When we’re all being encouraged to show off to the world a ‘greener Britain’ in the run-up to the great COP26, what do we find? There’s nothing green about our rivers and seas.
Brown is a better choice of colour. This was evident in a social media-sharing video that showed untreated sewage being pumped into Langstone Harbour in Hampshire. A local filmmaker said that the outfall from a pipe measuring 7 feet in diameter continued for 49 hours. You wouldn’t want your children to be taking a dip there, would you?
I spend a lot time by the seaside in Hampshire, which extends across to Dorset. I’ve often been tempted to go for a swim in the Solent. It’s the best form of exercise there is, especially as you get older and need to keep muscles in the arms, hips and legs moving merrily.
A video shared on social media shows untreated sewage being pumped to the sea at Langstone Harbour, Hampshire. Pictured: Langstone
I ruled that out this summer when I learned that our local authority, Southern Water, had been fined £90 million for dumping sewage into the sea.
Ah, I thought, that’ll teach them. They’re bound to make improvements. Then, I found out that the Environment Bill amendment which would have prevented such filth from happening, was defeated by the Government 12 hours earlier.
Feargal Sharkey, singer and clean-water campaigner, points out that Southern Water is still dumping waste into our waters. Its own data showed that waste water — which includes untreated sewage — had been dumped at 60 locations across the south coast. This is permitted under the current rules, but it’s remarkable.
This was not an uncommon practice in the days prior to 1989’s privatization of water companies.
Jenni Murray (pictured) said it’s becoming clear that investment and profit are overriding what should be a given — that water is essential to life and health
I don’t recall encountering anything quite so disgusting when I was learning to swim in the 1950s in the North Sea off Scarborough, but my husband, on the other side of the country at Birkenhead, remembers him and his brothers spending weekends swimming there and having a laugh about what were known as ‘Mersey goldfish’. It’s a wonder none of them died from cholera.
There were serious attempts to clean up beaches, rivers and seas in the 1960s and 70s. Those were the days of state-owned water authorities, which were considered a public service. But since privatisation, it’s becoming clear that investment and profit are overriding what should be a given — that water is essential to life and health and making that a priority should be of huge importance to politicians.
My least favourite night of the year is on the horizon — and haven’t we been made to know it? Children in horror masks running about, fireworks pinging off around us. Has everyone forgotten it’s not until October 31 that it’s OK to party? And trick or treat is not OK. Why do we teach our children that it’s acceptable to beg for sweets from a perfect stranger and threaten to do something nasty if they don’t come up with the goods? My door will remain locked.
A 2017 poll showed that 83% of respondents supported renationalization. Greenwich University worked out that we pay £2.3 billion more every year for our water than if it were still state-owned. In the 32 years since privatisation, that would amount to £73.6 billion, which would have gone nicely towards the £650 billion it is said is needed to improve what’s still a Victorian sewage system. Meanwhile, water company bosses last year scooped £13 million in pay and bonuses, despite their firms discharging raw sewage into England’s rivers 400,000 times.
For the moment, any health-giving swimming that I indulge in will only be done in a local swimming swimming pool. I feel sorry for my friends who are obsessed with wild swimming. I even know an 80-year old who swims in the ocean every morning on the south coast. I hope she doesn’t encounter anything horrid tangled up in the seaweed. Yuk!
Tatt’s not a good look, Angelina
Jenni stated that Angelina Jolie’s (pictured), elaborate tattoos all across her back struck her in photos published this Week. She wondered why someone so perfect would have their skin inked such a way.
Some women are simply breathtaking. Angelina Jolie was one such woman. I interviewed her in 2013 as she was collaborating with William Hague to highlight the sexual violence against women in conflict.
She was beautiful, with perfect bone structure. So it wasn’t her slightly dodgy hair extensions that struck me in photos published this week, but the elaborate tattoos all over her back. Why would someone born with such beauty have their skin inked this way? She may sag one day and her tatts might not be as symmetrical.
If only today’s children could use cutlery!
Jenni said news that more than half of British children do not eat with a knife and fork shows a serious failure on the part of parents who don’t strictly enforce table manners (file image)
It is shocking to learn that more than half the children in Britain don’t use a knife or fork when eating. Sixty percent eat with just their hands, many will lick their plates and talk with their full mouths. That’s a serious failure on the part of parents who don’t strictly enforce table manners. It’s a terrible social disadvantage, even in these more relaxed times, not to know which knife, fork and spoon to use in which order at a formal occasion.
Children should learn to sit straight up at the table, engage in interesting conversations, and put their phones down.
Teen girls need a good time.
Jenni praises Brighton Girls School for introducing laughter classes, as they could prove the antidote to all the stress they’re getting from Facebook and Instagram (file image)
They say laughter is the best medicine — and I can confirm it. After feeling very depressed, I decided to join a laughter class outside on Hampstead Heath, North London, years ago.
The laughter was, of course, false. We were made to do it. After an hour, we all laughed because we found the funny parts hilarious. At the end, we all felt so much better.
Brighton Girls School deserves praise for teaching such lessons to its pupils.
It could prove the antidote to all the stress they’re getting from Facebook and Instagram. It’s okay to have fun, girls.