When I was out and about in the northern countryside last week, a Twitter shitstorm was kicking off, quite literally. It was all to do with water companies pumping raw sewage into Britain’s coastlines and rivers.

Amendment & U-Turns

In case you hadn’t noticed, it was all about an amendment in the Environment Bill. It was put forward by the Duke of Wellington, no less. The amendment was, on paper, a reasonable one. It was to ensure that water companies take all possible measures to avoid raw sewage going into our waterways.

256 Tory MP’s voted it down before a U-Turn caused by a surge of bad publicity.  Why on earth did they vote the amendment down? I am no fan of Tories, but surely even they don’t want raw turds floating through their riverside gardens? 

Complexities of Sewage

The answer to this is more complex than Tories simply being bastards. Over 70% of British Waterways are owned by foreign investors with offshore bank accounts. They are there to make a profit, so they minimise costs. You can guarantee several of them are directly linked to Tory donations and shareholding’s.

Add to that a shortage of water treatment chemicals due to post-Brexit distribution issues, and it is a big problem. The government will have been advised that if the sewage doesn’t go into the waterways, it will end up in peoples homes. Although some people would still vote Tory if they were wading around in fresh turds, it’s not necessarily a vote winner. Fresh turds in rivers is the lesser of two evil stenches.

The Politically Illiterate

Whilst I understand why Tories corrupted by water companies have found themselves in an awkward spot, I don’t get why the public are so indifferent to the natural world. Why is it okay to let a bunch of carpetbaggers allow offshore water companies to wreck the environment?

I think they get away with it because swathes of proletariat have been conned. They believe that not caring for the environment makes them look hard. You see it everywhere in the right-wing media. If you are concerned about global warming, you are a lefty snowflake worthy of a volley of abuse. 

Traditional conservatives who have shown concern for the environment are now marginalised by populism. This leaves us in a dangerous situation. We are now run by people who put lining their pockets before considering environmental risk. They are using the most politically illiterate among us to maintain their status.

How we got to the point where the lunatics are running the asylum, is a complex story for another day.