David Levy – Lessons from an enforced period of reflection – July 2023

The last three years have been problematic health wise with five lots of sepsis, and perforated lower colon and gall bladder. The last fifteen weeks have seen me in hospital. No, I haven’t given up the ghost. Just re-arranged where I spent my efforts.

What has happened is that I have had time to reflect on our campaigning and whether we have been successful or not. The conclusion which I had reached earlier, is confirmed. Opportunities to influence change and move matters forward are few and far between.

The design used by Government, hand in glove with industry and bureaucracy, does not bring active or speedy change to any of the decision-making processes. This design in fact actively discourage change, and that is why fraud seems endemic in our society.

However it is not inevitable. Saying that something is so doesn’t necessarily make it so.

We only have to look at the mess our water industry is in to understand what a house of cards we are living in. Pull one card away and the house falls down.

The fact is that OFWAT, DEFRA, the Env. Agency and the pension funds have denuded our water industry of investment, and now the debts are so great even the Labour Party are against nationalising it because the money needed is so great.

What we need is a collective responsibility across all parties to think outside the box and to come up with the solutions.

Marinet has voiced its potential solutions package. However despite being fully informed by us no NGO, no Local or National Government or our Monarch nor anybody else has commented on what we are suggesting. To remind you:

• No new building development, residential or commercial, should gain local planning consent without first separating all rainwater and its run-off away from the foul sewer. In short, two separate systems for rainwater and foul water. Retrospective action for existing development as well.

• No animal waste should be disposed of to land without proper treatment by anaerobic digestion undertaken on a regional basis.

• Investment and tax breaks for the fertiliser industry to enable it to take ownership of the manure from intensive animal livestock farming, so enabling it to make agricultural fertilisers by extracting the nitrates and phosphates in the manure, with all bacteria and viruses present in the manure earlier neutralised by the anaerobic treatment process. Where possible, the same with human sewage as well.

• Distribution and gathering hubs so that this new manure into fertiliser approach by the fertiliser industry meets the need of the arable farmers.

• Where possible, all industries to benefit from these changes in practice. There is no such thing as waste products, only lost opportunities.

• Become increasingly self-sufficient, instead of being heavily reliant on imports for our basic needs and chemicals.

• Circular thinking with clear pathways for life time practices so that industrially produced foods have as their mantra: do no harm to the environment.

• Healthier options for individual people in their life time choices. Less meat and sea fish. Learn from China and others in producing fish from freshwater options. The friaries used to produce pond fish for the populace.

All of these actions would improve the situation much quicker than the continual application of the ‘profit principle’ and its need for new finance which is the current popular model of solving our problems.

I ask myself, why do we not act as outlined? I don’t see why we are so scared of change and taking responsibility for our actions.

The passage of the 2021 Environment Act through Parliament demonstrates that we have poor politicians and that they have a poverty in reforming ideas, compounded by a poor political process.

Things have to change. Everyone, including those mentioned above, have to get on board and lead the process of change. To date, most of us are absent and so culpable for the mess we are in.

David Levy