Labour Party

Pollution figures ‘the latest indicator of a water sector in total chaos’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pollution-figures-latest-indicator-water-sector-total-chaos

 A tanker pumps out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane sewage pumping station in Cookham, Berskhire

CALLS to nationalise the water sector intensified yesterday after it emerged that serious pollution incidents in England jumped by 60 per cent last year.

The Environment Agency reported 75 major incidents that fell under categories one and two, which can severely harm the environment and human health.

Serious incidents doubled from 14 to 33 at crisis-hit Thames Water, the watchdog found.

Southern Water was responsible for 15 of the incidents and Yorkshire Water for 13.

Pollution incidents across all categories had increased by 29 per cent, with 2,801 recorded last year. 

Thames Water recorded the most incidents again at 523, followed by Anglian Water (482) and United Utilities (376).

The rise was attributed to underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance and reduced resilience due to the impacts of climate change. 

We Own It founder Cat Hobbs said the figures “are the latest indicator of a water sector in total chaos.

“The roots of this chaos extend all the way back to when Thatcher privatised water in the 1980s — effectively flogging the family silver for a quick buck.

“Since then, private shareholders have stuffed their pockets with gold, amassing £80 billion in payouts. 

“They’ve killed our rivers and let the infrastructure crumble, while bill-payers pick up the tab.

“Recent research shows that the cost of public ownership could be close to zero. This solution could also save the public £3-5bn a year, making publicly owned water a source of income for the Treasury.”

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Continue ReadingPollution figures ‘the latest indicator of a water sector in total chaos’

Dear Keir Starmer: End The Profit-Driven Sewage Scandal

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Republished from https://www.sas.org.uk/updates/dear-keir-starmer. Please let me know if you don’t want me republishing it.

An open letter to the Government, signed by a coalition of environmental and civil society groups

Dear Keir Starmer, Prime Minister and Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs,

We demand an urgent end to the sewage scandal through systemic transformation of the water industry – public and environmental good must be put before private profit.

A year ago, you began your premiership with a clear commitment to deliver on your election mandate to end the sewage pollution crisis and clean up our waters. On Monday, the Independent Water Commission is set to publish its final recommendations but it will fall fatally short if it fails to confront the root cause of the crisis: a system built towards serving private profit cannot deliver an end to sewage pollution.

Your election mandate has given you a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our broken water system. But this will take more than incremental change—it demands a decisive break from the failed model that has deluged our coastlines, rivers and lakes with sewage.

The need for a full system overhaul is painfully clear. Since privatisation in 1990, water companies have paid shareholders over £74 billion in dividends—while burdening the system with £69 billion in debt. Despite repeated promises to invest, shareholders have actually withdrawn more than they have put in, meanwhile essential infrastructure has been left to crumble. In 2024 alone, untreated sewage was dumped 565,383 times across England and Wales. It’s a 35-year tale of broken pipes, broken promises and a fundamentally broken system.

The consequences of inaction are shocking. Coastal economies and communities are being hammered. Rivers declared ecologically dead. Pollution poisoning our wildlife. Thousands of people are falling ill after swimming in raw sewage. Yet water bills will keep rising – to service debt, to fund dividends – and so it is the public who will continue to pay the price.

Enough is enough. You must act now. Rebuild a system that people can be proud of, not angry about. A system that serves the public and protects nature – not private profit. Anything less would be a betrayal of the promise you made to the electorate.

Yours,

Surfers Against Sewage
River Action
Greenpeace UK
WWF UK
GMB Union
Compass
Zero Hour
Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland 
GMB Union
Public and Commercial Services Union
Green New Deal Rising
Wildlife and Countryside Link
Triodos Bank
Surfing England
The Wave Project
38 Degrees
Faith For The Climate
People & Planet
Medact
Health for XR 
Dirty Water Campaign
Blue Marine Foundation 
Women’s Environmental Network
Angling Trust
End Sewage Convoys and Pollution Exmouth (ESCAPE) 
SOS Whitstable
Campaign for National Parks
Centre for Alternative Technology
Finisterre
Carve Magazine
SurfGirl Magazine 
Planet Patrol
Rewilding Britain
Christian Surfers
Good Law Project
The Wildlife Trusts 
Clean Water Sport Alliance Wales
Clean Water Sport Alliance 
The Rivers Trust 
Right To Roam
Students Organising for Sustainability UK

Continue ReadingDear Keir Starmer: End The Profit-Driven Sewage Scandal

David Lammy Shouldn’t Have Given a Spin Doctor for Planetary Death a Plum Foreign Office Job

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https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/16/david-lammy-shouldnt-have-given-a-spin-doctor-for-planetary-death-a-plum-foreign-office-job

Karen Blackett. Photo: Gov.uk

Even if she did give him £5,000.

Last year, when UN Secretary General António Guterres said PR firms were “acting as enablers to planetary destruction” by working for fossil fuel clients, he didn’t name WPP specifically. But they were the main company he was talking about. The advertising behemoth has more clients in the oil industry than any rival.

Guterres, being a diplomat, uses mild language. In my opinion, WPP is the world’s leading spin doctor for planetary death.

And so I was surprised when I checked in on who David Lammy had appointed to the Foreign Office supervisory board, to see WPP’s recent UK President Karen Blackett is now one of the four non-executive directors – as I revealed last week over on Democracy for Sale.

The supervisory board provides “strategic direction,” and “oversight” for the department. Adverts for the roles say they are “significant contributors to both the operational and strategic leadership of the department. Their primary objective is to bring independent advice, support and challenge… helping to shape the department’s work.”

In February, lawyers for campaign group Badvertising and others submitted a complaint about WPP to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, arguing it was breaching its international guidelines on corporate responsibility. Its work for a number of fossil fuel and pollution intensive corporations, the lawyers said, “directly increases demand for carbon intensive products and undermines global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.

Why is that an organisation whose recently departed UK boss you’d want overseeing British foreign policy? Blackett spent 29 years working for WPP – three decades as a spin doctor at an advertising behemoth which represents some of the most destructive corporations on the planet. How can her advice possibly be independent? How can the perspectives and viewpoints of clients not have imprinted on her?

As the Badvertising website says, “for every rights-abusing, climate-wrecking corporation, there’s an advertising agency working hard to clean up their public image. And no one does this better than the world’s biggest ad firm, WPP”.

Last month, climate activists occupied WPP’s London headquarters, demanding it cut ties with clients including Shell, BP, Total, ExxonMobil, Drax and Saudi Aramco.

…

Article continues: https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/16/david-lammy-shouldnt-have-given-a-spin-doctor-for-planetary-death-a-plum-foreign-office-job

UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party's support for and complicity in Israel's genocide of Gaza.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Continue ReadingDavid Lammy Shouldn’t Have Given a Spin Doctor for Planetary Death a Plum Foreign Office Job

Protesters defy Palestine Action ban

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Original article republished from Freedom under the Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Protesters defy Palestine Action ban

96 arrested around England ahead of legal challenge to group’s proscription, no arrests in Edinburgh and Derry

~ Tim Simon ~

Nearly 100 more people across England have been arrested today (19 July) under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying “I oppose genocide—I support Palestine Action”. Protest group Defend Our Juries reported that 55 people were arrested in Parliament Square in London, 17 in Bristol, 16 in Manchester, and 8 in Truro. In contrast, protests in Edinburgh and Derry were left undisturbed.

In Truro, police were slow to respond to the display at first, handing out leaflets outlining the legislation surrounding support for proscribed groups. They later began to slowly arrest those holding the signs—among them 81 year-old Deborah Hinton, a former magistrate.

Edinburgh. Photo: Defend Our Juries

In a statement made during their arrest, one activist stated: “We want Yvette Cooper to remove the proscription of Palestine Action. We want the government to take action on genocide and to stop complying with Israel in killing and slaughtering babies, women, children, and men. If this was in 1930s Germany, it would be the same as helping the Nazis with their concentration camps”.  

The ban on the group was announced by Cooper after supporters of Palestine Action entered the RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes. The High Court is to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Monday, when Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori will seek permission for a full judicial review of the group’s proscription.

Top photo: Protesters at Truro Cathedral

Original article republished from Freedom under the Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Continue ReadingProtesters defy Palestine Action ban

Giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote is a long-overdue step towards a stronger, more inclusive democracy say Greens

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Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.

Responding to the government’s announced plans to give votes to 16 and 17 year olds, Green Party MP, Ellie Chowns said: 

“On this one, Labour have got it right. Giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote is a long-overdue step towards a stronger, more inclusive democracy. Young people have powerful voices and a vital stake in decisions about their future — it’s only right that they have a say at the ballot box.

But if Labour are serious about renewing our democracy, this must be just the beginning. We need to go further — that means scrapping the undemocratic House of Lords, and finally delivering proportional representation so that every vote counts.”

Continue ReadingGiving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote is a long-overdue step towards a stronger, more inclusive democracy say Greens