If you’re new here, welcome! Perhaps you’ll consider joining us? Free subscribers receive this newsletter every week. Paid PoP Club members get access to a members-only health support & accountability group, regular Q&As with me, plus occasional behind-the-scenes content on health and politics.
If you’re quoting from this newsletter, please mention “Tom Watson’s newsletter on Substack.” Thank you.
Swimming in shitty seas
Before Christmas, the government published, without much fanfare, the “legally binding targets to protect our environment, clean up our air and rivers and boost nature.”
Despite the words above, missing from the announcement was an overall target to clean up freshwater rivers and streams. Environment campaigners had called for 75% of rivers and streams to be awarded ‘clean waters’ status by 2042.
The targets, published late, led to the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee complaining of a ‘culture of delay’ at the department meant to deliver anti-pollution measures. Chair of the Committee, Conservative MP Philp Dunne, said:
“The country is facing grave challenges as we look to reverse the decline of our precious biodiversity. Prompt, clear and decisive action is now of the utmost importance. My letter to the Environment Secretary clearly sets out for her the Committee’s views on the policy areas which urgently need clarity after – in some cases – years of delay.”
I’ve been in Cornwall for much of the last three months. Take a look at the red crosses on the map below. The good people at Surfers Against Sewage estimate that this year, by 4th January, there had already been 320 discharges of untreated sewage into Britain’s coastline.
When you think how much Cornwall depends on tourism, this map is about as bad as it gets.
Having rowed the length of Britain by boat, I added sea canoeing to my bucket list. I think I’ll cross it off!
Wouldn’t it be great if the government committed to ending all sewage discharges on our beaches by 2030, as Surfers Against Sewage demands?
Reading
I need cheering up so it’s another Caimh McDonnell, The Final Game. Such a clever, witty plot.
Russian Muppets or American Puppets? Kermit the Frog once said “Here’s some simple advice: always be yourself. Never take yourself too seriously. And beware the advice from experts, pigs, and members of Parliament.” I had no idea that the Russians were given the Muppets in a campaign led by President Biden, who as a Senator “spearheaded congressional support for an international ‘Sesame Street,'” touting the Muppets as “ideal ambassadors to model democratic values and the benefits of a free-market economy to children in the former Soviet Union.” The kids of Russia got to know Kermit and co for 15 years until President Putin pulled the plug on the show. “Putin had decided that Russian culture must be of and by Russians — and only he could decide what Russianness meant.”
Disruptive science has declined - and no one knows why. Well, I’d venture that part of it is the marketisation and commercialisation of higher education institutions. I like Google, but they’re a giant advertising company these days. 5% of their staff come from Stanford. What a waste of curious minds.
Farewell Fay Weldon.
Watching
The great Scott Galloway talks about American Universities, where kids from the top 1% are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy-plus institution than the bottom quintile. In other words, the clever kids from poorer backgrounds don’t get a look. Wasted talent alert!
Last word
Thank you for your kind messages regarding my stepfather. He let go of life on Thursday afternoon. The grief is immense, but we gave him a loving death. Though everyone deserves a dignified death, the world is so demanding, few get it.
In the mid-seventies, Barry drove to Afghanistan in a converted GPO van. He left us his record collection to look after whilst he was away. That’s how I was introduced to the repertoire of David Bowie and Paul Simon in 1977. I have many memories of Barry; they’re playing like a homemade cine movie in my head today.
Here’s a Bowie song that reminds me of him. It’s David Bowie’s birthday tomorrow, by the way. Interestingly, it’s also Elvis’s birthday, the artist Bowie is supposed to have written Golden Years for.
God Bless you Barry. You were loved.
Sincere commiserations on your loss, Tom
Tom, I’m sorry for your loss. I hope it will be a comfort to you and your lovely mum that you were able to help him have a truly magnificent and loved death.
And tomorrow I’ll raise a glass to you and to myself on the birthday we share with Elvis and Bowie 😍