Found out and called out… when the rule makers are the rule breakers

Us Brits love the weather – we like to talk about it, write about it, laugh about it and moan about it. It’s what makes us Britishly human.

And we’ve been given our fair share to talk about over the past few weeks. From record-breaking temperatures in July, where thermometers surpassed the 40°C mark for the first time on record in the UK, to being issued with a red extreme heat warning – again a UK first.

As we all got a bit hot and bothered, so did some of the water company bosses, as the media turned the spotlight on them.

Questions were asked about the salaries of those in charge of water companies, as the Environment Agency declared drought conditions and hosepipe bans came into force up and down the country.

The boss of Wessex Water, Colin Skellet, was especially criticised for asking his customers to watch their use of water this summer, despite having his own 40ft swimming pool, and heading up a company that, according to media reports, loses 70 million litres of water a day due to faulty infrastructure.

In a ‘water saving’ section on its website, Wessex Water says: ‘Did you know? An average sized paddling pool needs around 200 litres to fill it up – that’s more than an average person normally uses in one day.’

The author of the piece may be forgiven for not knowing about the boss’s swimming pool – for unless they had been invited for dinner, how could they possibly know about the ins and outs of his personal abode? But they absolutely should have been mindful of how much water their organisation loses daily.

The issue here is whether the company should be seen to be preaching to us, while they’re unable to keep their own house in order. At best, it’s tone deaf. At worst, it smacks of a lack of integrity, with one rule for them and one for everyone else.

We don’t have to cast our minds back too far to find other examples that have stuck in the collective public’s throats. Just ask Boris Johnson. While the nation duly followed strict lockdown regulations, tales emerged of regular parties in Downing Street, with people crowded into rooms, sitting on each other’s laps, as wine was spilled on the walls.

The superior ‘rules aren’t for me’ approach is naïve, short-sighted and, as can be seen in the case of Johnson, ultimately very damaging. He has been left reeling from his Covid misdemeanours and with little more than a fortnight of his premiership left, the country and his party have lost all trust and faith in his ability to lead with any integrity.

To have real credibility, leaders have to walk the talk, and that goes for whether you run a small business or a large country. Those who lead from the front should have the courage of their convictions and the confidence, intelligence and integrity to act and behave in accordance with their beliefs, ideologies, values – and certainly the rules.

For one thing is sure, no-one likes a two-tier society where the rule makers are also the rule breakers.

This article was written by our chief executive, Angharad Neagle, and featured in the Western Mail on 22 August 2022