Darren 'Fletch' 💙

@andyburnham “speaks about the importance of public control.” The key word here is “speaks”. Because once again, we're being sold the language of change without anything resembling the urgency needed to deliver it. Take reservoirs. Listening to the @UKLabour government, you'd be forgiven for thinking we're in the middle of some great national reservoir-building programme. We're not. Havant Thicket is the only major new reservoir currently under construction. It received planning permission under the @Conservatives, and isn't expected to be operational until 2034. It was first proposed in 1964. SEVENTY FUCKING YEARS AGO! Seventy years between recognising the need for a reservoir and actually having one supplying water. And that's presuming all goes according to plan! Meanwhile, the rest of @UKLabour's proposed reservoirs aren't expected to become operational until the late 2030s, 2040s and potentially 2050s. We're experiencing droughts, hosepipe bans and mounting pressure on water supplies NOW, but we're being presented with infrastructure that won't arrive for another decade or three as though it's some great achievement. And then there's the question of public control. When? How? Where's the actual plan? Because talking about public control while continuing to rely on the same privatised system to finance and deliver our essential infrastructure isn't a policy for public ownership. It's a talking point. And that's what makes this so infuriating. We know the problem. We know the consequences of doing nothing. We know that infrastructure can be delivered faster when governments make it a genuine national priority. And yet somehow, the political response is still announcements, consultations, distant targets and congratulatory press releases. Water security isn't a problem for the next generation to inherit. It's a responsibility for THIS government to confront. Stop talking about public control. Tell us what you're actually going to do, when you're going to do it, and why the public should have to wait decades more for action we need TODAY! @ZackPolanski @TheGreenParty