To feel that the South West has been abandoned (long and ranty)

[zeezeek]

My family still live in Cornwall and they have been completely battered by the wind and the rain for weeks now. Last night they had to be evacuated from their house. The main train line down to Cornwall (in fact also half of Devon) is completely destroyed and a lot of prime agricultural land in Somerset is under water.

People are losing their livelihoods and they have been lucky that there have been no loss of life. In a region where there is already high unemployment - the impact on the farming, fishing and tourist industries will just make the situation worse. Freight trains can no longer get down past Exeter.

The EA are effectively blaming the poor buggers who are affected by this and seemingly forgetting that people and homes are also affected. The government doesn't give a shit and the Environment minister didn't even bother taking a pair of wellington boots with him on his photo opp visit. Our future King made silly comments about how a disaster beings people together while his waste of space daughter in law spends taxpayers money jetting off to the Caribbean. Comments in sensible, intelligent newspapers are also blaming people for daring to live on a flood plain (which has never flooded to this extent) and by the sea.

I know that I am BU, but tonight - when my parents are still not allowed home and my brother has had his fishing boat sunk - I am feeling very, very pissed off with the media who seems to be making such a big deal out of a 2 day tube strike - there are buses.

Sorry, but needed to vent. Have nothing against Londoners - I lived there for years.

The thing is, sloaney types who live in London tend to think of themselves as country dwellers.

We can't stop it raining, and repairing of flood defences will take years/months.

What we can do is offer sympathy, and think about where we are spending our money this year.

We fully intend to go down to Cornwall and Devon when it is safer to do so, and spend money with local people to support the economy down there. We will also be looking at what we can purchase from South West suppliers so that money gets to the region. My pounds may only make a small difference, but if everyone on mumsnet did this, then it would help massively over the coming months.

zeezeek I hope that the insurers don't kick up a fuss about the boat, in fact I think the Government could afford to replace them. Boats are not that expensive in the overall scheme of things.

We have family and friends down in Cornwall and Devon so we are watching the news and praying that everyone gets through the next few weeks. We are incredibly lucky in this country that devastating weather doesn't often lead to loss of life.

Partially annoyed that here in Yorkshire, various parts get flooded quite often - yet it rarely seems to make the national news. Somewhere in the south gets flooded (very badly, admittedly) and it's international news with spending pledges and so on.

I do have sympathy for those in flood-hit regions in the south, and yes, something needs to be done. I'm just annoyed that it took somewhere in the south to be flooded before action was taken and just re-enforces the north/south divide that seems prevalent in this country, never mind the London-centric government.

just feel utter sympathy for those folks flooded and of course the knock on effect of loss of transport etc. just dreadful.

the tube strike is inconvenient, this is a disaster.

Someone just posted footage of the cattle convoy last night- everyone with a trailer in the local area got together to get 500 cows to safety. Farmers helping farmers. Made me cry.

I am not that far away and want to be able to help, but know that going there would be foolhardy. Does anyone know if we can sign up to help at the evacuation centres or donate to the families that have had to leave their homes? I'm thinking clothes, food, nappies etc. As soon as a relief fund is set up I will, of course, be donating.

The news is Londoncentric, I agree.
But i find that at times of national disaster, which this is for the SW, then it does get the attention it deserves. I'm Scottish BTW and it has irritated me in the past but I've seen headline news about this for weeks.
I do agree about lack of investment outside London and the SE though.

it's the Somerset levels, it's flat. nowhere to move them to.

each animal has to have a 'passport' to move it, movement of livestock laws etc...

I live in south south Devon. If i wanted to go anywhere it would be from a train station that is 8 miles or so away, but nothing can leave this station northbound, as it has one route-through Dawlish.

In December 2012 (for reference about the past problems) when Dawlish was closed, and Exeter (further north but still in Devon) was flooded AGAIN. My train journey to London had to start in Tiverton which was a 1.5 hour drive from my home.
Luckily i could get a lift.

surely this is not simply the atrocious weather but massive lack of investment. the cities have been massively rejuvenated in the last 10 years, Birmingham, our local city is totally unrecognisable now from my teen days. it's fantastic.

we need the same investment in the countryside.

please don't say we can't afford it. we send millions abroad in aid, ( rightly) tax payers money collected from townies and country dwellers alike, we need to help our own people now. Somerset is a disaster zone.

The environment minister was talking about choosing between flood defences in the town or flood defences in the country.
So yes, that is why London and londoncentric has been mentioned.

investment in the SW, particularly Plymouth, is absolutely dire

No airport link, no motorway and now no railway for the foreseeable future

we do not need to choose between town and country. if we can afford to send millions abroad we can spend it here.

I don't think people realise the scale if this at all. some have been flooded since Christmas Day ffs, whole communities. don't underestimate the trauma to the children here either.

I've lived in Plymouth since 1990 and with a few minor exceptions (e.g. Royal William Yard, Life Centre) there really doesn't appear to have been much investment in anything. We're moving to Hampshire later this year and I can't wait.

I emailed our local rescue centre and they only have a couple of people there at the moment who are waiting for accommodation to be arranged for them. If anyone is interested in finding ways to help, you can find lots of information on the FLAG Flooding on The Levels Action Group Facebook page. There are some amazing and inspiring stories on there too.

I don't think you can say that it hasn't got media coverage. It has been the lead news item for ages -- and that's saying something for the news, which almost by definition does not run the same story two days in a row.

I also don't see what good it would do to have ministers visit. I would rather they were in London, lobbying for more funding and more resources, and asking what is going to be done in the future. That is their job and why they were elected, not to wade around in wellies and wring their hands.

That is the job of Prince Charles, who seems to do it admirably ... apart from just one thing. He owns large amounts of Cornwall, doesn't he? How much is he investing in the upkeep and protection of his own land? If he's really putting in the work and the money, like a good landlord should, fine. If not, and he's vaguely been relying on a combination of the Government and the local council, then all of his mahoosive income from those estates should be taken from him and, I don't know, maybe ALL of it contributed to easing the situation in the SW.

What does Prince Charles, the Duke of Cornwall, do for his Duchy?....................Fuck all.

(Apart, that is, from trousering all the cash from his holdings. Which includes charging obscene fees just to anchor in the river estuaries owned by the Duchy of Cornwall).

He doesn't even pretend to give a shit- he hasn't even visited Cornwall to view the storm damage.

Fucking Nob.

totally agree re prince Charles comments. he is a ridiculous man and a free loader to boot like the rest if them. different thread though.

I have every sympathy for the SW, but it is naïve to expect the floods there to attract the same level of interest as they would do if London were affected. 1/5 of the population of England lives in metropolitan London and 1/3 in the Greater London area. Clearly media attention is going to focus on events that impact the highest proportion of the population - how much attention does the NE or NW get - none.
In actual fact recent media attention on the SW has been quite intense.

I am not sure that there was that much that would make economic sense to do. By definition spending lots of money on a 1/100 year plus event makes no economic sense in advance of time. Clearly in hindsight spending the money might have been a good idea, but that's always the way. Doesn't help I know, but it's realistic.

The more that people post, the more than I can see Londoncentric stuff.
Cant remember the last time I heard any news from Manchester or Birmingham. And Birmingham is the Uk's second largest city? Population 2 million?

Still dwarfed by London though. And London and the SE even more so. More people live here than Scotland, N Ireland, Wales put together. It's many, many Birminghams.

Actually I'm always surprised by how low key the news about London per se is. The BBC London news website is quite poorly done, for example, compared to the other regional sites. I think that's probably because the BBC will focus a lot of it's London based journalists on what is effectively national news (politics for example) and genuinely London stories do not get covered (like the poor Irish boy who was found dead this week in Leicester Sq).

sorry about the awful apostrophe abuse.

Sorry I really don't get the argument re London dwarfing everywhere else as some kind of excuse.It's quite a worrying mentality.Devon is the biggest county,that doesn't mean it's more worthy than other smaller counties.I thought we were all part of the same country paying the same taxes.

Theimpossiblegirl :(

I've lived in Exeter and Bristol and was quite shocked to hear that the train is not running from Bristol to Exeter today.
So almost that you can't travel further west (by train anyway) than Bristol
Looking awful on the Somerset Levels and really hoping more rain forecast for next week won't make things any worse for people
I also think the government need to respond more than they have.
I heard the Environment Minister only visited very recently.
I think DC should go there too even if he does fear a hard time of it question wise.
If he just stays in London making speeches about Scotland he does risk looking rather out of touch (even though I liked the speech about being "stronger together" and wanting Scotland to stay in the union - like a family sticking together, an appealing analogy I think)