Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

“Retreat is the only sensible policy,” says Colin Thorne, professor of physical geography at Nottingham University and a leading flood expert. “If we fight nature, we will lose in the end.”

This view has until now strongly influenced government policy on the Levels. Much stress has been placed on the area’s role as a flood plain where people should expect to get wet. The perhaps brutal calculation has been that it was not worth spending millions dredging rivers and building barriers to protect a few thousand people – especially when the scientists say that it will merely buy time.

“Can the Somerset Levels be defended between now and the end of the century? No,” says Prof Thorne.

No explicit decision would be taken to abandon the Levels. But the much-hated end to the dredging of the area’s rivers, and the increased flooding that may have resulted, were at least pushing in that direction and letting nature, in at least some places, gradually take its course.

There are, however, a few problems for the “swampist tendency,” as Anthony Gibson, a former farmer’s union official now closely involved with efforts to plan for the area, calls them. The first, as he says, is that “the Levels are very far from a typical flood plain”.

They are a deeply artificial, man-made environment, criss-crossed with rivers, canals and channels whose banks have been built up higher than the surrounding land to carry large volumes of water through and out of the area.

Because of these banks, the water level in the two main local rivers, the Parrett and the Tone, is up to 10ft higher than the land around it. In flood times, when the rivers burst even these banks, floodwater cannot escape until the level of water in the river is lower than the level on the land around it, and that can take months

How many tory mp's in that area?

Not enough to get Cameron out of bed until the flood started hitting his doorstops.

The whole scenario with Lord Smith makes me angry and I don't even live in Somerset. What on earth does he think he's getting paid for, to sit in a car trying to avoid the press, dodge awkward questions and then scurry back to his lovely warm home as soon as possible? If he doesn't think the buck stops with him, then he should stop getting paid big bucks.

David Cameron promises to help flood victims on visit to Somerset

Prime minister says he will do 'everything that can be done' as he meets locals in flooded county


Patrick Wintour


theguardian.com, Friday 7 February 2014 17.33 GMT





The prime minister, under growing pressure for not visiting the flood-hit Somerset levels, finally made a trip to the area on Friday where he vowed to do everything he could to help.

On his visit in the company of the local Bridgwater Conservative MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger, David Cameron said: "Clearly people here faced a very tough time and continue to face a tough time, and that is why we have got to do everything we can to help.

"So more pumps – we brought in more pumps; more help from the emergency services – more help is there; money to help Somerset to get back on its feet – the money is there; the army coming in to help with sandbags, as they have other the past 24 hours."



He suggested the cause of the problems lay with decisions taken by the last Labour government. "The pause in dredging that took place in the late 90s – that was wrong. We need to get dredging again and I have said when the water levels come down and it is safe to dredge we will be dredging to make sure that these rivers and ditches can carry a better capacity of water. There are lessons to be learned and I will make sure they are learned.

"Some dredging was done but clearly we need to go back to a period of much more intensive dredging. It is not the whole answer. Right now the priority is that anyone in Somerset who needs help gets help."


Full story: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/07/david-cameron-help-flood-victims-somerset-farm

It just stupid politics. Who wants to spend millions to protect a handful of farms. Let them drown as they will eventually. If climate change is a reality then they will be under water soon no matter what is done. There may be climate change, but it may just be a natural cycle and not man made.

It certainly true that it was Labour that stopped the dredging.

an interesting question today was whether or not part of the £11bn overseas aid should be diverted to pressing home flood relief requirements - and not just a paltry £100m earmarked for 2015

Haystack - I think that is an appalling comment, it smacks of 'I'm alright Jack'---------

"Who wants to spend millions to protect a handful of farms. Let them drown as they will eventually."

It is just being realistic and about value for money. There has to be that calculation. How would it be if there was just one farm and it cost say £100m to save it? That would be easy to decide. It wouldn't happen. So at what point do you save a handful of farms? Do you spend £1m, £10m, £50m or £100m? This is then compounded by the possibility that there is a worsening weather pattern so that the price might rise and the end result might be failure. Someone has to make that decision based on the cost and the longterm viability.

ok, on that basis, you can get rid of Scotlands hill farms as well.


Just try it and see what happens.

Blimey, I must be getting soft in my old age - okay, just let them drown then. Let's just go ahead and spend £50billion on HS2 and by the time that's finished the whole country may be completely under water.

Scottish and even Welsh hill farms are not in danger of being flooded or other physical problems. They are just unprofitable. They can be sustained at a reasonable cost. If it was not so, they would have already gone. Many traditions die out and that is just the way of things. Do we want to preserve farming with horse drawn ploughs on all farms.

Are you serious?

Abandon huge areas of the southern UK cos you cant be bothered to protect the land?


Import even more fruit and vegetables cos it's cheaper in the short term?


Find the money to blow on a train set that cuts the travelling time by 20 minutes from London to mancland

Are you mad, have you lost all reason?

It isn't a huge area and doesn't produce much. The area will just return to salt marshes and be a bird sanctuary. It is doomed as farm land.

re: #36291


One of the reasons that the tory party are doomed, quite simply, is the leaders are mad, and have lost all touch with the people...Noo Labour are going the same way, the loony libs are beyond belief!


Whats left?

UKIP seem to be right.
(when they rewrite their manifesto)

They would need policies first.

Camoron blaming labour YET AGAIN.

Hasnt he yet realised hes been in power for 4 years.

Its a disgrace a total disgrace, them poor people in that Somerset area.

And YOU Hays are wrong, its not a case of looking at costs, were talking of peoples lives here.......human beings.

How would you like to be tossed out of your home and relocated somewhere else.

Get real.

a few of non-political questions .....
for how long has the Environment Agency been in existence?
for how long has the present head of the agency been in place?
what has been the agency's policy on say dredging for say the last 7/10 years?
has there been any fundamental changes in policy over that period?

then of course there are other aspects, especially with regard to building on known flood plain ..... the Environment Agency has little or no say in the granting of such approvals