labourlewis.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Last year, the northwest's water company, United Utilities, doubled its profits & hiked bills. Since privatisation, water companies have failed to build a single new reservoir. This is the reality of privatisation. Shareholders gain; we suffer the pain of a climate crisis & growing drought risk.

submitted 48 minutes ago • 1 comment

Amidst the driest Spring in 69 years, the National Drought Group says many water companies’ plan for drought is « simply praying for rain. » Selling off reservoirs, failing to invest, polluting our water – these acts undermine our national water security. It's time for public ownership.

submitted 1 day ago • 18 comments

The unfolding catastrophe in Gaza - its scale, its cruelty, its deliberate, systemic destruction - is no longer simply a humanitarian crisis. It is a political and moral reckoning. I have written to the Prime Minister to ask: Do more. Do everything that can be done. And do it now.

submitted 1 day ago • 19 comments

Amidst the driest Spring in 69 years, the National Drought Group says many water companies’ plan for drought is « simply praying for rain. » Selling off reservoirs, failing to invest, polluting our water – these acts undermine our national water security. It's time for public ownership.

submitted 1 day ago • 18 comments

The unfolding catastrophe in Gaza - its scale, its cruelty, its deliberate, systemic destruction - is no longer simply a humanitarian crisis. It is a political and moral reckoning. I have written to the Prime Minister to ask: Do more. Do everything that can be done. And do it now.

submitted 1 day ago • 19 comments

Along with our Walk-in Centre, the Vulnerable Adults Service (VAS) in Norwich was threatened until the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB) relented and announced there would be no changes to the Centre or the VAS, which supports some of our community's most vulnerable individuals.

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

More children, more families with a disabled member and more working-age adults are going to be poorer by the end of this parliament. There's obvious evidence that more poverty equals more support for the authoritarian right. bsky.app/profile/labo...

submitted 7 days ago • 6 comments

There's a partial U-turn on winter fuel payments. It's right to respond to widespread anger; whatever the details, more older people will be warmer. But not enough to atone politically, and I still want the principle of universality restored. Watch (again!) to find out why. #winterfuelpayments

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

Listen: My reaction to the foreign secretary's statement on Gaza, yesterday.

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

Water is not a commodity, it is a fundamental human right and should not be exploited for profit. Until we reclaim our water once and for all, we can never be certain that our safety comes before profits. www.edp24.co.uk/news/2517496...

submitted 9 days ago • 16 comments

Winter fuel payments might be extended but not restored. On Politics Live, I explained why taking away universal benefits makes it more challenging to build the support systems we'll all need in a world increasingly volatile due to global political instability and the climate and nature crises.

submitted 10 days ago • 11 comments

1/2 Cuts to support for disabled and long-term sick people would be devastating and are absolutely wrong on their own terms. But their effect is more pernicious than that, as I explain in this excerpt from a speech I gave to an anti-disability benefits cuts demo in Norwich recently.

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

Authoritarian governments always start with a wedge issue. They pick on something controversial, stir up fear, exasperation, and they then use that to prise open your rights, and to change the law. My words for OpenDemocracy: www.opendemocracy.net/en/conservat...

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Thousands of people signed Norwich Labour’s door-to-door petition to save the Centre, and many hundreds said no to it in the official consultation. So the city will breathe a huge sigh of relief today.

submitted 11 days ago • 6 comments

This should sound every alarm bell we’ve got.🧵 KKR- Thames Water’s preferred buyer- agreed to fix a US town’s sewers in exchange for guaranteed revenue. Promised a 4-year bill freeze. Bills rose 28%. Sold after 6 years, pocketing 2.8x their investment. www.ft.com/content/c1b4...

submitted 13 days ago • 10 comments

Clive Lewis (@labourlewis.bsky.social) gave a good speech at a Disabled People Against Cuts (@dis-ppl-protest.bsky.social) demonstration in Norwich yesterday. You can listen back on Youtube if you're interested. youtu.be/ERQzRCHUBo4

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

This should sound every alarm bell we’ve got.🧵 KKR- Thames Water’s preferred buyer- agreed to fix a US town’s sewers in exchange for guaranteed revenue. Promised a 4-year bill freeze. Bills rose 28%. Sold after 6 years, pocketing 2.8x their investment. www.ft.com/content/c1b4...

submitted 13 days ago • 10 comments

England’s water is appalling — and so is the politics keeping it privatised. Labour can’t win back trust and beat Reform whilst cosying up to the same profiteers who’ve bled our rivers dry. My latest in @gonuj.org: time to clean house. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 20 days ago • 12 comments

While people struggle to pay bills, Thames Water bosses pat themselves on the back, racking up debt, dodging responsibility & passing the cost to us. They profit, we pay. It's not enough to just stop bonuses. This only gets fixed with public ownership. www.ft.com/content/1f6d... #thameswater

submitted 16 days ago • 14 comments

Thames Water wants "special treatment" from regulators- a chance to dodge £100s of millions in fines. Shareholders keep their wealth; we pick up the tab. It doesn't have to be that way. The govt and regulators must stand up to profiteering bullies and bring water into public hands.

submitted 16 days ago • 11 comments

Water profiteers are clinging to a broken system that lines their pockets while polluting our rivers and making us pay for their failures. But we can change course. A publicly owned water system would serve people and planet - not profit. If you agree, sign up: actionnetwork.org/forms/we-can...

submitted 17 days ago • 7 comments