Off Topic The Environment

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I'm afraid we have slipped back into using plastic coffee pods daily. The coffee is exceptionally good. The government should insist all food packaging in the UK is recyclable a.s.a.p.
 
oldfrenchhorn said:
It seems understandably that the environment has been pushed onto the back burner at present, yet a part of our ecosystem is in danger. According to this report the Great Barrier Reef was showing some signs of recovery from the higher temperatures, but that has been knocked back again.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52043554
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Saw that, ofh. I may be a cynic, but I refer to line from ‘Yes, Minister’ when Jim Hacker called Sir Humphrey a cynic:
“A cynic is what an idealist calls a realist.”
We won’t change. As a world we will try to react when it is too late, and say we did the best we could.
 
An interesting article here about travel, and what effect the current crisis will have on the way we do business in the future.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52137968

On some of my longer trips around the UK or France I have noticed more and more business meetings taking place at motorway service areas. Two or more people sat there with laptops discussing some product or scheme. Seeing as they are using the internet, do they really need to both travel to a mid-point meeting place. It will require a whole new set of ideas to be formed when it comes to money raising, as currently if you do all of your business from home you can fall foul of business rates. As this article shows a whole new way of thinking will have to be explored.
 
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oldfrenchhorn said:
An interesting article here about travel, and what effect the current crisis will have on the way we do business in the future.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52137968

On some of my longer trips around the UK or France I have noticed more and more business meetings taking place at motorway service areas. Two or more people sat there with laptops discussing some product or scheme. Seeing as they are using the internet, do they really need to both travel to a mid-point meeting place. It will require a whole new set of ideas to be formed when it comes to money raising, as currently if you do all of your business from home you can fall foul of business rates. As this article shows a whole new way of thinking will have to be explored.
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That reminds me of when I turned into a grumpy old man. We travel to stay with friends in Breda. The journey from Cheshire via the tunnel is quite long, and at first we left home at about 0900 and stopped for coffee at the hilton hotel south of Derby close to the M1 A6 and A453 junction. The only problem was that the whole of the large coffee lounge was full of people with laptops and all their papers, handbags, cases, and gubbins spread out over 3-4 seats, 'waiting for someone'. In fact they were having business meetings without paying for the accommodation. At the third occasion I remonstrated with the manager of the hotel (remonstrating with the self-important people proved completely fruitless of course - their business was far too important) and she simply shtugged her shoulders and said it was good for her business. Bah humbug! So then we found a better plan. A country house hotel nearby - much better atmosphere. We then developed our plan so we left home earlier, and arrived at the hotel in time for a proper breakfast which set us up for the rest of the journey.
I guess I shouldn't complain as now (especially now) we have no travelling pressures at all !
 
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Water companies in England discharged raw sewage into rivers on more than 200,000 occasions last year, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

The analysis reveals untreated human waste was released into streams and rivers for more than 1.5m hours in 2019.

The figures, obtained via environmental information requests, trace releases of sewage from storm drains in rivers across England by all nine water companies and provide a comprehensive picture of the scale of pollution from what critics say is the routine dumping of untreated sewage.

Popular English rivers including the Thames, the Windrush, which runs through the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire, the River Chess, a chalk stream in Buckinghamshire, the Avon in Bristol, the Severn, and the River Wharfe in Ilkley are among the many affected.

When Margaret Thatcher sold off the water industry in 1989, the government wrote off all debts. But according to the analysis by David Hall and Karol Yearwood of the public services international research unit of Greenwich University, the nine privatised companies in England have amassed debts of £48bn over the past three decades – almost as much as the sum paid out to shareholders, £57bn in the past eight years. The debt cost them £1.3bn in interest last year.

So who owns the water companies? Three quarters of them are now owned by foreign companies.

  • Malaysian company YTL Corporation Berhad which owns all of Wessex Water
  • Cheung Kong Group, a multinational registered in the Cayman Islands run by family of Li Ka Shing (Hong Kong’s richest person). They own 80% of Northumbrian Water.
  • U.S. hedge funds Blackrock, Lazard and Vanguard each own a stake in Severn Trent, United Utilities and South West Water
  • Between Germany’s Deutsche Asset Management and US private equity company Corsair Capital own half of Yorkshire Water
  • 40% of Southern Water is owned by US investment company JP Morgan Asset Management
  • A third of Thames Water is owned by investment fund companies from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, China and Australia
  • Australia’s Colonial First State Global Asset Management owns a stake in Anglian Water, Severn Trent, United Utilities and South West Water.
So money leaves the country to these companies, massive debts have been built up, and the rivers are being polluted. Is this the way for the country to go in the future?
 
But according to the analysis by David Hall and Karol Yearwood of the public services international research unit of Greenwich University, the nine privatised companies in England have amassed debts of £48bn over the past three decades – almost as much as the sum paid out to shareholders, £57bn in the past eight years. The debt cost them £1.3bn in interest last year

Can someone explain why a business would get into this situation? By choice?
 
yorkshirehornet said:
But according to the analysis by David Hall and Karol Yearwood of the public services international research unit of Greenwich University, the nine privatised companies in England have amassed debts of £48bn over the past three decades – almost as much as the sum paid out to shareholders, £57bn in the past eight years. The debt cost them £1.3bn in interest last year

Can someone explain why a business would get into this situation? By choice?
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Shares can usually be sold on the open market, so unless the shareholders/owners get the returns on their investments the share price falls. If the share price falls below what they paid then there is a loss, so borrow more to keep the dividend high. Very simplified explanation, and not the only reason. Of course if you have something that people must have, no choice, then you will charge the highest price that a government will allow, and minimise your running costs. Simple market forces I am afraid if you allow public resources to be sold off.
 
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oldfrenchhorn said:
Shares can usually be sold on the open market, so unless the shareholders/owners get the returns on their investments the share price falls. If the share price falls below what they paid then there is a loss, so borrow more to keep the dividend high. Very simplified explanation, and not the only reason. Of course if you have something that people must have, no choice, then you will charge the highest price that a government will allow, and minimise your running costs. Simple market forces I am afraid if you allow public resources to be sold off.
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And incentive schemes (directors only natch) tend to have an element based disproportionately high on share price, so basically directors are voting themselves large(r) payouts now, knowing that even if the whole packof cards collapses, their payouts have been secured - no chance of having to pay anything back.
 
Bolton's Boots said:
They are apparently draining Welsh water supplies too - and are rumoured to have their eyes on Scotland's massive resources. They'll have a fight on their hands over that one...
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" The responsible bodies – the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs [Defra], the Environment Agency and Ofwat have collectively taken their eye off the ball and urgent action is now required if we are to have a reliable water supply in the years ahead.”

This is where the problem lies. Government cannot afford to find the money to provide a decent service, so sells it off to private companies, but then forgets about it. Railways are similar, but then all sorts of things start to go wrong and eventually after sufficient outcry take them back into public ownership. Of course if your water still comes out of the tap you tend not to moan as much as when your train fails to turn up on time. Scotland has kept their water supply under public ownership, yet has still invested in vital maintenance. The £3.5 billion spent all goes to the work required without the percentage taken away as profit which often leaves the country for good measure. Water is a vital commodity that everyone needs, and it should be a function of government to supply it. When the taps run dry and the private companies walk away, then what problems will they have?
 
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