Floods

You're correct. The Chief Scientist at the Met is not even prepared to say it's unprecedented. She says rather that it is an "exceptional" event and says "we can't say that it's unprecedented".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26084625


In this incidence, the term "unprecedented" is a get out clause for politicians. If they bandy it around enough it allows them to be absolved of any failures in planning and preparation. If it's "unprecedented" how could they have planned / prepared for it? If they say it enough, members of the electorate will believe it.

Thirty years ago when I was studying at University, academics back then (and probably before this) were concerned about the effects of Climate Change and "extreme weather events." Somebody should have been listening.

 

If its an unprecedented event, then you could possibly attribute it to climate change, ( new word for global warming).

If its not unprecedented, then its all happened before, so it cant have anything to do with "climate change".

You cant have it both ways.
Whatever it is, I just wish it would piss off and let me dig my allotment.

 

I'm sure I've read of complaints from residents of the Somerset Levels about no dredging within the last 20 years which would mean it stopped when John Major was Prime Minister.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/en...et-Levels-admits-Environment-Agency-boss.html

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/somerset-river-dredging-floods-david-Cameron

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/defra-ignored-somerset-flood-warnings-9091835.html

2014 - 20 = 1994 When John Major was Prime Minister http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom My memory of those days may be getting rather fuzzy, but I'm fairly sure he was a Conservative.

 

I'm a stickler for facts, and one is that it was during John Major's term of office that dredging ceased, long before Chris Smith was appointed head of the EA (and subsequently re-appointed by The Coalition for a second term).

Truth is the first casualty etc.

 

The conservatives have a record for not really giving a stuff about ordinary people though. My earliest childhood memory of anything political was the graffiti that read 'Maggie Thatcher Ambag Snatcher' and the school playground chant "Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher".

I also remember being billed for poll tax, back dated to one I was only just 15 years old. It took me several hours to explain in simple terms that nearly 3 years worth of the bill related to a time when I was exempt due to the small matter of not being 18 yet and I never did get an apology, just a revised bill, which I agreed to pay weekly, and did so... in 2p and 1p coins.

All irrelevant. The people in charge back then are not in charge now, and to blame them for today's problems is just diverting attention away from those who are currently employed by the people to sort out things like national infrastructure.

This is a problem not just in political circles but everywhere these days. People wont take ownership of a situation. We had a recent bit of trouble at work, when it became apparent that one chap who'd recently left had not got as far along with what he was working on as we thought. There was some huffing and puffing but I just piped up that we have two options, we can either rant and rave about it and not do it, or we can move on and just get on with it. If only politicians would take the same attitude from time to time.

 

The BBC News is on. They are calling the floods, and I quote, "The Great Floods of 2014".

That's it now, it'll be in the history books now. There might even be songs and poems written.

 

CHANGED MY MIND,
ZIGGY FOR PRIME MINISTER
NOW

 

Oh bother, does that mean i've got to sort a Manifesto ???

 

Just get the first round in for starters Ziggy,
Jenny

 

No, not at all. We'll do it and then just tell you what you need to say to the telly cameras.