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.

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".

I'm not bothered about the minister....it's about immigration Cynic....the country is awash with illegals and nobody cares......same old story in this country...games and circuses I think Cesar said.....keep the people happy...and this country has plenty of that !...

It does seem incredible all these TV types being prosecuted for perverse actions rightly or wrongly...how come these goings-on (if you can call it) have been hushed up for years and now all this misbehaviour springs to light now.....Jimmy Savile was a national hero at one time...I thought so myself !...he raised millions of pounds for hospitals in the age when a million was a huge amount of money....very sad to find out how bad he was !....I reckon the nation should have better things to think about than being obsessed with the ghastly antics by a few !..

Flood victims abandoned by the insurance lifeboat

Premiums rose 500pc for Beverley Morris after the last floods. Now she will miss out on the 2015 safety net scheme



By Dan Hyde

8:12AM GMT 08 Feb 2014



Beverley and Steve Morris are one of thousands of families on tenterhooks as the Government wrangles over details of an insurance scheme designed to protect houses at risk of flooding. Their property is a leasehold block of apartments – and it is unclear whether the plans will offer them, buy-to-let investors and larger houses an insurance lifeline.


Mr and Mrs Morris were victims of severe flooding in September 2012 when the River Swale burst its banks and engulfed the surrounding North Yorkshire plains.


The fire brigade arrived by boat to rescue all the residents in their converted 19th century mill in Topcliffe, where the couple have lived for a decade.


Like the households evacuated this week from the ravaged south-west coastline, the Morrises were forced into temporary accommodation while workmen repaired the water damage.


Mrs Morris, 56, said the flash floods came as a shock: despite living on the banks of the Swale, they had been unaffected by the stronger storms of summer 2007, when 48,000 homes in Britain suffered £3.2bn worth of flood destruction.


As the months passed, the families, pensioners and couples from the old Topcliffe mill were gradually able to return home and put the upheaval behind them.

However, they hadn’t bargained for a final blow. In February 2013, they were handed a near-500pc increase to their buildings insurance premiums, which were due for renewal. The floods had pushed the annual bill across the 12 properties in the converted mill from £4,916 to a staggering £23,750 – or nearly £2,000 each.



more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/buildingsandcontent/10623864/Flood-victims-abandoned-by-the-insurance-lifeboat.html

Insurance is based on risk. Higher risk, higher premiums. It is why 18 year old kids are charged huge car insurance premiums. I am surprised that the homeowners can even get a quote in a flood area.

Once again, I need the waiter's help.

I am thinking of building a house in the middle of a river and expect the river to be divided to circumvent it.

I think that the country can afford the type of planning needed.

But I don't want any bloody wind farms, fracking drilling plant or Nuclear Energy station near me.

Also, I think the Thames barrier can be dismantled and reassembled 20 miles up the estuary for me.

Also, I think Chris Smith is completely wrong trying to protect a small town, or conurbation at the expense of a farming community who land has been flooding on and off for century.

Market forces should play hear, if the profit margins are correct the farmers should charge the going rate for produce and irrigate their own land, or let me build a house on it!

PS>

I don't care about insurance. I haven't got any! Don't need it!