Who really owns Britain’s waterways?

Stop press: Fleet Street is officially full of sewage. Flicking through the papers this morning, Steerpike was intrigued to see water pollution feature prominently on the front page of both the Times and the i newspapers. ‘Water firms to be spared threat of £250m fines’ roared the former; ‘Sunak facing Tory rebellion over sewage in UK rivers’ retorted the latter. Both are worthy stories but neither were splashed across any of the other national newspapers. What’s going on?

It turns on that the i are keen on the story because on Friday they proudly launched their new campaign to ‘Save Britain’s Rivers.’ It is a new UK-wide drive to rescue the country’s polluted waterways, champion a manifesto for our rivers and features Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey as a prominent spokesman. And the Times are keen on the story because today they have proudly launched their new ‘Clean it Up’ campaign