OTHER than making their rich mates even richer, there’s nothing Tory MPs love more than distracting from problems in England by having a go at Scotland.
While people south of the Border endure private water companies imposing hosepipe bans (despite the firms themselves leaking millions of litres of water due to underinvestment) and pumping out raw sewage into rivers and the sea, John Redwood decided to flail his arms and point up north to avoid answering any tricky questions about the whole mess.
READ MORE: TalkTV host forced to admit something positive about Scotland over water system
“Scotland's nationalised water industry has had to stop farmers using water to grow food in Fife,” he claimed, wrongly. “This is a bad outcome. We need more water capacity and more home grown food.”
Now, we can all agree that water is needed to grow crops – just as the sky is also blue, and the grass is green.
However what we don’t agree on is blaming a nationalised system for something which in reality had nothing at all to do with public ownership.
Here’s what actually happened.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) – the environmental regulator, not publicly owned supplier Scottish Water – suspended licences for farmers to remove river water from the River Eden area in Fife due to “significant” water scarcity in the area.
In addition, Scottish Water is not directly involved in managing the water supply for businesses anyway – so firms deal with the independent retail arm Scottish Business Stream and choose their own water provider. This has been the case since 2005.
So no, Mr Redwood, “Scotland’s nationalised water industry” has not had to force farmers to stop using water on crops.
The temporary measure was brought in on Saturday, with the aim of allowing water levels to recover to normal levels following a drier than normal period on the east coast.
The main stem of the River Eden is at the second lowest level on record; only 1989 was lower, according to the Sepa data.
David Harley of the regulator said: “Without action, there is a substantial risk of impacts on fish populations, natural habitats and longer term damage to watercourses.
“With climate change leading to water scarcity becoming a more regular occurrence, we are also working to help businesses plan longer term for these conditions.
“We remain in continuous dialogue with sectors reliant on water and work with them all year round on ways to become more resilient, protecting the environment as well as their own operations.”
How did people react?
Many were quick to call out the false information in Redwood’s post. Not that anyone was surprised that the right-wing, Thatcherite veteran MP would be so keen to attack Scotland or the idea of nationalisation.
In surprising scenes, keen Unionist and Labour Hame editor Duncan Hothersall called out Redwood.
“So not only are non-household supplies actually privatised in Scotland, but what's really happening in parts of Fife is that SEPA is suspending water abstraction licences,” he told the former minister.
“Literally nothing whatsoever to do with Scottish Water. @johnredwood is being deliberately dishonest here.”
READ MORE: Scottish Government urge people to stay safe in open water
Some called on Scottish Water and Sepa to correct Redwood’s claim.
“Time for @scottish_water and #SEPA to set the record straight from this blatant bending of the truth. SEPA preventing farmers extracting from one river is nothing to do with Scottish Water or drinking water capacity,” wrote @NockerAndy.
“Says ‘nationalised’ like that’s the problem and that somehow privatisation would magically make the needed investment appear,” wrote another Twitter user. “If our utilities were nationalised, perhaps we’d only be seeing a 4% rise in fuel prices like France.”
We’re sure John will be issuing a statement of correction in the immediate future …
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