Colin Skellett and David Cameron in 2011. Wessex Water paid Skellett £157,000 for three months’ work from July to September 2024, when he stepped down as chief executive after 36 years in charge. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy
Company owners say bonus was unrelated to water business and complied with ban after pollution conviction
The former chief executive of Wessex Water received a £170,000 bonus from its parent company last year despite a ban on performance-related pay after criminal pollution failures on his watch.
Colin Skellett received a total of £693,000 in pay from the water company’s Malaysian-owned parent company, YTL Utilities (UK), including the bonus, according to its accounts up to June 2025.
The bonus prompted strong criticism from the Liberal Democrats, which said it showed that the government’s bonus ban was “nowhere near strong enough”.
Wessex was banned from paying bonuses for the year after it was criminally convicted in November 2024 for a sewage pumping station failure six years earlier, which killed more than 2,000 fish and resulted in the company paying a fine of £500,000. In June the government banned bonuses covering the 2024-25 financial year for the chief executives and finance bosses of Wessex and five other companies. Wessex received another £11m fine last month over more sewage failures.
However, the water industry regulator, Ofwat, said that Skellett was able to retain the bonus under the law, because it was related to a different part of the parent company’s business. YTL is developing housing, offices and an arena in an area north of Bristol known as Brabazon.
A spokesperson for Wessex and YTL said that the bonus “entirely relates to his new role and was entirely funded by YTL. In his new role Colin is responsible for YTL UK group businesses including the development of Brabazon New Town”.
April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
An Israeli soldier was filmed running over a praying Palestinian man with his ATV outside the village of Deir Jarir, outside Ramallah in the West Bank, on December 25, 2025. (Screenshot from video posted by Nurit Yohanan/Times of Israel)
A group of Israeli military veterans called his punishment “just a slap on the wrist” and “state-backed impunity for state-backed terror.”
Israeli police have released a soldier from custody after he was filmed running his vehicle over a Palestinian man who was praying outside the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
A silent video of the incident, which both Israeli and Palestinian outlets reported on Thursday, shows an Israeli settler with a rifle slung over his back driving his all-terrain vehicle (ATV) toward a 23-year-old Palestinian man as he knelt in prayer on the roadside.
After barrelling over the man, the settler shouted something in his direction and backed up, then gestured for him to move.
The settler then turned his ATV around, got off, and shouted something at a Palestinian taxi driver. The injured Palestinian man then stood up, approaching the cab. The settler again shooed him off before hopping back on the ATV and speeding away.
חייל מילואים על טרקטורון דרס פלסטיני בזמן שהתפלל לצד הכביש מוקדם יותר היום, ליד דיר ג'ריר באזור רמאללה. בצה"ל מתחקרים את האירוע pic.twitter.com/SjVDddBHmR
Majdi Abu Mokho, the father of the Palestinian man, said his son now has pain in both legs after he was struck.
Mokho toldAgence France-Presse: “The assailant is a known settler. He set up an outpost near the village, and with other settlers he comes to graze his livestock, blocks the road, and provokes the residents.”
He also said the settler blinded him with pepper spray after hitting his son, though this is not shown in the video.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the driver as an Israeli reserve soldier with one of its regional defense units. These battalions have dramatically expanded in recent years with backing from Israel’s right-wing government, which contains many officials at the center of the settler movement.
Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli military veterans critical of the occupation of Palestine, has referred to the regional defense units—which have been responsible for many other attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank—as “no more than settler militias in uniform.”
The IDF said the soldier’s weapon has been confiscated and that he’s been suspended due to the “severity of the incident,” which the IDF said it was investigating. The IDF has not released the soldier’s name.
An initial probe found that the same settler had opened fire in the village of Deir Jarir, north of Ramallah, earlier that same day, in an incident that resulted in a young Palestinian man being injured by gunfire.
During that altercation, which was also caught on film, a group of masked settlers was seen hurling rocks at the village’s entrance. According to Palestinian sources who spoke with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz,the targets of the attack were villagers who were grazing their cattle near their homes.
In another video, a masked man—who the IDF identified as the same reservist responsible for the ATV attack—is seen firing his weapon in the direction of the camera. The IDF said that by opening fire inside the village while in civilian clothes, the soldier had committed a “serious breach of his authority.”
According to the Times of Israel, Israeli police released the settler reservist from custody on Friday. He has been placed under house arrest for five days and is banned from approaching Deir Jarir, where the incident occurred, or from contacting anyone else connected with the case.
The violent incident is the latest in a year that has seen a record number of attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers against Palestinian villagers.
According to official figures, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,130 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000, since October 2023, when Israel launched its two-year genocide in Gaza following Hamas’ attack.
إصابة طفلة رضيعة بحجارة مليشيات المستوطنين خلال هجوم نفذته فجر اليوم في منطقة الربيعة ببلدة سعير شمال الخليل، تخلله حرق مركبات وهجوم على المنازل. pic.twitter.com/GIr31vMNBZ
On the same day as the ATV attack, Israeli police announced that they had arrested five Israeli settlers over their alleged involvement in an ambush against a Palestinian home, which resulted in “moderate injuries to the face and head” of an eight-month-old Palestinian girl, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
While the IDF says it is investigating the ATV attack along with local police, attacks by Israeli settlers are often treated with leniency.
In January 2025, the Israeli watchdog group Yesh Din reported that across more than 1,700 reports of religious or politically motivated hate crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two decades, nearly 94% of them were closed without any indictment being filed, and only 3% resulted in a conviction.
Although there has been a documented rise in killings by Israeli settlers since October 2023, not a single one of those cases has resulted in an indictment, and only about a quarter have resulted in investigations by Israeli authorities.
Critics found the punishment of the reservist to be similarly lackluster and the latest example of settlers’ immunity from justice.
“Israeli reserve soldier intentionally runs over Palestinian praying on the side of the road,” said Rabbi David Mivasair, an activist with the Canadian group Independent Jewish Voices. “His punishment: his weapon was taken away, and he was suspended from the reserves… nothing more.”
Breaking the Silence called the punishment “just a slap on the wrist” and “state-backed impunity for state-backed terror.”
Others noted that nearly 8,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons indefinitely without trial, including in Israel’s “administrative detention” system, which allows them to be confined based on secret evidence that they and their lawyers cannot see.
Israel has justified it as a measure to prevent terrorism. However, in January, the government banned Israeli settlers from being held under those same administrative detention orders, with Defense Minister Israel Katz saying the goal was “to convey a clear message of strengthening and encouraging the settlements.”
Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian human rights activist, said of the ATV attack: “Had the victim been Israeli and the attacker Palestinian, the sentence would be life in prison. That is why it is called apartheid.”
Following the attack, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reiterated its calls for the US Congress to stop sending military aid to the Israeli government.
“This shocking and dehumanizing act is yet another example of the unchecked violence and abuse Palestinians face daily under Israel’s illegal occupation,” the group said. “Brazenly running over a man while he prays is enabled by a system that grants near-total impunity to illegal settlers. The Trump administration must end its silence and take concrete steps to hold the Israeli government accountable for these ongoing human rights abuses.”
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object 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.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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To say Nigel Farage and Reform are in the cross-hairs right now could prove to be the understatement of the year. After soaring high in the voting intention polls throughout 2025, one survey has shown that their lead over the chasing pack has dropped significantly in recent weeks.
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Red Ribbons campaign by the Palestinian Forum in Britain in support of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyyah and Palestinian detainees
The Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) has announced the launch of a new solidarity campaign calling for the release of Dr Hossam Abu Safiya and all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons. The campaign will take the form of a calm, symbolic action titled the “Red Ribbons Campaign”, to be held on Saturday 20 December at Oxford Circus in central London, at 1:00 pm.
The Forum explained that the event is neither a demonstration nor a protest march, but a silent, peaceful act of solidarity. Participants will hang red ribbons and display specially designed posters carrying clear demands for freedom and justice, conveying a humanitarian message to British and international public opinion about the suffering of Palestinian prisoners.
The Forum invited participants to bring red ribbons if possible, stressing that presence alone is a statement, and that quiet, symbolic solidarity can be more powerful than slogans, particularly amid ongoing attempts to criminalise or restrict pro-Palestine advocacy in the British public sphere.
The red ribbon: a global symbol for the prisoners’ cause
In a clarifying statement, the Palestinian Forum in Britain emphasised that the campaign aims to establish the red ribbon as a global symbol for raising awareness of the Palestinian prisoners’ cause, and to highlight their situation as hostages of the occupation—especially in light of what it described as an “unprecedented escalation in policies of arrest, isolation, starvation and enforced disappearance”.
The Forum noted that the choice of red reflects danger, urgency and the ongoing human bleeding inside prisons, serving as an open call to the global conscience not to normalise silence in the face of these violations.
Shocking figures on the reality of prisoners as of December 2025
The campaign draws on documentation by Palestinian prisoners’ rights institutions and figures released by the Israeli Prison Service up to December 2025, which reveal a stark and brutal reality:
The total number of prisoners and detainees in Israeli occupation prisons stands at approximately 9,300, the majority of whom are detainees and administrative prisoners, excluding those held in Israeli army camps.
The number of sentenced prisoners has reached 1,254.
There are 51 female prisoners, including two children.
Around 350 child prisoners are being held in Ofer and Megiddo prisons.
The number of administrative detainees has reached 3,350.
Some 1,220 detainees are classified as “unlawful combatants”—a figure that does not include all Gaza detainees held in army camps, and which also includes Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria.
The Forum stressed that these figures point to a system of mass detention based on the denial of the most basic legal and human rights, constituting a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
An open call for solidarity
The Palestinian Forum in Britain concluded its statement by calling on all people of conscience in Britain to take part in the Red Ribbons Campaign, affirming that the prisoners’ cause—foremost among them Dr Hossam Abu Safiya—is not solely a Palestinian issue, but one of justice and human dignity that deserves to remain at the heart of public discourse, regardless of mounting attempts at marginalisation or exclusion.
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object 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.
