God bless Thames Water

Its funny that water is now back on in the headlines now that my dissertation drawing to it's close. Since reaching the half way mark and having already decided a direction of where to go with the thesis, Panorama aired a special investigation into water use in South East England. At the time I wanted to see if it had any parallels to the Tryweryn issue and sadly it had no real info. But by watching it, it wasn't in vain at all - I learnt about the awful water company called Thames Water, which serves the very heart of middle England. An estimated 900 million litres of water a day is reported to be lost by leaky pipes underneath fair London and the company are the worst British water authority when it comes to lost water. With the possibility of warmer summers and hosepipe bans a-plenty in the future, the distribution of water is back in the public eye as South East England sweats. And guess what, the thought of taking water from Wales was back on the agenda. Plaid MPs call the recent calls for this extreme water distribution the 'next Tryweryn'. But I guess in times like these with greater political autonomy and the lessons learnt from last time an English authority went at pains to take water from Wales, Tryweryn will never really happen again.

So enter the latest project of Thames Water, who are desperate to escape prying eyes after being criticised for doing too little for it's customers. They propose a £1 billion new articifical reservoir in the heart of Oxfordshire, not far from Abingdon. The authority claim that two villages would be affected, as well as a road between the two will have to re-routed. Already residents have expressed their concerns about the project. Thames Water say that this will solve the water crisis for now and "generations to come". Its great to see the same rhetoric from then is being used again.

Its a shame that this had to be proposed now. It would have been interesting to parallel the events of Tryweryn with the events in Oxfordshire today. But oh well. If you're interested in the story, click here.

A Birthday Post

First of all, a very happy birthday to my darling Jen!

And if Blogger would let me, I would place a picture up here too.

I thought a blog would be in order after a long hiatus of dissertation work, which is slowly turning me into a zombie like state. That said, I'm still enjoying it and finding it really interesting. I am currently 3,000 words away from total completion with all chapters roughly drafted. My final personal deadline is 2 weeks today( 27th Sept). If Im still working at that point, please remind me to get a move on! I must say that this piece of work is the only one in which I havent rushed - lets just hope the result pays some rewardable dividends.

In other news, Jen and I used our weekend off to have a rest from the retailing world, in addition to poking our noses at royalty. We didn't quite reach Buckingham Palace, but we more than settled for the grand Hampton Court Palace in Surrey. I never realised it was such an important rotal residence over the past five centuries! It was simply beautiful inside and out! The maze was a bit of a doddle after Jen's 'right everytime' theory. The gardens were also a spectacle which I would recommend anyone to see. We had great weather too, so we couldn't have asked for a better day at one of Britain's greatest residences. Pictures will soon be up (I know this phrase is somewhat familar) for all to see. If not, Im sure Jen will have them on view for your pleasure.

So many things to rant about lately and not enough time to do so. Blair, the immigration issue and South American football are the topics which are buring my brain of late. Blair should really go now - whats the point of this 'long goodbye'? Although it is perfect for the Tories and the Lib Dems to capitalise from I guess. Do we really want more Eastern Europeans here, when we are struggling with the Poles? And the fact that Brazil and Argentina play their 'home' fixtures in Europe for the sake of profit questions me to think whether its about the football anymore.

So this merely a quickie for now, to keep you guys in the know. Recent albums - Empire by Kasabian, Black Holes and Revelations by Muse and In With The Out Crowd by Less Than Jake.