Alex Cole-Hamilton is in the Guardian today to comment on Environmental Standards Scotland’s report on sewage overflows. ESS are ‘independent’ with no apparent funding declared.
What will look bad at first sight for some, is a classic example of misleading reporting. Scotland has 18 743 km of coastline compared to England’s 8 982, only one-tenth of the population and, crucially far fewer areas requiring monitoring.
Dr Simon Boxall of Southampton University, a leading expert on water quality, explained this in the National, in August 2022:
An overview of the most obvious data on bathing water quality superficially appears to show Scotland actually has poorer-quality bathing spots than England.
But this is only half the picture, according to one of the UK’s leading experts on water quality.
Scottish swimmers paddling in and around Scotland’s 18,743km coastline do enjoy cleaner water than those taking a dip down south, said Dr Simon Boxall, based at the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University.
Looking at the monitored “bathing waters” in Scotland paints a slightly misleading picture of overall water quality in the country, he told The National.
Compared with England, Scotland’s monitored swimming spots are poorer quality: just 38% of the 85 identified locations were recognised as “excellent” according to EU standards, compared with 71% of those in England.
Most of Scotland’s waters are not cause for concern, he said, meaning they did not need the same level of monitoring as takes place in England.
He added: “I would say Scotland does a better job [of monitoring] than England does.”
“If we’re not going into some of the more remote parts, for example north-west Scotland, because there’s no need to, I know full well the beaches up there are phenomenally good,” he added.
“If they are focusing their efforts on areas which are likely to suffer from pollution, then they’ll get more positives – in terms of pollution – than if they are doing the fairly broad-sweep approach of looking at every 10km on the south coast of England.
“So, you are going to find patchiness – there are going to be parts of Scotland, if you look at the Clyde estuary for example where you’ve got a huge population, you’re going to have a higher level of pollution.”
“To be fair to Scotland, they’re actually not monitoring a lot of the areas which don’t need it,” he added.
“In England, they tend to take more of the, ‘we’ll do every, say 70km approach’.
“They’re bound to find more high-quality beaches because there are, particularly in the west coast of England, fewer potential inputs.”
How clean is Scotland’s water?
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.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Well no matter how insignificant the source is, then some within the Labour friendly media, will always willingly choose to promote the skewed versions of reality from any SNP opponent, be they political or otherwise, especially if it is seen to be as either promoting #ScotlandIsSh*te or #SNPBAD.
Pity then that The Guardian was less keen to promote and highlight a negative story linked to him, ACH , via a former Lib Dem member, Emma Walker and her #AskAlex campaign.
Indeed he, as a politician (lightweight), got off far too easy with the media considering how topical the subject in question was with her complaint against both him as a leader and the Lib Dems too as a party.
Had that same complaint and accusations been made by a former SNP female then all H would have broken loose via that same media that are somehow, as a media, au fait with this Lib Dem scandal and yet predictably complacent about it as a political scandal .
Which they, as a media, seem very reluctant to (either over or even attempt to) promote or indeed (attempt to bother to try to) sensationalise as a political scandal linked to ACH as leader of the Lib Dems in Scotland and the Lib Dems as a party in Scotland!
Is that though not how it always works with the UK media ?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Scotland cannot be seen to be better at anything, that would send a message to the people that the SNP have far more positive policies with the interests of all as a priority. England’s regime deploy propaganda blatantly and subtley, via their complient ‘media’. The Guardian is no different to the right wing rags, as Jon Pilger journalist said, it’s a ‘pretendy lefty’ paper. It most certainly is no friend of Scotland.
Scottish water is in public hands that’s not to say they don’t contract out some services, I have met one such contractor testing water quality in our local river. I worry a bit about any contracters they do use as we are seeing roads dug up around us for Scottish water, holes just left there for weeks, no attempt to fix it or cover it over, it’s dangerous in fact with large pipes sticking up, I mean could they not just put that back pronto! Not what you’d expect of a publicly owned company. Also correct me if I am wrong, did the UKENG Labour party not sell off the non domestic arm of SW when they were in power at Holyrood? Not sure if that been changed? If not then SNHS etc and indeed the Scottish parliament will be billed by a private company, as I say I could be wrong on that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ArtyHetty, I regret to say Labour half privatised Scottish Water just before they were chucked out of office in 2007. The company is Scottish Water Business Stream Ltd. and based in Dunfermline. It sells to the non-domestic market all over the UK having snaffled several similar English companies.
If Labour form a right wing Brit Nat coalition in 2026 as they are expected to do, they would find it hard to resit finishing the full privatisation despite it being an unmitigated disaster in England.
One of the pet denigrations of Scotland favoured by BritNat’s is Scottish exceptionalism. It’s the easiest thing in the world to turn around this charge. Starting with water – no other country in the world other than England has had the greedy stupidity to fully privatise water.
LikeLiked by 1 person