Whole Grain Water?

Two little comments really, one on the state of our water supply, and the other on the so-called goodness of whole grain foods.

Water.
Those of you who dont live in the south of England will not be aware that we are in a drought zone. Our water company has banned all hose-pipes and standing pipes. Something that has always escaped me is the fact that we are an island surrounded by water, yet still we have enough drought alerts for it to be serious.

Our water supply in the London region has always been terrible, being partly based on old Victorian pipe networks that were installed over 100 years ago. It has been revealed that the pipes are worn and leaking, and the amount they leak into the soil on a daily basis is terrifyingly high. We are talking millions of gallons a day. So seeing as this poor water network has been part of London life for over 100 years, why has it taken a century to think about fixing/repairing and replacing the network. And where have 100 years of profit gone?

Whole Grain.
As part of the attempt to woo customers from one breakfast cereal to another, suddenly breakfast companies are annoucing that their foods now contain "Whole grain goodness". Now this is obviously a buzz word, because whole grain used to be taken out of the food as part of the production process of say cornflakes. Now all of a sudden they are back in with a healthy promotion campaign in the process too. So if they were always good for you, then why weren't they left in from day one?