UK Politics

5 articles

Jul 18, 2025 • via The Guardian

The Sewage State: How England's Water Crisis Exposes Total Institutional Collapse

The UK's water crisis is a textbook case of how privatized monopolies plunder public goods

English water companies dumped raw sewage into rivers and seas at record-breaking levels in 2024, with serious pollution incidents surging 60% in a single year. While politicians promised a crackdown on water pollution, the reality is stark: 75 serious incidents poisoned waterways last year, up from 47 in 2023.

Jul 14, 2025 • via The Guardian

Another Net Zero Fantasy Collides With Reality

UK's Clean Electricity Targets in Jeopardy

While Ed Miliband claims to be "sprinting to clean power by 2030," his own government's energy system operator quietly admits Britain will produce almost a third more carbon emissions than needed to meet legally binding climate targets. The gap between ministerial rhetoric and measurable reality has become a chasm.

Jul 13, 2025 • via BBC News

When "Technically Insolvent" Becomes Actually Broken: The SEND Crisis Consuming British Councils

How Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council's SEND Debt Exposes Systemic Failures in British Governance

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council has declared itself "technically insolvent" due to special educational needs and disability (SEND) costs. The council faces a £171 million shortfall by March 2026. This isn't a future risk—it's a present reality masked by accounting tricks.

Jul 6, 2025 • via The Guardian

Environment Secretary celebrates "significant progress" while sewage flows and Thames Water collapses

Labour's countryside comfort zone can't hide £96 billion in missing infrastructure investment

Steve Reed's appearance at Hertfordshire's Groundswell festival reveals the extraordinary disconnect between Labour's self-congratulation and Britain's accelerating institutional decay. While the Environment Secretary proclaimed "significant progress" from his hay bale podium, the nation's waterways continue to poison swimmers and Thames Water edges toward a collapse that will cost taxpayers billions.

Jul 5, 2025 • via The Critic

The UK's Surveillance State: When "World Leader" Means Showing Dictators How It's Done

The UK is no longer an "Open" country for free expression

While British politicians still invoke Churchill and speak of defending democracy worldwide, their own freedom rankings have quietly slipped below Romania and Nigeria. The UK has lost its status as an "Open" society for free expression—a designation it held since measurements began—and now pioneers surveillance techniques that authoritarian regimes watch with interest.