What is hacking you off today?

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Thames Water. Despite making massive profits since water was privatised, they have been funneling money to their shareholders and paying massive salaries to their executives and anyone near the top. Huge bonuses to board members. Leaks, wastage, sewage contamination and any other problems were payed for by consumers in increase on charges. Somehow they are £14Billion in debt. Taxpayers and government money are expected to be used to try and bail out Thames Water. So a reporter said a lot of people have been made very rich thanks to Thames Water, but the public will pay most of the bill.

 

[Supershrimper]

Thames Water. Despite making massive profits since water was privatised, they have been funneling money to their shareholders and paying massive salaries to their executives and anyone near the top. Huge bonuses to board members. Leaks, wastage, sewage contamination and any other problems were payed for by consumers in increase on charges. Somehow they are £14Billion in debt. Taxpayers and government money are expected to be used to try and bail out Thames Water. So a reporter said a lot of people have been made very rich thanks to Thames Water, but the public will pay most of the bill.

How they can be in that much debt when the product they sell is pretty much free (Taken from rainfall, rivers) and the only costs they have is to service the pipes to transport it the households.

Far to long the network has been neglected which is why there are so many leaks and wastage of water from all of the companies. These companies should be nationalised in my opinion. Its not like energy where you can switch providers, your stuck with the water company that provides you and your unable to switch (unless your a business I believe)

Bring all water companies back under government control and any "profits" are plowed 100% back into improving the infrastructure.

 

[hlane17]

£105m bid for Rice from Arsenal. And rejected too. £50m of that must be premium for being English.

Absolutely obscene. These clubs should just walk away, leave Wet Spam to deal with an unhappy player who had their hopes of a move dashed by their club's ridiculous greed.

Football is absolutely rotten when sums like this are being thrown about. All the while we sit in limbo on life support.

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Another report said Thames Water were making very good profits, but paying themselves handsomely for doing so. Everyone got a piece of the pie. Do they care? Probably not. They know the government will have to bail them out. How is this allowed to happen in the first place?

 

[SUBBlue]

Another report said Thames Water were making very good profits, but paying themselves handsomely for doing so. Everyone got a piece of the pie. Do they care? Probably not. They know the government will have to bail them out. How is this allowed to happen in the first place?

Seems to be the norm these days, supermarkets, energy & fuel companies etc.

Consumer prices going through the roof whilst profits rise hugely for those at the top to cream off.

Then the customer has to take the blame for ‘overspending’ & earning too high a wage that is allegedly contributing towards inflation staying stubbornly high

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

How they can be in that much debt when the product they sell is pretty much free (Taken from rainfall, rivers) and the only costs they have is to service the pipes to transport it the households.

Far to long the network has been neglected which is why there are so many leaks and wastage of water from all of the companies. These companies should be nationalised in my opinion. Its not like energy where you can switch providers, your stuck with the water company that provides you and your unable to switch (unless your a business I believe)

Bring all water companies back under government control and any "profits" are plowed 100% back into improving the infrastructure.

I think you might be underestimating the cost because it’s not just collecting rainfall but also removing (and treating) sewage. The Thames Super Sewer cost/is costing an absolute bomb so I can understand how they are in debt as that type of infrastructure is not cheap.

However they are clearly an awfully run company. When we had a burst water main round by me they took ages to do anything. There were contractors sat in their van for 5 hours twiddling their thumbs waiting for a Thames Water guy to turn up to turn off the leaking mains so they could fit a new pipe and repair the hole in the road the leak caused. It took the Thames Water guy 2 minutes once he turned up. The contractors spent ten times as long waiting as working. They would likely then to have been on overtime!

There was another leak another time with water gushing out the ground that took them the best part of a week to get round to. All at a time when they were warning of water shortages!

We should however probably steer clear of discussing whether these should be private enterprise generating dividends for shareholders or publicly owned utilities as that is veering into the realms of politics.

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

The suffragettes won by similar methods.

Like the suffragettes their aim isn’t to blackmail but to raise attention to a cause that they believe is right but ignored.

Of course you might be wanting more pollution, increasing burden on the NHS from respiratory diseases, more expensive energy bills, ever increasing insurance premiums, more migrants fleeing floods/extreme temperatures/crop failures etc and so support the status quo.

You can hardly compare them to the suffragettes. Just Stop Oil is just a cult of entitled, attention-seeking poshos who are achieving nothing except irritating normal people going about their everyday business. They've been at it again today, disrupting the cricket (thankfully Johnny Bairstow prevented them).

I've not heard about an increasing burden on the NHS from respiratory diseases, but one of the reasons energy bills are so expensive is because of green levies! And JSO just want a more extreme version of an agenda that's already being implemented with net zero. It's not like the UK government isn't doing anything. And we only produce about 1% of the world's emissions.

I could go on but it would be veering too far into politics...

 

[londonblue]

You can hardly compare them to the suffragettes. Just Stop Oil is just a cult of entitled, attention-seeking poshos who are achieving nothing except irritating normal people going about their everyday business. They've been at it again today, disrupting the cricket (thankfully Johnny Bairstow prevented them).

I've not heard about an increasing burden on the NHS from respiratory diseases, but one of the reasons energy bills are so expensive is because of green levies! And JSO just want a more extreme version of an agenda that's already being implemented with net zero. It's not like the UK government isn't doing anything. And we only produce about 1% of the world's emissions.

I could go on but it would be veering too far into politics...

I think you already have!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I've not heard about an increasing burden on the NHS from respiratory diseases

New tool calculates NHS and social care costs of air pollution

A tool calculating the potential costs of air pollution will provide councils with further impetus to act and improve air quality.

www.gov.uk

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Latest reports say that Thames Water was handed over at a silly low price, with no debts and lots of assets. They immediately put the price of water up 40%, and over the years have sold off lots of the assets, some now needed reservoirs, sold for housing development, and loaded the company with debt. Yet over the years they have paid out £72Billion in dividends, etc. One reporter called it theft. Although they also said the water regulator is as useless as a chocolate fireguard, and said this should never have happened. Meanwhile, the public has to pay again for this mess, and bills will rise up to another 40%. Ggrr.

 

[southendkid]

one of the reasons energy bills are so expensive is because of green levies!

If you're talking about recent times this isn't true. The cost of energy has been exceeding the price cap introduced in June, so adding the levy on top hasn't done anything because you were already at the maximum without it. The price of energy is expected to fall next month however to below the cap, at which point we would start paying it again.

 

[Mad Cyril]

New dog has just eaten a dozen Cripy Creme donuts which were left on the side in the kitchen. Found him staggering about with his head atuck in the box.

 

[Benfleet A1]

New dog has just eaten a dozen Cripy Creme donuts which were left on the side in the kitchen. Found him staggering about with his head atuck in the box.

Hope there was no chocolate ones. Very bad for dogs.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Hope there was no chocolate ones. Very bad for dogs.

There was but it is extremely low chocolate content.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

You can hardly compare them to the suffragettes. Just Stop Oil is just a cult of entitled, attention-seeking poshos who are achieving nothing except irritating normal people going about their everyday business. They've been at it again today, disrupting the cricket (thankfully Johnny Bairstow prevented them).

I've not heard about an increasing burden on the NHS from respiratory diseases, but one of the reasons energy bills are so expensive is because of green levies! And JSO just want a more extreme version of an agenda that's already being implemented with net zero. It's not like the UK government isn't doing anything. And we only produce about 1% of the world's emissions.

I could go on but it would be veering too far into politics...

What they are trying to do is bring the inevitable (if we don't stop now) consequences of pollution home to the wider public.

 

[SUBBlue]

What they are trying to do is bring the inevitable (if we don't stop now) consequences of pollution home to the wider public.

I was walking along the beach & the amount of plastic I found & collected in mere minutes, from large chunks to small fragments caught up in seaweed, was horrifying

Sadly, making a tidy profit comes a long way ahead of resolving pollution on our precious planet.

Honestly I fear it is already too late.
People just won’t get it until we’re past the point of no return.

I can’t help thinking that the best thing for this Earth is for humanity to disappear.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

I was walking along the beach & the amount of plastic I found & collected in mere minutes, from large chunks to small fragments caught up in seaweed, was horrifying

Sadly, making a tidy profit comes a long way ahead of resolving pollution on our precious planet.

Honestly I fear it is already too late.
People just won’t get it until we’re past the point of no return.

I can’t help thinking that the best thing for this Earth is for humanity to disappear.

Amazes me that people still go swimming off Chalkwell Beach or wherever. No chance I’m going in that water.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Amazes me that people still go swimming off Chalkwell Beach or wherever. No chance I’m going in that water.

Seem to remember renting an air B& B (some time ago now) in Thorpe Bay and the postiie (who owned the place was more than a tad suprised that I went swimming just outside).As a lad who grew up in WOS and was always happy to swim there and in LOS I'm sorry to say that your opinion is shared by many locals I've talked to over recent years.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

The Thames has been a dumping ground for sewage for years. Probably cleaner now than when we were kids but we were less aware of it. The super sewer to Beckton might improve things but the whole things a nightmare. Too much ****, too much rain in the same system.

 

[RHB]

The Dyson Gen5detect Absolute Pet Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. Always been a fan of Dyson technology but this latest offering is eye wateringly expensive at £850 from Argos.