In a move that favours corporations over consumers, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved price hikes for four water companies. This comes despite a cap set by Ofwat to protect consumers during the cost-of-living crisis. Notably, this decision mirrors past attempts by water companies scrambling to offset costs resulting from their failure to maintain critical infrastructure.

According to the Guardian, five companies appealed to the CMA for approval of additional price hikes. Four appeals by Anglian, Southern, Wessex, and South East Water were granted. However, Northumbrian’s request was denied. Their customers won’t face further increases. In contrast, the companies that succeeded serve a whopping 14.7 million customers. This signals eye watering hikes for millions of billpayers who will bear the brunt.

Infuriating to read the about the huge bill increases allowed. How much longer will water companies be allowed to carry on their destruction of our environment, make huge profits & yet get us to pay for it? #waterpollution @Feargal_Sharkey @EmmaforWycombe https://t.co/EPSPG3w27l

— Dr Paula Owens FRGS (@Primageographer) March 10, 2026

The rising cost of greed

These appeals came after Ofwat allowed companies to hike consumer costs by 36 percent by 2030. However, only 17% of the £2.7bn extra revenue they’ll generate will be spent on repairing “creaking networks of pipes, sewers, and reservoirs.

Instead of cutting obscene bonuses to cover “shortfalls,” they’re boosting profits while allocating a meagre sum to urgently needed repairs. It’s clear these appeals were just a revenue-generating move.

Prioritising profits while punishing consumers is nothing new for our privatised water companies, as Prem Sikka pointed out on X:

Water firms sent bailiffs to tens of thousands of homes for debts under £1,000.

Exorbitant water bills. One-third covers interest & dividend payments

Companies paid over £85bn in dividends, borrowed billions to pay. Sewage dumped in rivers, fines waived.https://t.co/rFpggQIi2g

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— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) March 6, 2026

Bailiffs for consumers, bonuses for bosses

Calls to re-nationalise essential services have long been ignored by Britain’s ruling elite, under Labour and the Tories.

When water company bosses demand higher profits, the CMA grants their requests. This stark imbalance leaves consumers trapped and unable to ‘shop around’. Every hard-earned penny is shaken from them to line the pockets of shareholders and executives.

We recently wrote about the bailiffs sent out to chase underpayments and overdue bills from struggling consumers:

Overall, Yorkshire Water, Southern Water, and South West Water (SWW) made the heaviest use of bailiffs, when the data is adjusted for population. Meanwhile, Wessex Water hasn’t used bailiffs for over a decade.

However, other companies also made massive use of debt collectors on specific years. For example, Severn Trent sent bailiffs out 11,574 times over 2022. Even more egregiously, Southern Water instructed bailiffs a staggering 15,707 times in 2019.

Labour MP John McDonnell highlighted the fact that water companies have broken the law hundreds of times in recent years, with little real backlash. He said that:

“Only five directors of water companies have been prosecuted in the last 30 years. Contrast that with the thousands of mainly poor people the water companies set the bailiffs on each year.

The system is more interested in prosecuting families that are struggling to pay their water bills than the company directors responsible for polluting our rivers and seas while lining their pockets from profiteering at the expense of both their customers and our environment.”

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These appeals are about to make things significantly easier for one water company in particular, South East Water, currently facing a hefty £22m fine for supply failures. We’ll be watching closely to see if and when the fine is paid. In related news, the Guardian reported that Pennon Group, which owns South East Water, is likely to face further fines for power outages.

In the end, as these appeals make clear, it’s consumers who foot the bill, while executives find loopholes.

“South East Water fined £22m for repeated supply failures.”

Let’s be clear about this, as has been proven time and time again, fining these companies is nothing but a charade.

These fines rarely if ever get paid, shareholders rarely if ever take money out of their pockets to…

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— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) March 5, 2026

Punished for the sins of water giants

The Guardian also highlighted growing discontent among the British public over the value for money billpayers are receiving, writing:

The decision could prove a political headache for Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, after the industry’s ratings hit rock bottom last October amid record levels of sewage spills.

The pollution scandal has returned to the spotlight in recent weeks after the Channel 4 drama Dirty Business told the story of how private companies have been allowed to contaminate Britain’s rivers and waterways.

They also inform that Kirsten Baker – chair of an independent group who approved the increase – attempted to justify the decision:

We’ve rejected most of the bill increases water companies asked for but allowed limited extra funding where that’s genuinely needed, balancing concerns about affordability with the need to secure our water supplies and cut pollution.

A significant part of this extra money reflects market movements since Ofwat’s decision.

However, the Guardian added:

Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, said the increases “may be less than what these five water companies wanted but they are still more than what many customers can afford or will consider fair”.

“We’ve seen almost a tripling in complaints brought to us about the affordability of water bills in the past year and further increases will add to the worries of some struggling households,” he said.

Consumers are not a magic money tree

Inequality is now wider than Dickensian Britain levels, and it is undeniable that ordinary people continue to bear the burdens created by the failures of the rich and powerful.

Inequality now surpasses even Dickensian levels, and it’s undeniable ordinary people shouldering the burden – punished for the dirty crimes of corporate offenders.

People are stuck, unable to switch suppliers, a harsh reality for families struggling as costs spiral due to corporate greed. Ofwat is meant to balance the interests of consumer and supplier, but have been bypassed by the CMA, failing the British public.

Featured image via the Canary

Thomas Corbett-Dillon, former advisor to Boris Johnson, was invited onto right-wing GB News, to say that the channel is not extremist but a lovely, cuddly, and “really, really impartial.”

Barely a breath later, he was confidently telling his white, male GB News panellists that the UK is suffering a genocide from all the migrants coming in, especially the Muslims. Not a single one of them disagreed.

🇬🇧 Thomas Corbett-Dillon, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, said that indigenous Britons are the victims of a genocide.

Follow: @europa pic.twitter.com/WLvh9k3xJu

— Europa.com (@europa) March 9, 2026

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Corbett-Dillon apparently he did a ‘Tommy Robinson’ and changed it to something posher-sounding. He even went so far as to suggest, with horror, that if white people moved to the Pacific and became the majority there would be resistance in the UN.

Perhaps he’s never heard of Australia or New Zealand:

Full of ***t, and wrong about Germany

Racism is not the only kind of shit young Corbett-Dillon is full of.

His claim that Germany has “basically banned all the right-wing parties” is nonsense. Even the neo-Nazi ‘Alternative für Deutschland’ is not banned, despite being classified as “extremist.”

The only far-right parties Germany has banned are apparently Nazi party successor the “Socialist Reich Party” in 1952. More recently, the “Königreich Deutschland” cult was banned last year, only after it had been caught seizing rural land and trying to declare secessionist ‘Branch-Davidian’ Waco-style enclaves.

GB News amplifies hate

Not only was GB News unbothered by his remarks, they were eager to amplify them on X/Twitter:

‘There is a genocide happening in this island because it is being taken over by different people that are not indigenous to this land.’

Former advisor to Boris Johnson Thomas Corbett-Dillon gives a damning indictment of the impact of mass migration on the UK. pic.twitter.com/nAyIanLJmB

— GB News (@GBNEWS) March 9, 2026

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Corbett-Dillon, who previously went by the name Craig, may have been some kind of Johnson adviser once, but he didn’t stay a fan. He went onto Fox News to complain that Johnson had gone ‘woke’:

Hilarious appearance by @pdoocy wannabe Thomas Corbett-Dillon, a so-called former aide to Boris Johnson, who in 2019 was a blond going by “Craig Dillon.” @Dominic2306, have you ever heard of this dude? pic.twitter.com/1ZSs4JqTZT

— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي (@NTarnopolsky) July 13, 2022

Media cesspool

And Craig wasn’t done with his claims of ‘genocide.’ After appearing on GB News, he went straight onto another panel to spout the same racist nonsense:

When @christopherhope claims bafflement that GB News isn’t included in political media rounds or press conferences, perhaps this could serve as a reminder.

While Christopher is an actual journalist, GB News is a cesspit of racism and hatred.

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Not a difficult equation. https://t.co/JMJGTYANGf

— Don McGowan (@donmcgowan) March 10, 2026

Mr McGowan is right – what an absolute cesspit.

Featured image via the Canary

A fascinating line from the BBC this evening:

The number of parties who got MSPs elected at the last election is… five. (Though in fairness there are now six, Reform having a single MSP after Graham Simpson defected from the Tories. The Lib Dems are even outnumbered by independents, of whom there are seven.)

Also in arithmetic news, recent figures suggest that Labour and the Lib Dems will have a total of 23 seats combined, more than 40 short of the number required to elect a First Minister with a majority. So, y’know, good luck with that, lads.

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More than 50 organisations, including national trade unions, tenants’ unions and the Green Party, have announced the National Housing Demonstration in Central London on Saturday 18 April. They’re demanding urgent rent controls and a new generation of accessible council homes.

In what is set to be the largest coming-together of housing campaigners in a decade, thousands of tenants from across England and Wales are expected to take to the streets in protest of the government’s refusal to tackle runaway rents.

Major unions the National Education Union, Public and Commercial Services Union, Fire Brigades Union and others are joining forces with the Green Party, the London Renters Union, the Greater Manchester Tenants Union, Generation Rent and dozens of grassroots campaigns from across the country.

Housing developers first, tenants last

Asking rents for private tenants have risen by 44% since the pandemic, while social rents and service charges continue to climb. The consequences are stark.

Around one in three renters now struggle to afford essentials like food and heating. 330,000 households are currently facing homelessness. Many social tenants face above-inflation rent increases, while enduring unsafe conditions and years-long delays for repairs.

Despite the scale of the crisis, Keir Starmer’s government is prioritising private housing developers and institutional investors over working-class renters.

Instead of introducing rent controls or launching a serious programme of council housebuilding, ministers are focusing on market-rate developments. But these remain out of reach for those in greatest need and would fail to reverse recent price hikes.

The result is a system where working-class tenants are priced out and pushed into temporary housing while luxury flats rise in their neighbourhoods.

A united front on 18 April

On Saturday 18 April, tenants, trade unionists and housing activists will gather in central London to demand:

• Immediate rent controls.
• Mass investment in accessible and good-quality council homes.

Elyem Chej, spokesperson for London Renters Union, said:

Tenants need an alternative to our rigged housing system. Soaring rents are pushing us into poverty and out of our neighbourhoods while corporate giants build luxury flats we can’t afford.

Keir Starmer’s government is making the housing crisis worse, putting developer profits before our communities. That’s why unions and grassroots groups nationwide are uniting for housing justice on 18 April.

Rent controls would cut rents now and give ordinary people more control over our lives and our homes.

We had these rights before. Now it’s time for renters to take them back.

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Grace Brown, spokesperson for Greater Manchester Tenants Union, said:

Tenants are in crisis. Areas of Greater Manchester have seen rents increase by more than 50% since 2016, and the developer-led investment model followed in our city, like many others, is hollowing out communities beyond recognition.

Across Greater Manchester, tenants are organising against estate demolition, against rent hikes and evictions. We demand justice for every tenant.

Martin Wicks, spokesperson for Defend Council Housing, said:

The government’s strategy of planning liberalisation and reliance on the large volume private builders is doomed to fail.

Home ownership is not an option for the more than 130,000 households in temporary accommodation, the 1.3 million households on the waiting lists, and many more imprisoned in the expensive and often poor quality private sector.

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Social rent council housing is the key to resolving the housing crisis. The government needs to fund 100,000 social rent council homes a year and end Right to Buy. Market mechanisms will never resolve the housing crisis.

Featured image via the Canary

A sitting member of the London Assembly – an elected body considered the ‘eyes and ears of Londoners‘ – delivered a blistering critique of London mayor Sadiq Khan. They have described him as “part of the problem” when it comes to racialised stop-and-search powers. Notably, these powers overwhelmingly target black Londonders.

“Vital policing tool,” Khan claims

New research from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and King’s College London shows black people are up to 48 times more likely to be stopped and searched in London’s richest areas. The study — based on 150,000 Metropolitan Police interactions —  purports to be the largest-analysis of stop-and-search practices.

Khan has in fact rubber-stamped these very practices. In addition, Green Party councillor, Zoë Garbett, has spoken out against these double standards from the London mayor:

The Mayor has called stop and search a ‘vital policing tool’ despite its disproportionate targeting of Black Londoners, which makes him part of the problem by assuming that stop and search is an inevitable aspect of policing.

What we need to see is the Mayor ending the routine use of Section 60 powers, decriminalising cannabis to stop low-level drug searches that drive racial disparities and providing transparency around the use of live facial recognition.

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Excusing white people

The MOPAC found strong evidence of racialised policing. They found that police officers had used “vague” grounds to justify stopping black Londoners, compared to the reasons given for white Londoners.

Black people were stopped for things like clothing or simply going about their business in high-crime areas. In contrast, white people were more likely to be stopped for stealing or admitting possession of drugs.

The report advised that improving the criteria for when people should (or should not) be stopped and searched would reduce racial disproportionality by 11 to 19 percent.

Commenting on this the greens councillor, Garbett said:

Report after report has confirmed what many Black Londoners have known for decades: stop and search is an inherently racist and discriminatory policing power.

This latest research simply adds to the growing body of evidence showing the staggering scale of disproportionate policing in London, spanning a wide range of tools and tactics.

For example, research I disclosed revealed that over half of live facial recognition deployments were in areas with higher-than-average Black populations, including Thornton Heath, Croydon (40%), Northumberland Park, Haringey (36%), and Deptford High Street, Lewisham (34%).

We also know that Black Londoners are 5.1 times more likely to be stopped and searched for drug offences than white people highlighting how cannabis criminalisation is inherently discriminatory by design.

Punitive policing

King’s College researchers also found that Black Londoners are subjected to a troubling 4,300 extra stops by police each year – almost one every two hours. These statistics are difficult to square against Khan’s sheepish support for punitive policing practices.

Across 24 London wards (districts) with higher racial disproportionality, Black people could be up to 48 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people.

These problem areas include Ealing, Hillingdon, and Hackney, where Garbett serves as a councillor for the Dalston ward.

She spoke about the human impact of these discriminatory practices, sanctioned by the mayor.

Constituents and community groups I’ve spoken to describe stop and search as an invasive and degrading tactic and they say it causes real and long-lasting harm that undermines trust and confidence in the police.

What we need is for the Met to genuinely listen to communities and take on board their input and act on it rather than pushing back or assuming they know better.

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This is not the first time the Met Police have been called racist, with the studies and receipts backing up these claims. Despite Khan’s praise of London as a diverse “place for everyone,” he remains impotent in face of the Met police’s systemic and institutional racism.

 Featured image via Unsplash/Ethan Wilkinson

The world’s largest pension fund has revealed that it sold its shares in the Bolloré group, a powerful French conglomerate. This was due to unresolved concerns about “serious human rights violations” at a plantation company which Bolloré partly owned.

A report from the Norwegian Bank Investment Management (NBIM) made the decision public on 26 February. The report states that after years of dialogue with Bolloré SE and Compagnie de l’Odet SE on “their management of human rights risks, sexual violence, harassment and labor rights abuses” at the plantations of the Luxembourg-based company Socfin, in which the Bolloré group holds a “significant share”, NBIM decided to exclude them from its investment portfolio.

Affected communities have long denounced the violations and abuses. The Socfin group dates back to 1909. It controls 370,000 hectares for the production of palm oil and rubber in ten countries of Africa and Asia.

Plantations on stolen land

In many of these countries, Socfin acquired the lands without community consultation or consent. As a result, the communities feel their lands were robbed from them. The plantations often surround villages and pollute their water sources, such that villagers cannot grow their own food crops.

When villagers gather fallen palm nuts or speak out about their conditions, they regularly face harassment. For women villagers and girls, sexual violence and even rape by plantation labourers or security forces is a common occurrence.

In 2024, after years of complaints from communities and civil society, Socfin hired the Swiss-based Earthworm Foundation to investigate these issues. The results were appalling: 59% of the complaints were said to be founded, to one degree or another, and 85% of these were judged to be the responsibility of the company.

Norway’s move follows a similar decision by Switzerland’s largest pension fund, BVK. The Swiss spent three years discussing these issues with the Bolloré group, which argued that it held no responsibility for what happens at the Socfin plantations. This was despite Bolloré being a major shareholder and sitting on the board of directors of several Socfin holdings and plantation companies.

Félicité Ngo Bissou of the Association des Femmes Riveraines de Socapalm Edéa in Cameroon said:

It’s about time that investors take action against Socfin and Bolloré. For too long, the Bolloré group has claimed it’s not responsible for the abuses we face around the Socfin plantations and as a result, the abuses have continued. This cannot go on.

Rizal Assalam of the Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity, in Indonesia, agreed:

For us, Norway’s decision, like that of the Swiss, means that someone is listening to the communities and the workers, even if it’s not Bolloré.

For rights groups in Europe, Norway’s move puts EU decision-making to shame. Indra Van Gisbergen of Fern made the point:

The European Commission invited Socfin last week to be a key partner and speak at the EU-Liberia Business forum in Brussels. Yet Liberian communities are to this day denouncing Socfin’s lack of action on their long standing complaints!

NBIM runs Norway’s pension fund, which currently has $2.1tn in assets, making it the largest in the world. At the outset of 2025, it held $91m worth of shares in Bolloré SE. It had sold these by the end of the year.

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Yes, that’s right, Mother’s Day is indeed coming up, and fast.

Don’t feel bad if you let it creep up and surprise you – it tends to do that.

The good news is it’s definitely not too late to get your lovely ma the gift she deserves.

I have put my cholesterol levels on the line (willingly, don’t worry) to try and test the very best gift-friendly boxes of chocolates so that you don’t have to.

From pralines to truffles to whisky-infused delights, here’s my list of the best of the best.