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.

to remain above water, the dutch have had zero option for centuries as the land itself has always been intrinsically below sea level ......
this is not the case in somerset (i think) and the drainage of the fens was done centuries ago and, i believe, not without considerable downside though not sure what

the dutch have had plenty of their own disasters too, no doubt with more to follow in the decades ahead if they are unlucky

They are experts in protecting land from flooding....you have to say...this flooding is not going to go away...it's going to get worse...

required field - good post apart from the, "is there money in the kitty?" bit.There seemed to be £billions available when this country got involved in the Iraq debacle. I wonder how much was spent on bombing Bagdad to rubble and then trying to rebuild.

There's always money for wars!

I wonder if there is any money in the kitty for the insurance claims? Cos the insurance industry will be looking to blame someone for their losses.

What about the knock on problems of people with in effect uninsurable, and therefor unsellable/unmortgageable property?

And just wait till the legal eagles get involved.


it's going to make the 3-4 million £'s cost of dredging the waterways look cheap.

was this flooding foreseeable?
not really, i would venture, and thus effective pre-emptive work was not really a feasibility - it would have had to have been proposed, discussed and put in place at least a decade ago
as an analogy, for how long has HS2 or building new runways been under discussion?

on the other hand, Lord Whatnot's pathetic reaction to the situation is despicable at best

"David Cameron overrules Environment Secretary Owen Paterson to order urgent dredging in Somerset to combat the flooding"

attribution please, and what is the rest of the story that assuredly attaches?

was this flooding foreseeable?


Of course it was, that's why they have been dredging the waterways for donkeys years.

I live in Hampshire and the local council stopped cleaning out the drains at the sides of the roads years ago, so every Autumn when the leaves fall off the trees the drains get totally blocked up - every time we have heavy rain the roads become flooded. It's not exactly rocket science is it.

is that true?
while that used to be the case when i was a child - i was brought up on the Thames near Henley - i don't recollect any dredging for many many years
certainly there are also disadvantages in so-doing, the effects on the eco-system being secondary, as for obvious reasons it can and even will completely change flow patterns ..... thus, if water is flowing more swiftly - an obvious effect of dredging - then, apart from anything else, bank erosion will increase significantly .... so now you've created new and different problems

DD - building on flood plain is a spiffing idea too! .... not only will those houses be probne to flooding anyway, but of course there is then no "waste" area for excess water to go, whether from the river or run-off from the land side

Insurance costs are going to escalate that's for sure....and those that have had their homes flooded will never be able to get a quote again...

Minister resigns shock horror!




Immigration minister resigns for employing illegal immigrant

Prime minister accepts resignation of Mark Harper, who launched government's 'go home' campaign last year


theguardian.com, Saturday 8 February 2014 16.20 GMT



http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/08/immigration-minister-resigns-illegal-immigrant-mark-harper

One way to combat illegal immigration is to bring in a law that : all employers part-time or fulltime are obliged to check the visa number that the employee must provide to the employer, and then the employer logs on or sends by post the number to a national register at the home office who then check their database to see if that person or persons are in the uk with a proper visa or not. If that number doesn't come up...something is wrong ...if that number comes up several times, then something is wrong...

Labour have been breaking the work permit laws for some time

The Arnie Graf visa row is simmering below the surface. James Forsyth reports in this week’s Spectator:

“It would be wrong, though, to think of Labour as a totally happy ship at the moment. There is the row over the visa status of Arnie Graf, the American community organiser and a close ally of Miliband. Graf’s friends think rivals inside the Labour machine deliberately leaked the news that he had no work permit in an effort to undermine him. Miliband’s confidants, by contrast, think the leak was designed to embarrass Iain McNicol, who as the party’s general secretary might would be hurt most by any administrative failure.

employer logs on or sends by post the number to a national register
oh yes for sure ..... can you see your local small-time city restaurants doing that or any number of other low cost labour industries?

I'm not sure why this mistake is deemed a resignation offence.

He appears to have complied with the rules.


After some of the other cock ups ie waterways, why is cameroon so quick to hang his head on a spike?

It would be compulsory Cynic...

so is registering a worker for NI and the rest, or hadn't you noticed!

and also, as Max quite rightly said, the minister did everything he could reasonably have done, but was still caught out - and he offered his resignation, as indeed he was correct to do .... sadly, his position was untenable, unfair as that may be in many ways

What the hell is going on?




Police to review new William Roache claims

Police to review information from "a number of other people" during trial of Coronation Street star William Roache


Coronation Street actor Bill Roache has been cleared of all charges Photo: PA


By Agencies

3:10PM GMT 08 Feb 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10626097/Police-to-review-new-William-Roache-claims.html



Police are set to review information they received from "a number of other people" during the trial of Coronation Street star William Roache, who was cleared of historic sex offences against five women.


Roache, 81, who plays Ken Barlow in the ITV soap, was found not guilty by a jury of two counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault following a four-week trial at Preston Crown Court.


Lancashire Police said they had been contacted with "further information", but said there is "no current investigation".


A spokeswoman said: "During the course of the trial of Mr Roache, a number of other people have contacted the police with further information.


"This information will be reviewed to ascertain what action, if any, needs to be taken in relation to it.

"Mr Roache was acquitted of all the charges in the trial and there is no current investigation."

It has been reported that the information came from three women.

Speaking on the steps of the court after his acquittal on Thursday, Mr Roache said: "I have just got one thing to say, in these situations there are no winners and I think we should all be much kinder to ourselves. Now if you will excuse me I would like to get back to work."

Mr Roache did not respond when asked if the trial had been "a witch-hunt".

In her closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Anne Whyte said that if Roache was telling the truth and the complainants were all liars then he could be seen as a victim of "a huge, distorted, perverse witch-hunt".