To think that the Gvt should get its head out of the sand and declare a national emergency?

[Destinysdaughter]

I fortunately do not live in any of the areas affected by flooding but bloody hell, if this isn't now a national emergency I don't know what is? Just been watching it on the news and the complacency from our so called leaders is staggering! What's it gonna take? The Thames is now breaking its banks. Will it take the Houses of Parliament to be flooded before they take it seriously and help people...?

And anyone who says this isn't to do with climate change is off their rocket! (IMO)

Sorry WTF, didn't pick up that you were quoting

I'd expect the lads to be in drill halls etc, like we were for the firemans/foot and mouth. Not luxurious, but warm and dry.

Blame Urban Dictionary

Well, whatever he said/meant and wherever they end up sleeping, it's so good that they have been able to deploy 1,600+ personnel in a couple of days carrying everything they need to avoid burdening the local infrastructure by their presence. Though I hope there are some nice dry halls they can use!

I'm surprised we've got 1600 troops left.

TBF - the Forces do a good job overseas in disaster areas so it's only right they should do the same here.

in some places its only the RSPCA that have helped and volunteers people pay taxes not for other countries but for this one why are they not getting the help i dont see any emergency housing blankets generators food help with evacuating and i live less than a mile from the floods apart from the barriers going up (after protests by the residents) no help has been given by anyone apart from voluntary and neighbours

and india could send us aid they make more money than us and spend it on themselves we have no need to send aid to them they told us not to bother and cameroon told them well we will continue to give it to you for another couple of years just to make sure

wasnt haiti the country that complained we didn't get aid to them fast enough when it was their own government that was preventing it going through?

just dont get me started on africa im really not sure where we all went wrong there the country seems to be just as bad after we spent billions on it apparently most of the money got diverted to fund another war so we started sending them products now people are not so welcome anymore (yes i know people who have been they are asked for money all the time)

im really not sure of the reaction if britain asked for help im pretty certain the rest of the world would tell us to kiss it we are really not popular

@deakymom .... Seriously you want the people of Haiti who are still living in tent cities with dysentery/dengue fever and goodness know what other water and mosquito borne diseases rife to start collecting money to send to British homes affected by seasonal ( albeit exceptional )flooding? Really?

Hundreds of Barclays bankers got an average 60k bonus today... Tell you what, why don't you write to the Daily Mail and ask them to start a campaign for the bankers to donate their bonus to the flood relief effort. Not the wage they rely on to feed their DC but just the bonus bit. I'd really respect you for that.

And as for 'Africa' the country ... I'm now suspecting I've fallen for a crap joke. You are having us on aren't you?

What OhMerGerd said. Also, punctuation other than question marks and brackets exist - I suggest you use them if you want people to easily make sense of your posts and take you seriously.

If Britain was full of people like you deaky, really no surprise that we're unpopular.

And I do love it when a rant is completely incoherent

pamish that map of the UK in 2100 is bollocks.

Not least because it has Birmingham rather than Manchester as the capital!

it's only a national emergency for those motorboat and mansion owners who have had their swimming pools flooded as far as I can see.

Maybe people should be looking at what is happening in the NW and Wales today. One of the biggest storms in many years and very dangerous.

OhYou? The first headline on he BBC today is about Wales/The South West

I'm talking about the comment above mine.

This is not a national emergency! It is a very serious emergency situation in some very specific parts of the country.

As a country, our planning policies allow building in the floodplain and allow concreting over of land with no thought of what implications this will have to surrounding areas. Hopefully the positive thing to come from all this misery will be to address this issue and promote sustainable urban drainage and better land management.

This is the most amount of rain since 1766.

Over the last 20 years, both political parties have allowed maintenance on flood defences in some places to lapse.

How we facilitate people getting on with their lives and future is what matters.

Whilst the situation is very trying and upsetting for those directly involved, I can't help but think that

1. If it had occured outside the south of England would we be hearing about it first item on the news every night for what feels like weeks?

2. If it had occured outside the Tory heartlands (and not so close to an election) would Cameron have claimed 'money was no object' when it came to flood defences?

well, I think the coverage of the severe storm today might slightly negate point 1 and as for point 2, we all know he didnt mean that in the slightest. He seems to have spent a lot of time backtracking from that!

He seemed to avoid questions about 500 redundancies at the Environment Agency.

No really kitten a pound to a penny that storm coverage will last 48 hours whilst the floods have dominated the news for weeks and will probably continue to do so for weeks.

that might be cos the floods look likely to last for weeks. Though I think the transport disruption from this storm will remain on the news for longer than a couple of days.

Its a joke, as said above people here in somerset have been flooded for weeks, it took weeks for any media coverage/attention from downing st, but the whiff of the fact the thames might flood and the home counties and suddenly they get immediate help!!
They may do more to help those in and around London as itll cost them more, but I struggle to see this; Most of the uks farming is done in the sw, many farms are underwater, many acres of land are underwater and unusable for a considerable amount of time. farmers are having to sell off their whole herds because they have no dry land to put them on/ not enough dry feed to feed them on. The impact this will have on grain prices, milk and meat will be massive imo.

The government have done not a lot in terms of help, prince Charles doned a pair of willies and came over but thats about it, most of the help has come from other areas of somerset, people giving their time to fill sandbags, rescue people in jcbs, rescue livestock, foster peoples pets/animals. big businesses in the area have rallied round to provide haulage, livestock feed, dry fields etc its heartwarming to see, but disheartening the sw means so little to number 10.

here is the action group whereby most of the help so far has been coordinated FLAG

Donned a pair of willies

Tehe

Good posts though

Yes expect the coverage to go into overdrive now that shock horror the south east might get slightly soggy.

The weather forecast in the south east isn't news to the vast majority of the country.

I don't see how

It is all very well saying people shouldn't live on floodplains or by the sea, however a lot of people who have been negatively affected by the bad weather need to live where they do e.g. in Cornwall fishermen- should they being their boats onto dry land to protect them as well? Also, farmers- there is a limited amount of farmland (particularly arable farmland) that is on high enough ground to never ever flood. Many of the places that have flooded have not flooded before- or alternatively need to be where they are for economic reasons- e.g. tourism and fishing.

In the longer term we also need to think about the increasing concreting over of urban areas and the removal of trees and hedgerows from farmlands. Both of these things are known to substantially increase flooding risk, but at times government policy (e.g. hill farming subsidies) actively encourages land owners to deforrest. It's facile to say that the government can't stop it raining- their policies have actively contributed to the problem.

Short term, I think more should be done to help save livestock. This will benefit everyone as it will keep the prices of meet and dairy low. There should be some kind of emergancy loan scheme available to help business owners- often insurance is very slow to pay out, and if businesses can get up and running again quickly when flood waters receed it will benefit people who can return to their jobs. The business rates holiday is not useful for very small businesses as they don't pay this tax anyway.

In the mid term, more money should be available to help repair transport links e.g. roads damaged by lanslides and damaged railways. There needs to be joined up thinking between government departments about how best to prevent large scale flooding.

Sorry- the start of my post was meant to say "I don't see how declaring a national emergancy will actually help anyone.