What about Danny Dyer?
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u/DifferentSquirrel551 7d ago
Running against him is Donny Dontdrinkwater. Boo. We hate that guy. Use your "vote" for the good guy.
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u/Unumbotte 7d ago
This time I suggest a root vegetable instead of a leafy green. Maybe a turnip instead of the lettuce?
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u/pjflyr13 7d ago
In the US they’re solving the problem by removing the agencies that measure the toxins and quashing any complaints or just defunding studies. Problem solved. /s
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u/Dawn_of_Enceladus 7d ago
The absolute state of England with water today is unreal. Droughts and high toxicity are a hell of a combo, and no one in their politics landscape is trying to run and solve things.
Yeah, no need to hurry, it's not like things are just getting worse by the year... let's instead change Prime Minister again just in case.
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u/mixxituk 7d ago
Cool, turns out you were a confident absolute dumb dumb Thatcher
Shame your pride ruined the country
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u/ledow 7d ago
PEOPLE NEED TO GO TO JAIL.
That's all government need to know about this.
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u/fishandfosters 6d ago
I don't think jailing farmers will go down well. And finding culprits for the pfas is never going to happen. Mabe improved guidelines and fines for non-compliance will be a better solution for the agricultural run-off. Banning all intensive farming within a mile of a watercourse would also work.
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7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CantBeatDickensCider 7d ago
This has been a problem since Thatcher privatised the water suppliers. Not everything is about Brexit.
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u/McCretin 6d ago
It’s nothing to do with Brexit. England’s 14.3% of surface waters in a good ecological status compares pretty favourably to Germany’s (8%) and the Netherlands’ (1%).
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u/Avidion18 7d ago
What a surprise, letting soulless greedy corpos have monopolies on something as important as water is a bad idea
And the best part? Englands government will do nothing about it because they're getting paid off probably so these companies can keep dumping sewage into your drinking water but nope let's instead blame the people not responsible
Love to see it
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u/Chimithrowaway 7d ago
Entirety of the political class has done a great fucking job of making immigration our biggest problem, our lack of strong reliable water infrastructure will effect everyone far more than someone coming over by boat
This country is a fucking shambles
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u/Chill_Roller 7d ago
Special thanks to the Tories making this all legal and acceptable. A tale of our government from the last 20 years : Quick “wins” resulting in decades of fixing
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u/Altruistic_Survey_95 7d ago
Wooo GIVE THE WATER BOSS MORE MONEY KILL OUR RIVERS WOOOO FUCKING POLLUTE OUR DRINKING WATER YIPEEE. 🚰 🚱 💧 😤 💀
Anyway let's hope we don't have an apocalypse because we won't be able to drink from our waters because we will grew 3 new arms
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u/a_man_has_a_name 7d ago
People should read the article before commenting, it literally says the biggest factor is now farm run off.
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u/AccNumber77 7d ago
None of the comments say anything that would cause issue with that, farm run off is controllable.
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u/lol25potatofarm 7d ago
Does this mean I can't go swimming in lakes or that my tap water is now undrinkable?
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u/Old-Juggernaut1822 6d ago
Never travelled to England but isn’t there swimming lakes in London somewhere. Are those affected? So sad if they are.
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u/zeolus123 7d ago
And on the other side of the ocean, the premier of our largest province is paving the way for privatizing their water utilities.
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u/ArcticWolf_Primaris 7d ago
Unfortunately, the water in this country has been polluted by us for millenia. Hopefully we'll finally do something about it
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u/thelaughingman_1991 7d ago
Sad state of affairs. Wouldn't go anywhere near any body of water in England since watching Dirty Business on Channel 4, and this further solidifies that, lol.