Left high and dry

TAPS running dry. Queueing for bottled water at emergency centres. Collecting stream water in buckets. The public told to ration the amount of water they use. No, not some Third World disaster zone – but England after a few days of snow.

And there’s no doubt where the blame lies for this fiasco. Already under fire for tax avoidance and paying senior executives vast salaries, the water companies must now add lamentable failure to maintain infrastructure to the charge sheet.

Yes, it was a fierce cold snap and some pipes were bound to crack. But this was England in winter. Where were the contingency plans?

As Environment Secretary Michael Gove said last week, water firms charge consumers more than necessary to make a decent profit. The least they can do in return is invest enough in modern piping to guarantee supplies all the year round. Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to renationalise the water industry. That would be a huge and costly mistake – but this shambles plays into his hands. ORDERING the food industry to reduce the size of sausages and meat pies in a bid to cut obesity smacks of the nanny state. But doesn’t it also miss the point? Lethargy is just as much to blame for excess flab as overeating – especially in children. Yet for decades we have been selling off school playing fields and only a minority of schools now play competitive sport. That has to change. If we really want to fight obesity, shouldn’t we get our young people moving again?