Watchdog Bares Yet More Empty Gums

Another moisture provision profiteer has been found wanting, if only in performing its admittedly secondary function of providing moisture to paying customers. South East Water recently had to warn its captive market off using its product for two weeks, having refrained from burdening itself with regulatory red tape such as testing and filtering. The company's chief executive blamed the water, the customers and the regulator, which has no power to impose further sanctions; and the company itself is so efficient that it recently had to beg investors for a handout of two hundred million. There might well be serious trouble in store were it not for the fact that publicly owned utilites are contrary to the national religion.