You’d think with his origins in Northern Ireland and his fishy name, Sharkey would know better than to say ‘in this country’ for the Anglocentric Guardian.
A quick factcheck tells us:
The flows and levels in Scotland’s water environment are currently at good or better condition in 90% of rivers, lochs and groundwaters. This is up from 88% when we published the second RBMPs.
https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/water/scotland-s-freshwater/
Why is this the case?
Does Scotland show there is an alternative to this system? Scottish Water is a wholly public entity directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament. It offers lower bills than any of the English companies, and invests around 35% more in infrastructure. This is delivering results for the Scottish taxpayer and public.
https://www.brexitspotlight.org/scottish-water-is-publicly-run-and-67-of-its-rivers-are-in-good-health-england-shows-this-isnt-a-coincidence/
I’m going to stop after this but should I check with James Kelly in case this is just outright propaganda and I should spend more time on the real issues such as gender or poll methodology.
Talking-up Scotland 
haha , good point , facts are not propaganda as we know all to well reading your superb website.Mr Kelly having a rant but who knows why ? Some of his stuff is good but occasionally in my humble opinion he goes awry, why he picked a fight with you who knows ?
This information you provide about Scottish Water is so welcome especially when compared to the disastrous privatisation examples in England .
Governance in England is crap
Privatisation of essentials is crap
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mr Sharkey is clearly doing the rounds. Last week he was on the front page of the Daily Ranger carping about the state of seas and rivers. Of course the Ranger splashed (sorry!) this because it says: SCOTLAND BAD.
The Guardian had an article last week by Gaby Hinsliff bewailing the state of “Britain’s waters”, but the article was entirely about the conduct of the privatised water companies in England – no reference to Wales of NI in her article either.
I emailed the Guardian immediately saying broadly what you have written. Of course there was no correction or publication of my letter.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hmm, there is a world water shortage, ie clean drinkable usable water, it’s now a massive issue. There are satellites up there (NASA put one up recently) so they can track, see where the water is, who has it etc. The EngGov/cabal must be desperate to get their dirty scheming paws on Scotland’s water and they will if Scotland does not escape from their GRIP. I get scared that someone might deliberately try to contaminate a Scottish river, because the fact that Scotland has so much water, without sewage being dumped into it like they do in England, must be one of the things really annoying the English establishment.
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-raw-sewage-blights-once-idyllic-beaches.html
LikeLike
Ignorance over Scotland’s waters from an English perspective is part political spin – HMG don’t want England’s public realising the public-owned Scottish model has avoided the disastrous tinkering by London – Were public awareness of better and cheaper performance in Scotland to become more widely know, the plebs might demand reversal of privatisation, and that would never do.
Hence the irregular and frankly disgraceful ‘Disclosure’ and ‘Ferret’ specials on pollution keep the public in ignorance.
We tend to forget there are also private treatment plants operating in Scotland, mainly industrial, even though the bulk remains Scottish Water responsibility.
– But there is an even more crucial difference to explain England’s condition – SEPA has not been diminished in it’s powers or ability to police the environment but consistently reinforced with SG support.
The opposite is true for England – The bandits operate the privatised plants, the sherrif has no deputies and the bullets are on back-order from DEFRA…..
LikeLike