To have no sympathy with Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee for having their house flooded

[ReallyTired]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26184129

I feel more sorry for people in council housing along the river than multi millionaires who can CHOOSE where to live.

If you buy a multi million pound house by the river thames then you should not be surprised if it gets flooded. I don't agree with the idea of dredging the river thames as I feel it would destroy wild life.

I agree with them that planning permission should not be given for properties that are guarenteed to flood. Or if people must build on the flood plain then the houses should be built on stilts so that the occupants stay dry. My parents' house is on the flood plain and it is built two feet off the ground so reduce the chances of getting flooded.

[Salmotrutta]

I'm curious OP - do you think everyone who lives in a tornado corridor in, say, the USA shouldn't moan either?

Or all those people who irresponsibly live in typhoon-affected areas?

What about those daft folk who live near fault lines?

Feckless aren't they?

[Pagwatch]

At what point did the 30,000 dead in Bangladesh come into the equation?

Can we just totally draw on any random shite to back up a rubbish arguement?

[LaurieFairyCake]

"Deciding on degrees of sympathy to apply to those in situations not of their creations is exactly the same instinct that allows people to segregate the deserving and undeserving poor. It's crap.

It's a horrible situation. Chosing who to feel sorry for just means you are layering your uninformed moralising on those about whom you probably know nothing."

Because you said the above. And I say that you can feel more sympathy for those with less.

Those with less lose more. IMO.

[Pagwatch]

The op posted that in entirely equitable scenarios she felt sorry for people in a council house than she did for a wealthy celebrity.

It was that shallow.

30,000 dead is not anything to do with the op and is a rather grim and manipulative thing to throw ino the mix

[Chippednailvarnish]

What about if they were rich Bangladeshes ?

Are we going to question why they didn't just move somewhere higher?

[Chippednailvarnish]

and I say that you can feel more sympathy for those with less. Those with less lose more. IMO

Bollocks, if you've been killed by a flood, your unfortunately still dead, rich or poor.

[Salmotrutta]

It is possible to feel sympathy for anyone going through horrible times.

It would be nice to think that most people don't mentally run through a list of worthiness criteria before they feel sorry for folk.

I'm not a fan of Paul Daniels but I can still feel sorry for him having his house flooded. I'd bloody hate to have to cope with that.

[LaurieFairyCake]

But the 'degrees of sympathy' you're taking issue with is the same. You're saying it's not right to feel more sorry for someone who loses everything and that we should feel equally sorry.

Someone in a council house with no insurance may lose everything. Paul Daniels won't.

Ergo feeling sorrier for the person who loses more.

And most sorry (obviously) for those who've had no warning in foreign countries who've lost everything materially plus lives.

I thought we were debating degrees of sympathy?

With you saying it wasn't right to feel less sorry for Paul Daniels?

I'm simply saying the opposite - that I believe it's ok to feel less sorry for people who can easily replace goods lost.

[emotionsecho]

CerealMom Rutland is no good, huge reservoir known as Rutland Water and that might overflow and drown us all!!

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Someone in a council house with no insurance may lose everything. Paul Daniels won't

How do you know that? You presume he is loaded but you have no idea if he has the money to start all over again. I know people who on the surface look enviably wealthy but it's all surface wealth and they definitely couldn't just walk away from a house and start all over again.

[Pagwatch]

No, you don't fel degrees of sympathy IMO

If someone loses a leg and another loses both legs you don't calculate the relative degree of sympathy you should feel for each.

You feel bloody sorry for both of them.
Then, later, you contemplate that hopefully the one who has lost one leg may just find it a little easier to get his regular life back.

Sympathy, compassion is not a finite thing. It shouldn't be doled out like we are doing the universe a favour.
We are either sympathetic and empathetic or we are not.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I'm not assuming he is loaded.

He actually said that he'd moved his valuables to upper floors and had moved out to a hotel. He was sanguine about it.

[BarbarianMum]

Having lived in Windsor for 20 odd years I'm laughing at the idea that dredging the Thames is going to solve this. How deep exactly are you going to make it - half a mile? And if you did and the water went shooting past, what happens to people downstream?

I'm sure most people living on the banks of the Thames round here get that flooding is a hazard - this is not the first time, it won't be the last. On the other hand I'm sure that people in California get that earthquakes are a hazard to be expected. Doesn't mean sympathy is not in order when one strikes.

Where Mr and Mrs Daniels have the advantage is that their money allows them choices of where to live, and how to protect and insure their home. As most people don't have this then there needs to be a national discussion about what we collectively are prepared to spend or sacrifice to prevent flooding and where the balance of responsibility b/w state and individuals lies.

Quite frankly 'feeling sorry' for people for a week then (yet again) forgetting about it all til next time is the cheap solution.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

His insurance is probably paying for the hotel, I know they did with a friend who was flooded.

Yeah Pag, I agree, God, this thread is so mean spirited

[LaurieFairyCake]

I have oodles of sympathy and empathy

But I feel more sorry for those who have lost more.

Including myself (who's roof is falling in) who I feel NO sorrow for as I can afford to get it fixed. It's slightly inconvenient. That is all.

I'm happy to agree to disagree.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

I'm happy to agree to disagree

Oh bollocks, I was hoping for a massive full on ruck

[GwendolineMaryLacey]

I can't abide either of them. But I have sympathy with anyone who is suffering in this weather. It's shitty to have your home threatened no matter who you are. But I feel more sorry for me because I can't afford to get my roof and ceiling fixed.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I don't do rucks.

I think there's no need to build on flood plains now though. There's only 2% of Britain built on - and there's plenty of room to build in the naice Chilterns round here.

We need a mass house building programme.

[LaurieFairyCake]

for you Gwendoline. Sorry you can't afford to get your roof fixed.

[SpottyDottie]

I'm sure I read something recently that he applied years ago for planning permission to put the house on stilts but it was turned down.

I think we should be sympathetic to anyone who has had to suffer with flooding in their home be it a bungalow or mansion.

[JohnFarleysRuskin]

I feel more sympathy for Debbie than for Paul. I always have.

[CerealMom]

Emotions, sh1t, I'm running out of counties! Anywhere else?

[Kundry]

Nothing the Environment Agency could have done to prevent the flooding - ha, ha, ha. Go and tell that to my mother and the people in her street who currently have the army digging ditches that should have been dug after the first time they flooded in 2007. Yes, 2007, the only time previously their street has ever flooded so no-one there had any idea they were buying houses at risk.

There was loads of stuff the environment agency, councils and government could have done after 2007. It wasn't done.

[Chippednailvarnish]

Exactly Kundry, how much money your Mother may have is totally irrelevant.

[tb]

Rufus I do know that, at the least, the Environment Agency advise local authorities on planning decision concerning the flood plains of rivers.

However, it tends to go along the lines of

Environment Agency - we recommend not building houses on the flood plain due to the increased risks of flooding

Local Authority - thank you for your advice

Local Authority - application approved (while rubbing hands thinking of all the council tax revenue they will received once the new homes are occupied)

I would very much like to see the owners of the houses so affected win a class action against the local authority who granted planning permission against the expert advice.

Even if rivers were dredged, when river levels are high and they're in spate, this causes tremendous pollution and there will be a loss of wildlife as a result.

Everyone that takes down their front garden wall, and replaces it with a concrete or tarmac driveway increases the risk of flooding - it's not just Tesco with their massive carparks. Years and years ago, Charlie Dimmock was talking about green driveways helping to reduce flooding.

If all the front gardens are concreted to provide off-street parking, after heavy rainfall, the water won't have anywhere else to go, except into people's homes.

We were nearly flooded in 1980 when 2 out of 3 road bridges in Preston over the Ribble were under water. The houses at the end of our road were flooded, and some lost the supporting brick pillars under the downstairs floorboards. The water came within less than a foot of our back door, but fortunately the wind didn't increase, else we would have been flooded.