Mark Perryman

Wow. On Tuesday 107 MPs met frontline sewage campaigners, including those featured in Channel 4’s 'Dirty Business', to hear directly about their experience and what needs to change. Campaigners, including prominent figures like @Feargal_Sharkey, had one clear message: it’s time for public ownership.

In the more than decade I have had the privilege of serving as your MP for Norwich South, I don’t think I have ever attended a meeting quite as moving as the one we held in Parliament this week. We hosted the people behind Channel 4’s Dirty Business. It tells the true story of campaigners and families who have spent years fighting not just water companies, but a system that was meant to protect us and has too often failed. Many of you will know that since introducing my Private Member’s Bill to bring water back into public ownership, I have been raising these issues in Parliament and beyond. I have heard the evidence. I have read the reports. I have listened to accounts of pollution, regulatory failure, and companies putting profit before the public good. But nothing prepares you for sitting in a room with people who have lived the consequences. The most difficult moment came when we heard from a mother who lost her daughter after exposure to polluted water. Her story is part of the series, but hearing it in person was something else entirely. To hear her voice break as she described the moment she lost her child is something I will not forget. There was no anger in her tone. No performance. Just grief, dignity, and a determination that no other family should go through what she did. At the end of the meeting, she came over to speak to me. She gave me a hug and thanked me for the work we have been doing to bring water back into public ownership. I have to be honest. That meant more to me than almost anything else I have experienced in Parliament. Because in that moment, this stopped being about policy, or process, or politics. It became about something much simpler. What kind of country allows this to happen? And what kind of country decides it will not allow it to happen again? For years, we have been told that this system works. That it just needs tweaking. Better regulation. Stronger oversight. But when a system allows pollution on this scale, when it fails families in this way, when it continues to reward failure with profit, we have to be honest about what we are dealing with. This is not a system that is broken. It is a system doing exactly what it was designed to do. That is why I believe there is no alternative to bringing our water back into public, democratic ownership. Not as an abstract idea. Not as ideology. But because it is the only way to align this essential service with the public interest. The people I met this week are not politicians. They are not lobbyists. They are ordinary members of the public who have given years of their lives to holding power to account. They are the ones who have tested the water, gathered the evidence, fought the legal battles, and refused to be ignored. They are the ones who have carried this issue when others would not. They are, quite simply, the reason this fight continues. And it will continue. Because water is not just another commodity. It is something we all rely on, something we all share, and something that should belong to all of us. So we keep going.

Labour needs a reset in order to transform the country. Today, Mainstream’s three candidates for the CLP section of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) have joined others from all across the party in signing the Reset the Labour Party statement. resetlabour.co.uk

The Government needs to realise more regulation won’t fix our broken water system. We need to kick financial predators out & take it back into public control. But don’t just take it from me. Listen to a sewage campaigner who inspired Channel 4’s ‘Dirty Business’. @WindrushWasp

I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to raise my concerns about the impact of Universal Credit rules on food poverty in Norwich. Under the rules, new Universal Credit claimants must wait five weeks before they receive their first payment. In a survey of Universal Credit claimants, the Trade Union Congress found that nearly 1 in 10 respondents cited having to use foodbanks to get by while waiting for their first payment. The Government should end the 5 week wait and take action to close this gap in provision driving food poverty. @norwichfoodbank

Gorton and Denton Reform's vote was settled. Most knew their preference long in advance. Most progressive voters meanwhile were still debating who to go for with two weeks. Note Labour's vote -- very shaky. Could have gone much worse for them. This tells us quite a bit. 1/2

Channel 4’s ‘Dirty Business’ revealed the human cost of privatised water. We need public ownership. I’m co-hosting an MP drop-in tomorrow to hear from frontline water activists. Ask your MP to attend: actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-yo… @CleanIlkley @WindrushWasp

Our privatised water system epitomises so many things that are wrong in our society today. People instinctively know they are getting ripped off. I spoke at the Green Gathering on how public ownership could, among many other things, help renew our atrophied democratic muscles.

In Saint-Denis, LFI is on the way to winning the mayoral election in the first round and taking control of one of France’s largest cities, with a population of 150,000.

Honestly a massive night for LFI. They are an undeniable local force. They've won big in places, and they are kingmakers in others. The vacillating center left will turn to them to win against the right. Political earthquake, LFI is here to stay, well positioned for 2027.

5 consecutive Isthmian Premier wins, a first in club history? ✅ Our highest ever points tally at Step 3, already confirmed? ✅ Mathematically safe with 7 games left, after everyone tipped us to finish bottom? ✅ And playing some outstanding football along the way? ✅ Jay Lovett and Gary Mansell. Creating club history, week in and week out. 👏 💚🖤 #COYH

Morning on a #SocialistSunday the latest Labour Left Podcast has just been published and it’s with Paul Holden the author of the Fraud. If you want to understand the Labour Together story it’s essential viewing. Link in replies 1/2

... and breathe!

Horrified to see Hannah Spencer being subjected to this during her maiden speech - and sadly know its common place attack on women in public life. Attacking women for what they look like shows you fear what they say. Or that they can speak without your consent at all. It speaks more to your insecurities than them..

More details of my talk @GlosHistFest (which will also include something on early plays of Dennis Potter) gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk/events/radical…

Aigburth (Liverpool) Council By-Election Result: 🌍 GRN: 45.3% (+29.8) 🔶 LDM: 36.9% (-13.4) 🌹 LAB: 10.3% (-21.6) ➡️ RFM: 7.0% (New) 🌳 CON: 0.5% (-1.8) Green GAIN from Liberal Democrat. Changes w/ 2024.

Aigburth (Liverpool Council) By-election: 🟢 Green GAIN from Lib Dems Votes: 🟢Green: 782 (45.0%) 🔶Lib Dem: 637 (36.7%) 🌹Labour: 177 (10.2%) ➡️Reform: 121 (7.0%) 🙋Independent: 12 (0.7%) 🌳Conservative: 8 (0.5%) Turnout: 1737 (42.7%)

Peter Mandelson represents a rotten political culture, where proximity to wealth and power are the end goal. This has to change.

'The Starmer Symptom' is coming to London! Sat 21st March with @jemgilbert @labourlewis @y_alibhai and me @MarkPerryman. Presented by @PeoplesMomentum Tickets here : eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-starmer-… @AlfieSteer @kmflett @Neal_Compass @mainstreamlbr

Westminster Voting Intention: RFM: 23% (=) CON: 19% (+3) GRN: 19% (-2) LAB: 17% (+1) LDM: 14% (=) Via @YouGov, 9-10 Mar. Changes w/ 1-2 Mar.