For years anti-fracking doom-mongers have been warning that the waters of Lancashire will become polluted – a completely baseless assertion that contributed to the local council rejecting permission for two fracking wells.

However, it seems the anti-fracking crowd’s predictions have come to pass – sort of. The tap water for more than 300,000 households has been contaminated with cryptosporidium and locals are being advised to boil their drinking water until further notice. The presence of the microbial parasite which causes diarrhoea indicates that the water supply has come into contact with animal or human faeces.

Perhaps if Lancashire County Council spent less time dealing with imaginary risks and more time on real ones, the residents of Blackpool and Chorley wouldn’t be running to the loo so much this week…