No mention of the fact that our population has grown by 20% (by official statistics, likely much more) in just 30 years?

▲ endtime 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

The subtitle of the article mentions it:

> While famously rainswept, climate crisis, population growth and profligacy mean the once unthinkable could be possible

Also from the article:

> No new reservoir has been built in 30 years despite significant population growth

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arrowsmith 4 days ago | parent [-]

I stand corrected.

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specproc 4 days ago | parent [-]

The problem with the UK is not population growth. 20 percent over 30 years is neither exceptional nor unmanageable.

Population growth is by and large a good thing, it means more people working, paying tax, making pension contributions. More doctors, scientists and devs, but also more carers, cleaners, builders and farm workers. If you want to see what a falling population does, go check out a small town or village across most of Europe, it's not pretty.

The problem is that we've sold everything important to a private sector that has zero incentive to invest for the long term. The government has a vital role to play in everything from water to homebuilding, which a cross party consensus has abdicated.

In the case of water, we've not had a new reservoir built since Major. The argument for privatisation was that the market would allow for more efficient allocation of resources in line with supply and demand, but the experience of the last thirty here has pretty conclusively disproved this logic. See also the retreat from housebuilding.

Yet somehow this is all the fault of population, and implicitly immigration. We're hurtling towards Nigel Fucking Farage as PM because no mainstream politician is willing to rock the boat with our rentier "investors".

	▲	bufio 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Lots of Uber Eats drivers.

▲ ben_w 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They did mention population growth, and also:

  The industry has said that about 20% of all treated water is lost to leaks.

▲ 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

▲ helqn 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So it’s easy to fix. There is just no political will.

I see the same in my own country. Population growth with no end in sight, infrastructure thoroughly stressed, nobody does anything about it.

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tempfile 4 days ago | parent [-]

What's the "easy fix"? Mass deportations?

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helqn 4 days ago | parent [-]

Stopping immigration in its tracks is the first step. If anything it doesn’t stop increasing. Then we can talk about the next steps.

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KaiserPro 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Congratulations! now you have a island at the wrong end of a population boom.

All of your former productive workers are now retired, and the rest are expected to pay for the retirees and aging infrastructure.

Now, is growing by a million a year a good way to build long term? no.

Is depopulation going to make the country better? also no.

Immigrants aren't the problem here, They're not the one scaring away buisness, not building homes, not changing the law to make needed changes.

The people who are to blame are the commentariat and the rest of the "political calss" who refuse to accept blame or change.

	▲	WhaleClub 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		[flagged]

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richrichardsson 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Investment is the easy fix, but it's easier to blame immigrants than do that.

▲ tonyhart7 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"our population has grown by 20%"

which one is grown and which one is imported ???