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.

there's certain to be an emergency slush fund for this sort of thing ...... that said, what do you guys consider can actually be done with immediate effect?

Fly the Dutch in.

Good idea goldfinger - our lot are clueless, they can't join the dots together - shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

The Dutch are already in Somerset over the last few days.

there's no magic wand!
the dutch have had a vulnerable coastline since time immemorial, and of course there's much less of it than in uk
in fact, it was only subsequent to the catastrophe in 1953 - i think 1500 people died in NL at that time - that the dutch gov't started doing anything meaningful and ongoing
that was 60 years ago, so as an immediate stop-gap, what do you clever chaps think can be done?

by the way, what "we" did at Spurn Point is worth a look, but even that "simple" but very good solution would not be instantaneous and would still sacrifice a huge amount of farmland

very easy being an armchair critic isn't it!
fossy is past master

It was the Dutch that drained the Somerset Levels a few hundred years ago. It is a man made landscape and vulnerable to rising sea levels and storms that are worst on record.

GF.

The problem with your postings on the economy is that many are in denial and the present government appears to be a bunch of stunted lying school boys.

They repeat their mantras handed down from "head office" like conforming altar boys and eventually believe them.

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If during the first 3 years of the present period of tory led mismanagement, austerity rush (for political reasons) had been slower and money poured into improving the infrastructure earlier, then poverty of many in the work force could have been less and welfare benefit payments reduced, perhaps, being more prepared for the destruction produce by the "floods" etc. and the country better repaired for the "upturn".
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I think I will copy and paste your postings on this thread at various intervals.

I see Miliband has his wellies on and is wading round Berkshire. I suppose he is looking at the mess that Labour made of the environment when they had it under their control.

4 years of complacency and mismanagement by the torrid party.

They are behaving like juveniles delinquents in charge of the sweet shop and dispensing the goodies to pals for future favours.

Mind the reduction in financing of the Environment Agency is coming home to bite in interesting areas. (Even though some tories are trying to lie there ways around the figures.)

Perhaps, it would be interesting if there was no central grants or financing for the flooded areas and any improvements paid for by the local communities.

lots of rattle and prattle, but still no immediate solutions being suggested by our armchair critics
wouldn't expect otherwise from fossy, but i hoped others might have some sort of engineering background and thus sensible input
personally, i don't believe there is any immediate solutions, and indeed, even longer solution would require 10+ years to implement + of course HUGE amounts of money and unequivocal political support from all parties

It had been raining for days and days, and a local river crested, flooding many houses. The waters rose so high that one man was forced to climb onto the roof of his house.

As the waters rose higher and higher, a man in a rowboat appeared, and told him to get in. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the man in the rowboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters rose higher and higher, and suddenly a speedboat appeared. "Climb in!" shouted a man in the boat. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the man in the speedboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters continued to rise. A helicopter appeared and over the loudspeaker, the pilot announced he would lower a rope to the man on the roof. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the helicopter went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters rose higher and higher, and eventually they rose so high that the man on the roof was washed away, and alas, the poor man drowned.

Upon arriving in heaven, the man marched straight over to God. "Heavenly Father," he said, "I had faith in you, I prayed to you to save me, and yet you did nothing. Why?" God gave him a puzzled look, and replied "I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"

Could the BBC save Taxpayers money by not having such a big TV coverage of the Winter Olympics ? Am sure the average viewer isn't all that interested.

But Manuel the tory boyos, like yourself, have been telling the gormless public that they have the solutions for everything and never make mistakes.

They have been in "power" for 4 years.

The only mistakes made are those of others and not anything to do with them and nothing to do with their supervisory positions.

I supposed their institutional upbringing has taught them to weave and duck and cling together, as long as it not personally expensive.

They haven't noticed the public are realising that this governing bunch is becoming more and more disconnected from them.

(Corporal Cameron, putting on his wellies and trying to appear like a modern day Bonaparte retreating from Moscow isn't washing.)


Mind they know what should be done, cut, cut, cut, everything except taxes. That will sort out the problems.

They are beginning to see the results of some of their injudicious actions.

The bunch which in control have been the most arrogant, elitist and detached group I have seen in power over the last 60 years.

fossy - you remain the armchair pedagogue with nothing ever constructive or sensible to say .... as is said in michelin, worth a detour

Haystack - lol, post 36424!

Fred yes please do save them and plaster them on the thread when we get any silly talk about the cause of the recession and deficit.

Good to see a Tory as fathomed out Camoron is a liar.

Manuel for your pleasure!

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 10th February - Con 33%, Lab 39%, LD 10%, UKIP 12%; APP -27

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It is time that you packed your bags and left for Kuwait before the other plagues occur.

The best thing to happen now, is for libs to split completely from the torrid party and vote with Labour and collapse the present government.

I found this little snippet interesting. Does this mean if I record programmes and watch them later I don't have to pay a licence fee. Apologies if this is a stupid question !

"The BBC is increasingly concerned that growing numbers of people are avoiding paying the licence fee by watching catch up television. The licence fee only covers live broadcasts."

I was in Somerset waiting for ages for a bus.

Then what do you know, two float past at once.