By people in this country whenever river pollution comes up. It's very popular to blame the water companies for everything, and a common remark on something that is widely discussed. Count Binface's manifesto in the recent Clacton by-election, for example, had a point where the water company executives should be forced to swim in the rivers that they had polluted.

The reality is that it's not solely the water companies, even though if you put it to them many people would leap on the comparison to the Mafia.