oowee

Balance is what most of us want. Happy with prosperity, happy with profit but not at the expense of those less fortunate, disenfranchised. The country needs labour for balance following the disaster government we currently have. Our political system requires politics to flip as often as possible to maintain some measure of balance. If i recall you were the one that thought Trump and Boris had some merit. 🤣 It's often not about the colour of the party but the organisation within it. Starmer is making all the right noises to have a decent crack at change. That said he is unlikely to abolish the lords, get rid of first past the post, overhaul the NHS, tackle the war between Russia and Europe, resolve the Brexit disaster (maybe he will try). Meanwhile..... The rest of Europe is moving to a war time footing.

Some may want to project a neutral or even left leaning stance but the motive will be power and profit a right wing objective.

Maybe you should have voted Corbyn. The companies are privately owned, largely from pension funds. You would expect and want money to be invested in the company to tackle issues of supply. Investors won't do it without a return.

The wealthy are most likely to be on the right of politics. The wealthy will have greater propensity to fund the media.

If we leave it to the market the market will by it's nature fund the right of politics hardly a balanced view point. They will be bought by our enemies. Even Truth Social looks like it's now backed by China.

I cannot believe the regulator has not asked them to tackle these problems up front and allowed them to increase water prices to do it.

If it's commercial it can be bought. If its government it can be swayed. GB news is a load of ....... Your statement we have enough left wing media sums it up. We have enough paid for media. The BBC is the nearest we have to independent, lets keep it that way. The government in power is likely to see BBC bias against it as it is the government in power. Better to give the BBC x million settlement from each 5 year term parliament going forward (fixed by statute) a new remit to investigate and examine the performance of each government going forward.

They have no statutory right to object on the subject of run off, unlike the Environment Agency but their remit is related to direct flooding rather than overwhelming the sewage system. BBC ? Shareholder feedback my dear. Look at the data.

What would you suggest?

That's why we need to keep the BBC.

This whole story is a pile of poop. The regulator sets the profit. The regulator agrees the spend program for each company and has been pushing for prices to come down. The water companies should be allowed to keep prices in line with inflation and that would have allowed more spending on catchment for sewage. The companies have been focusing on increasing water quality (now some of the best in the world) and upgrading sewage treatment. Run off from new hard surfacing, which causes much of the problem, is increasing exponentially from new building. The water companies have to manage this down the line with no additional resource. Call for sanctions , fines and the like is to misunderstand the cause and the solution to the problem. If the investors are not allowed a market return (prices will increase) they will not invest. Simple's.

Some on here say they drop no problem with HMR. It's not what I find. I prefer .223 particularly as the ranges move out.

All Putin playthings. Anything and everything of controversy is exploited.

Russia is exploiting any issue, any point of friction in the west that it can use to its advantage. Its the volume of fake and disinfo that we are unable to deal with. A Classic is Baltimore Bridge. The moment the bridge hit the water posts on x ; 'It would be better to replace the Bridge than line the pockets of Zalensky'. As a democracy (first past the post) we are unable to deal with the fundamental changes needed to modernise our systems for example housing shortage, NHS, migration, climate change and so on. As the issues are magnified by our enemies, we lurch further to political extremes, Le Penn, Trump, Corbyn, Brexit, or whatever in the hope that change may be brought about. Russia is exploiting discontent with a series of systematic attacks through social media and we have no mechanisms to deal with it. The post above this one is another example. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/world/europe/princess-kate-middleton-russia-conspiracy.html#:~:text=Russian Group Spread Disinformation About Princess of Wales%2C Experts Say,about Catherine and her health. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/24/china-russia-fuelling-attacks-princess-wales-after-cancer/ https://inews.co.uk/news/kate-conspiracy-posts-russian-bots-fact-checked-2974477

There are something like 1 million posts a day coming out of Russian bots to amplify difficulties in the faced by the West for the benefit of Russia. Be that Kate, migrants, Ukraine, Baltimore Bridge, Brexit you name it. Much of this torrent of garbage gets picked up and amplified further until the population gets hysterical. The West has no protection from freedom of speech, equality, human rights or democracy itself.

How easy it is to be seduced by the ork narrative. Some would rather believe a dictatorship that cuts of the ears of captives, attacks neighbouring states, commits genocide, kidnaps children, shoots it's own soldiers t=rather than the statements of an accountable democracy. There was a live isis feed running at the time of the attack. There is no window to Ukraine without breaking through the Russian and Ukrainian lines and minefields. Potato head has confirmed that they were heading to Belarus.

Or we need people to use less resource.

I never voted for it. Maybe a question for those that did? Agreed it's a nonsense. It will get worse of course as we have to agree trade deals with the US. The runt of a litter often draws the short straw. That said we can look for other ways to do things, starting with farming and the environment.

We have to do Trade deals around the world following Brexit one of those is the new agreement with AUS. Sheep farming will become largely unsustainable without grant aid as we move further into the new FTA. Imports are currently increasing and limits on those imports are scheduled to be further removed. UK farm subsidies are moving from direct to environmental which makes sheep farming even less attractive. It will likely result in reduced food prices that was a key benefit of Brexit. It provides an opportunity to ditch sheep farming and move to other more profitable environment based activity. It's a win win. Cheaper food, more emphasis on environmental protection.

On what basis are we overpopulated? Seems to me we will have vast swathes of upland to do something with once the sheep are gone.

You never mentioned, rabbits, Sika, and Fallow or the far bigger impact that comes from man. None of the environment that you look at is natural. It is all a product of man's influence. Rather than millions have been spent eradicating the problems of rewilding it would be more accurate to say billions have been spent trying to undo the problems caused by man.

You got it. Like a real world jurassic park. You could have some locals in traditional dress wandering about and eco specialists explaining the ins and outs. It's got to be more rewarding than just throwing money at sheep herders. Not sure about the Tigers 😁 He has bought up tracts of land bordering the 1000 acre forest around Longleat. Removed the fences and kept land to join areas together. Quite clever. Not so good when 8 red deer (with tags) turn up unannounced in a barn on the adjacent dairy farm.

I am in SK every year the bears add interest. My brother in law often films and tracks them. This from Mikulas where the inlaws live https://www.facebook.com/reel/393023566675965/ Seems to me they need some management and an application has been made to the EU for this purpose but lacks the relevant study work to support it. Following Brexit, the lamb deals with Aus and NZ and the changing farm subsidies there should be large areas of this country currently put to sheep farming that will require new uses. Rewilding could present a huge opportunity for economic diversity. Mr Waldegrave is making a difference here with large deer releases and iron age pigs but they never stay in the areas released. 🤣

Looks like they have them all now. One minus an ear that he has been forced to eat but otherwise looks intact. Putin talks of window to Ukraine.

Death toll well over a hundred. Isis claim statement debunked but still looks to be them. Some of the perps caught. One interrogated at road side with boot on neck. 😞