Forum Topic

The boat race.

The Thames has been found to have high levels of E coli. What an advert for UK tourism.

Nicholas Beard ● 334d24 Comments

The Thames is tidal,  so it's constantly moving across the muddy base, and it kicks up silt as it moves.  It's never going to be clear,  and it has always been different shades of brown.  It's also been really choppy in the last week.  There was a suggestion that some of the Oxford crew were already suffering with sickness.

Nora Watkins ● 331d

YepAll that splashing each other at the finish must be a huge concern.Or possibly not so

Julian Pavey ● 331d

Just watched the race on TV.The overhead shots in particular. Maybe the Thames has always been that colour.But once the thought has entered your head, the idea that they were effectively rowing through raw sewagewas very hard to shift. michael adams

Michael Adams ● 331d

I remember standpipes in the street.

Philippa Bond ● 333d

Takes me back to my 1970s Friends of the Earth days, when, as well as collecting rainwater, we used bathwater to flush the toilet, and one of our number installed black painted radiators on his roof to provide slightly warm water out of a third tap installed in his kitchen sink! He also had a wind generator in his garden that charged car batteries that lit 12v bulbs dotted round the house, until the council said it was dangerous and banned it. It was a disappointment to us all when, in the end, renewable wind and solar ended up being provided by the same big utilities as we'd all been trying to get away from.

Peter Evans ● 333d

Railways were already in decline in the 1930s due to lower revenues and greater competition from the increasing use of roads.I know that privatisation "good" nationalisation "bad" is a sacred doctrine of the Conservative party, and Labour were the other way round back then, but for anyone wanting a bit more food for thought, the following might be of interest.https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-qa-should-we-nationalise-the-railways

Andrew Jones ● 333d

Yes, I was told that that the cost of water in the UK was one of the cheapest in Europe.  Our tap water is treated to drinking water standard so it is particularly crazy that we wash our cars and water our gardens with it when we could use rainwater.

Philippa Bond ● 333d

Isn't clean water considered a human right?

Philippa Bond ● 333d

According to radio reports foreign shareholders including the Chinese and some foreign state owned companies are refusing to put any more money into TW as it is a " poor investment ", so it's a case of "we've had your money you can all f*** off".Talk about taking the British public for mugs!

David Burke ● 333d

Oe would hope that government and unions had learned something from the previous nationalised industry model that we had all those years ago aand that 'nationalisation'might mean somethimg slightly more workable.They should at least put TW into temporary administration.I see on the BBC website that they are suggesting a 40% increase.I can't see how this is acceptable,being as how their shareholders have done very well for decades and now the mismanagement and profligacy have come to a head and we have to pay for it.Seems a bit like being held to ransom.And over a basic human need.

Keith Iddon ● 333d

Clement Attlee , probably the best Prime Minister Britain ever had, considering the predicament the Country was in following the war.

David Burke ● 333d

Maybe you are only referring to the Thames Water rates. Certainly in the south west and no doubt in other parts of the country they have been considerably higher.

Anne England ● 333d

The railways did a lot better before the Attlee Labour government nationalised them.

Richard Greenhough ● 333d

I pay more here than I used to pay when I lived in France or Belgium. And I used to see a lot less roadworks for the fixing of pipes and such like back then (water, in the places I used to live, is provided by the municipality).Privatising railways, water companies, and many public services is often not a good idea.

Francis Sheehan ● 333d

I'm told that our water bills are lower than in other countries in Europe.  Can anybody make a comparison?

Philippa Bond ● 334d

So the answer would be better regulation. Nationalised industries in this country have usually been inefficient and provided poor service to their customers.

Richard Greenhough ● 334d

The answer to your question is a resounding 'yes'. Privatisation of water created exploitative (and inadequately regulated) local monopolies. Shareholders' interests are prioritised over those of consumers.

Robert Fish ● 334d

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68682198

Richard Greenhough ● 334d

I wonder if the 'Float race' could be an equally thrilling spectacle.

Mark Frost ● 334d

Our youngest son is out rowing on the river most days and the irony of him getting fresh air and excercise on the one hand but doing so using a polluted river that he can't jump into is not lost on us.

Chris Blackwell ● 334d

Never mind the £20b Keith, what about the three hundred quid they owe me for my sub-soil they helped themselves to whilst building the Super Sewer?Looks like that's gone down the Swanny.

Adrian Irving ● 334d

Do you really think they would be better run if they were re-nationalised ? Experience suggests otherwise.

Richard Greenhough ● 334d

From all the blather on R4 this morning,expect your TW bills to rise substantially.They are £20B in debt.Renationalise I say.

Keith Iddon ● 334d

Although the way the water utilities operate is a national scandal, the Thames is not the best place to highlight. Unlike in most of the rest of the country's waterways, something is being done and the Tideway tunnel will largely end the problem of sewage overflow into the Thames next year.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 334d

According to publicly available data, by 26th March Thames Water had discharged sewage into the Greater London area of the River Thames for 1,914 hours since the start of 2024, equivalent to 79 days. The data comes from 40 storm overflow sites between Kingston and the mouth of the river in the east. Why do we put up with this?

Stewart Jones ● 334d