It's Debatable. 14th September.

Thank you and well done everyone who signed and helped promote the petition to call for a referendum to bring water into public ownership which sailed past the two milestones.

A debate date has landed.

Please get it in your MP's diary

Massive thanks also to the celebs and groups and NGOs who helped get it to the public after Feargal Sharkey launched it on Channel 4 news.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640

The first rough Instagram post we did on it has over 470K views, such is the appetite to actually do something to disrupt the cosy scam that water company owners are keen to keep using to extract our cash.

River Monsters star, Jeremy Wade, designed and had these T shirts produced to support the petition.

We pause to acknowledge the hard working staff in all of the companies who do their best with the resources they have - thank you, and we have the support of your unions to seek a better future out of the hands of financial predators. You are the future of the water industry and we think you deserve much better.

Back to the petition - First, the Government had to give a response after we passed 10K which we did on t the first day we started promoting it. We were served up a bunch of lies and misrepresentations from Defra about which we complained to the Environment Secretary and she left for an easier job without replying - but no we don't give up that easily.

L to R - Ash Smith, Feargal Sharkey, Prof Peter Hammond and Baroness Jenny Jones, delivering the 'stop the lying' letter to Defra in London

Secondly, we passed the 100K mark at which our petition would be 'considered for a debate'.

The consideration of debating this clearly troubling idea that people might actually have a say in whether they are exploited and their water polluted for profit went on a while, almost another 60K signatures and then came the news.

It's going to happen on 14th September in Parliament. It will be watchable online and we will publicise the link when we get it and some people will undoubtedly go to London to see it in person and maybe make a point outside.

Now we need a group of MPs who know what they are talking about in this subject (there are some excellent choices and a gowing number) to put an end to the myths that still circulate and that still put people off signing for a better future.

Please start writing to your MPs to ask if they are attending and if they want to speak. - email is of course fine. We suggest you title it water referendum debate and the more of you who do it, the better. This matters, and may be our best weapon if Andy Burnham disappoints. The people's choice and voice based on fact, not vested interests. Which politician will admit to wanting to stifle that?

And please let us know if you know any MPs who you think would do well in teh debate or who need to be provided with more information about why we need to do this.

The petition will be live until the 1st October and it is the best place for people to add their support before the debate, and after.

You can see below what happens when influential people get involved or something happens to spark interest to rteach a wide audience. Feel free to make your future mark on this graph from the Parallel Parliament website with your own ideas to promote it.

If you know celebs and influencers who may help, please ask them and forward them this blog. We will be happy to brief them on the facts, the common myths and the actual hard evidence because, as you know, WASP is all about debunking lies and exposing the truth.

You can see the remarkable SoS Whitstable's Dirty Business beach Protest on 26 April, for example.

We want to get to a million to drive home the point that people have had enough of being ignored and having no voice.

Could you be, or know, one of the people who can make that happen? With 6 weeks starting August 1 to14 September that is only about 20K a day...and the petition remains open and counting until 1st October.

Some NGOs have been really helpful, others not keen to rock the boat (seriously) - more to come on that awkward situation and the insidious power of polluter funding and greenwashing, or just being too close to government to be objective and effective. But some groups are working incredibly hard and well and we will cover who they are, to thank them soon.

So thank you again supporters and would be graph shakers and blip makers - here is your canvas.

This petition and the threat of a referendum can shape the way our government thinks and represents us and the country, not just the financiers making a killing from us , because that is what has been happening up to now.

We do not have to be passive victims of the privatised water scandal.

The real natural. Not the dismal one we are being told to accept.