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.

YY to Metebelis3. I live in Taunton and regularly work in London - the trains have already been up the spout since early January. And regularly running 30 mins late due to the spammy new station at Reading for most of 2013.

And to those of you saying it is all over the media - it is now. Three weeks ago when Muchelney had been cut off for 3 weeks and the main road between Taunton and the route to Glastonbury had been closed for three weeks we could not get any of the national media interested AT ALL. Businesses and families rely on that route to get around and it has now been closed SINCE 2 Jan.

And Chris Smith says that we need to make a decision between protecting the towns and the countryside - what an arse. He has not visited Somerset at all and, instead of funding dredging, new sluices and other protection measures they spent £30m on a fucking bird sanctuary. Thank you Cameron for at least calling Mr Smith on his utter failure at the EA.

And by the way our Lib Dem MP Jeremy Browne has been nowhere to be seen. Someone told me that he is hydrophobic (ha!) - however, I think it is because he does not support dredging as it might hurt the ickle birds and the ickle voles.

newyear Administratively it is. Politically it is. Geographically and culturally it clearly isn't. It's closer to Birmingham than Truro. QED.

merry Bristol has more in common with Cardiff than the south west certainly.

Bohemond I hate to say it but you lot would be better off with a Tory than with him. The libs have been a disaster for the SW and their malign do-nothing lie-lie-and-lie-again-to-get-elected strategies have succeeded in cutting us all off from funding for years and years. The Tory and Labour MPs in the region can't convince their colleagues that it's worth putting an effort into us because the libs have so much support it just doesn't make sense in most places in terms of electoral maths.

This is a problem that Bristol doesn't have (since it isn't in the south west except in the imagination of people who DON'T LIVE IN THE SOUTH WEST) since it is important in its own right to the politicians of both main parties.

Does anyone who actually lives here think that South West Water would be able to get away with what they do if the region had any political importance whatsoever? I think it suits everyone for us to be 'out of play' actually. These floods might bring us 'into play'. But I bet they don't.

Why is the tax-payer paying for Kate's holiday? She gets an income from the Duchy and her parents have rented the island for a week. Bit unfair.

As for Prince C--he'd have been moaned about if he hadn't gone down there, wouldn't he? So he can't really win.

I am sorry for your parents but blaming random individuals doesn't seem to be very constructive. We have flooding here, too, and it makes me sad to see fields under water, crops ruined, livestock deprived of pasture. And, of course, people's homes ruined. I hope your parents soon get their lives back to normal.

Cardiff is possibly more similar to Bristol than Snowdonia. Does that make it English?

Cardiff is a suburb of Bristol - same as Newport .

Thanks to everyone who has made supportive comments about the SW and I hope that those living in the affected areas have a calmer weekend - although, from the weather forecast it seems unlikely.

I would like to point out that I am not blaming random people for anything. I am blaming specific people for specific shortcomings. Ok, so I made a cheap shot at Kate - so what?

I don't know if anyone has seen the pictures of how the line at Dawlish was damaged, but it was fairly terrifying and the people in the houses nearby, as far as I know, are still not able to return to their houses and may not at all.

I do feel for other parts of the country that have been affected and yes, I do think that some are neglected and there should be more media coverage. But there needs to be something done to mitigate these risks, that is the bottom line.

I have been accused of not understanding Londoners misery at a 2 day tube strike - seriously? 2 days where some people are inconvenienced???? How fucking selfish can you people get? When people in the SW see comments like that then is it any wonder that they have such a low opinion of you? Get over yourselves. There are still buses, some other tube lines are running, taxis and, god forbid - you could walk.

Re the railway, they have had warnings for years that this would happen some day and no one has done anything. They were feebly suggesting that they might divert the mainline inland through Okehampton but preferred to hope that the inevitable would never happen.

I get enormously pissed off with people who think it is always sunny in Cornwall because that is where they come for their holidays. The weather is mainly shit.

You kinda lost my sympathy with the comment about peo

...(Pressed send too soon) your comments are offebsive about People from London. I'm originally from SW and now live near London. Believe me people I know here have nothing but sympathy. They are not responsible for what the media reports. Believe me living in London comes with a lot of shit and it ain't necessarily any better. You'd be better to focus your anger on the cause. It isn't Londoners that caused this problem.

Isn't Kate spending time in her family's villa? Her family. How rude.

FWIW all I have heard about is the flooding. News, radio. Lots of news programmes and coverage on the BBC!!!! Prince Charles has also offered money from his charity to help

It's a fact of life that most things on national and international news centre around London

I have been snowed in with 3 feet of snow for about 6 weeks and it barely made the news where a day or snow of traffic stopping snow in London is Breaking News

The government refuses to subsidise the lifelink to the Isles of Scilly, despite it being the only isolated island community in the country not to receive such a subsidy. The bus routes have recently had funding slashed. The SW's rail links were cut off for weeks last year because of flooding in Devon. And now this.

This is at the same time as Transport for London receives continuing enormous investment, and the the high speed rail link continues to be discussed as something which could happen.

I'll tell you how much hope the people of Cornwall and Devon have that investment will mean the re-routeing of the main railway line inland and away from the sea before 2100. None.

You can't blame them for being pissed of with London, no matter how misplaced, especially when they keep reading snippy little comments like "Well they shouldn't have bought a house on a floodplain/near a stream/near a harbour/by the sea" from people who refuse to try and understand that people have been living here for hundreds of years and these are the worst floods ever.

Aside from all that, if I had my way paving your front lawn would be made illegal. Not allowed at all. Use gravel if you want a parking space.

And it's not just rain. It's wind. We had 90mph blow up in a couple of hours yesterday. That's what caused all the damage, not rain.

I'm from London, and I live in the South West. I work in London a lot of the time (including on Wednesday, the first day of the tube strike - believe me it was FAR easier getting from the west end to city airport than it had been on Tuesday getting from Devon to London, which was a genuine nightmare, and that was BEFORE the wall came down at Dawlish). The people who have caused this mess live in London, and focus on London to the detriment of everywhere else. The people who control the media live in London and focus on London to the detriment of everywhere else. I was born and will always remain a Londoner, I still regard London as my home. But I can see that some (obviously just a very small number) Londoners are to blame for this and many (a much bigger number) Londoners are guilty of whining on and on and on about how grim the queues are at their local station and how dreadful it all is when in fact they need to get over themselves and recognise that the tube strike is not the worst thing that ever happened (indeed it's not even the worst tube strike that ever happened, there have been many successful 100% closure tube strikes - this one is pathetic really).

Why oh why is it ok to slate Londoners for mentioning an inconvenience? Are we not allowed?

I don't think there has been that much about the strikes on MN actually. People walked into work where I work and decided to see the benefits of a nice walk over the past two days. And we asked friends with family in the South West how they were doing? Because we are worried for them.

This thread is based on the rather odd premise that the floods are being ignored by the media. When there have been several live blogs on the national papers about it and a lot of news has revolved around the floods. My FB thread is full of people not in the SW discussing it.

Metebelis3 - totally agree! And also about the 100% tube strikes....they were rough!!

You can't blame them for being pissed of with London, no matter how misplaced, especially when they keep reading snippy little comments like "Well they shouldn't have bought a house on a floodplain/near a stream/near a harbour/by the sea" from people who refuse to try and understand that people have been living here for hundreds of years and these are the worst floods ever.

Is that specifically people from London. Are you 100% sure no one from Manchester has ever made that comment?

If you read the OP you will see that I am not complaining about the amount of media coverage - but the comments that have been made and the attitude of politicians and the EA.

ethel The flood situation in the levels and in bits of Devon was serious well over a year ago. The vulnerability of the railway line was proven beyond all doubt Xmas 2012. But people are only talking about it now because the wall came down at Dawlish. If action had been taken over 18 months ago - or earlier than that - then some of the problems people are facing now might be significantly less challenging. HS2 as a concept should never have got off the ground. It's a project serving the part of the country that already has by far the best rail service (I know it's a rubbish rail service but it's better than anywhere else). There has been a lot of anger in the SW for a long time about the way our infrastructure has been allowed to degenerate and crumble. The loss of the train line really is the last straw for many.

And no, I don't think Londoners should be moaning, I think they should be counting their blessings and growing a backbone. You elected Boris, live with the consequences.

Yes, but Westminster is in London and the Transport for London is in London.

I'm not saying they're right! I'm just saying I can understand it. Empathy, you know?

You elected Boris, live with the consequences.

Umm, a lot of people in London didn't actually. I think that argument is on a par with the 'you decided to live on a flood plain' argument.

I can't comment on the situation in Somerset, but my dh works in Flood Defence for the EA in the south east. We have had continuous low pressure for the best part of six weeks and the amount of rain has been unprecedented. He and his colleagues have been working a six day week with 12 hour shifts since the new year. This has involved night working, on top of the day job. They are doing their best for the public and it has been and is very hard work. Flooding problems are not simple, but as usual, money is the bottom line. The EA has to protect as many people as possible with flood defences and there is a finite amount of money. The government will have to increase it by a vast amount to protect everyone who lives in a flood plain or floodable area.

I can't comment either about those at the top, but rest assured that the ordinary employees in Flood Defence at the EA are working their backs off.

Metebelis3

You elected this government, you live with the consequences. They've decided you're not worth helping.

You can do something about Boris though. The people living on the levels - many of whom began living there before flood defences had been eroded and in times when the governments of the day actually had policies to try and protect against these things - can't do anything about the flood defences. That's the difference. :(

Most people in the south west (almost all of us) don't actually live on a flood plain, you know. And some people in London, do. Except, there are proper flood defences in London.