Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

...while the ills of our privatised water industry have many authors – from
Margaret Thatcher, who put it into private hands in 1989, to the
rapacious venture capitalists, who have stripped its assets and loaded
it with debt, to the company chiefs, who have been responsible for the despoilation of our rivers,
and to successive governments, who have been complicit in weakening
regulation – Sir James Bevan, one-time head of the Environment Agency,
is, in many eyes, seen as emblematic of the failures in oversight of
privatised water companies, the personification of a system that has
failed us all.

But it’s best to begin this shocking tale here.

There are 195 countries
in the world. Some are big, some small. Some are highly developed,
others not so much. Some are rich. Some poor.

Now for the extraordinary
fact.

Guess how many of those countries have put its water industry
fully into private hands.

Cadbury was an icon of British industry and philanthropy; the fact it
made damn tasty chocolate was just a bonus. The Cadbury family built
the brand on socialist principles in the 19th century, using the vast
wealth their product generated to build hospitals, establish saving
banks for the working classes, and provide vital resources for the
blind. This was a time when the mega rich used their wealth to build
libraries and public parks, ....

John Cadbury was a Quaker, a teetotaller, and an early
environmentalist. He campaigned for better child labour laws, for animal
rights, and against the slum conditions the poor of Victorian Britain
suffered under. He believed in improving the lives of his workforce and
when his two sons took over the family business in 1861, they set about
achieving their father’s dream of building a model town for their
factory workers: Bournville, now a major suburb of Birmingham.

...

Who broke Britain? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which experts and writers debate the issues that concern them about modern Britain.

“Keir Starmer may be resigning the office
of Prime Minister but his legacy of total
complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza
will follow him forever.

From political cover for war crimes and
the authoritarian suppression of peaceful
protest in Britain, to the countless
surveillance operations and arms exports
to Israel, despite clear evidence of the
mass murder of Palestinians, he has
aided and abetted one of the greatest
crimes in history."

"― Ned Boulting via King Lear; June 28, 2026 "

“We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves." Anyway. Stage 19 of the Giro tomorrow, so there's always that.

"― Ned Boulting via King Lear; June 28, 2026 "

Xi only mentioned one war - and that was the conflict in the Middle East.

He told Putin that a complete end to the war in Iran was of "utmost urgency"

Xi and Putin both called out 

• treacherous military strikes against other
  countries, 
• the hypocritical use of negotiations as cover for preparing
  such strikes, 
• the assassination of leaders of sovereign states, 
• the
  destabilisation of the domestic political situation in these states and
  the provocation of regime change, 
• and the brazen kidnapping of national
  leaders for trial.

The Flitch of Bacon.—The jocular custom
of claiming a flitch of bacon at Dunmow Priory
is shortly to be revived.   Notice was given in
due form, on Tuesday last, that the happy couple
—who will be prepared to swear that, for twelve
months and a day, they had never made nuptial
transgression—offended each other in word or
deed—never wished themselves unmarried again,
but have continued true in thought and desire
will, as soon as qualified by time, which will
occur next month, attend, and demand the re-
ward.—Essex Standard.

Bees.—Repeated swarms of bees have for
the last twenty years been known to occupy a
disused chimney, attached to the premises held
by Messrs. Hughes, grocers and drapers, Cross-
Street, Oswestry.   Mr. Samuel Vaughan, brick-
layer, for the first time, entered the treasure-
house on Wednesday, by taking upwards of six
feet in height of brickwork out, and nearly one
foot in breadth, the whole of which was in pos-
session of these industrious workmen, whose
dwelling (the honeycomb) was about 14 inches
thick inside the chimney.   This filled, we are
informed, four pails and two buckets, and will
weigh about 2cwt.   The brickwork is made up
again, and an aperture left for the bees to recom-
mence their work.—Shrewsbury Chronicle.