' especially acts of god'
It is no use blaming acts of God or 'climate catastrophe'. It won't wash with the public. Thank God they have belatedly called in the great Dutch engineers to install the best pumping system in the world. But why didn't they do it sooner?
It was the great Dutch engineers who built the protection for the Somerset Levels hundreds of years ago, and it is the great Dutch engineers who are helping us now.
'spend a bit more time scanning the press for what HAS been achieved (much of it long overdue) rather than what wasn’t'
Of course good things have been achieved, but lots of crap has been done too, and apparently it is claimed that Cameron has even said that we should "cut the green crap", but will he follow through?
Several years ago, UKIP got fewer votes than the BNP in some constituencies and now they are above the Tories and competing directly with Labour in some constituencies. Why?
Their policies haven't changed dramatically, they haven't changed their values and what they stand for. The reason is that now the people are listening and it is because they are fed up with the entire political class because they are almost indistinguishable in many ways.
Most of the quangos are headed up by ex New Labour types, the same faces as under Blair. Many of the so-called "tsars" and many of the so-called "charities" are headed up by ex New Labour types, the same faces as under Blair. Nobody criticises anybody except in a pantomime PMQ. Pickles is not allowed off his chain in case he starts to apportion blame and criticise anyone.
The Tory slogan "vote blue, go green" really seems to be "vote blue, get Blair".
People want change, they want people who can make a difference, they want ideologies such as Thatcher's or Bob Crow's; they don't want more of the same, with the same old 'tsars' and the same old windmills and the same old "Depressed River Mussels".
There are huge problems in the country and people want them fixed.
The good work that the Tories have done in fixing some of them and creating a recovering economy may end up being overshadowed by their failures and their lack of courage to "cut the crap" and differentiate themselves from the other parties.
Pickles could do it, but no one has the courage to let him off his chain. The 'modernisers' prefer pussycats to rottweilers like Pickles, and that is why they may end up losing the election.