Ashley Smith

UPDATE: Cruelty is bad for business & @BrittanyFerries knows it. The ferry company doesn’t want its passengers to know that they’re travelling with unfed, unweaned calves. They’ve hidden thousands of comments on socials. Keep tagging them to make it clear: calves aren’t cargo!

@Feargal_Sharkey And it is not complicated - it is board-led deliberate criminality. Easy explainer in the link. windrushwasp.org/single-post/th…

"Clearly government is now complicit in presiding over one of the greatest acts of criminality and lawbreaking that we’ve witnessed in the modern world in this country. The truth is, government needs to start bringing criminal charges against the executives and boards of those water companies that were knowingly, wilfully disregarding the law.”. Me speaking to @thetimes thetimes.com/uk/environment…

Thame Water offers to pay £25 million to environment charities and local community groups, but only if Ofwat allow TW to scrap their "outcome delivery incentives", over the next 5 years. In other words allow us to wilfully, deliberately, knowingly break the law for the next 5 years and we'll bug eNGOs a £25 million bribe, simply to shut them up. But would any of the eNGOs accept TW's blood money? I know at least one that would rip their arms off. londonstockexchange.com/news-article/A…

Surely a market led solution to Thames Water would be all its customers leaving for a non profit, effective water company, and the previous boards being investigated for wrecking the region's infrastructure to extract cash? But what is coming is a too big to fail next generation scam of epic proportions underwritten by a captured and blackmailed government. Too harsh? thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/…

South East Water says it can't provide water to all new homes Water companies haven't built new reservoirs, paid dividends, govts did nothing Govt wants to build new homes but no infrastructure planning. That's what happens when you privatize essentials. independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

Now what a dream that would be to apply that to water company fat cats.

"Who are the key figures in the sewage crisis, and where are they now?" There are no good in this story just the bad and the ugly. The men and women who screwed the environment and water company customers named and shamed. 👇👇👇 theguardian.com/environment/20…

"Thames Water creditors offer ‘best and final’ rescue funding deal." It really is time govt out a stop to this nonsense. This year alone has cost customers an extra £800 million in interest payments. It's time to put Thames Water back into public ownership. cityam.com/thames-water-c…

@Feargal_Sharkey I've just submitted a uni paper (3rd year undergraduate) in which ive cited this scandal and the fact nobody is held criminally responsible, whereas over 1000 climate protesters were arrested in London in 2019 for exposing the lack of response to catastrophic ecological harms!

Last year water companies sewage works illegally dumped sewage on 15,000 dry-days. Yep that's right, there was no rain, no snowmelt, nothing, no reason whatsoever why WCs should be dumping sewage. But where are the investigations, the prosecutions, the water industry fact cats going to jail? Yea, you already know the answer. thetimes.com/uk/environment…

Since privatisation water companies have taken more than £85billion in dividend and piled up more than £60billion of debt. Yet all capital and operational costs are covered by bill payers. So why keep a privatised structure for a natural monopoly like water?

The Fingleton review is the ultimate test for Labour on nature. If they agree against all expert advice to weaken habitat regulations they are declaring war on nature lovers. To accept the recommendations in full is to lick the boots of the lobbyists who trample our wildlife.

Competition regulator allows additional 2% -4% increase in England water bills on appeal. Regulators side with industry. Companies to collect more money from captive customers, dump sewage in rivers, pay dividends, exorbitant exec pay. Rip-off continues gov.uk/government/new…

Thames Water's fat cat crime boss Chris Weston refuses to meet with Basingstoke council leaders. Yep, that the kind of arrogance you get when you know you're never going to be investigated, know you're never going to be prosecuted, know you'll never be held to account. The water industry is nothing more than a criminal enterprise operating in a failed state. basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/25923388.…

'Thames Water focused on shareholder returns' and let the infrastructure slide. The company's cash extraction business model laid bare by its own valuation report. The privatised water disease. When will we shake it off?

The big questions from MP Barry Gardiner show that the Secretary of State either has no idea how privatised water works or is pretending that she doesn't because it is such a scam. Investing our money, not theirs, and charging us ridiculous fees for doing it. The time to end it is now, before it does the country even more harm.

@B_Strawbridge Top notch rescue

My husband rescued over 100 #toads this morning... Stuck in just a few inches of water, at the bottom of a deep-sided pit under a grate . He walked over the grate a few times before he noticed movement and realised what it was. Thank goodness he was able to reach them!

I live on a new build estate with a large pond in the centre. Every year, as they have done for hundreds of years, the toads return to the pond. They encounter walls and kerbs. They follow the kerbs and end up in the drains. So do the newts. I pull out hundreds per year. I use a sieve taped to a stick. Don't ever lean into a drain. Someone drowned horribly once.