Why focus just on the politicians where there are plenty of CEOs out there with excrement on their hands?
I have an idea in the public policy/apocalyptic light entertainment space. No water company boss should be allowed to collect their salary or bonus unless they take a long and exhaustively reported dip in the waters of one of the beaches they’ve pumped sewage into that same morning. Just think of it. The first wild swimming article you’d genuinely want to read.
In the meantime, the water firms keep on doing it, with one of the hottest summers on record punctuated by daily reports of both drought and sewage discharge. Environment Agency data suggests the amount of raw sewage pumped into seas and rivers by the water companies has increased 2,553% in the past five years. To Jonathan Swift, scatological humour seemed the rational satirical response to the state of early 18th-century politics. To us, it’s simply the factual state of affairs. There’s no real need to write a metaphorical poem about parliamentarians dabbling in their dung, since any MP who has holidayed on these shores this summer has literally done it.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
What Just Happened?! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber, £18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at the Guardian Bookshop. Delivery charges may apply
Marina Hyde will be in conversation with Richard Osman at a Guardian Live event in London on 11 October. Join them in person or via the livestream – book tickets via the Guardian Live website
