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.

Our clueless establishment needs to pay the price for floods crisis

by Allister Heath

February 11, 2014

When a private company messes up, it rightly gets pilloried. But when the public sector commits a blunder, even an enormous one, it all too often gets away with it. Blame is deflected; few people, if any, lose their jobs; knighthoods are retained; and the flawed dominant ideology is allowed to retain its grip on the system, regardless of how many times it is proved to be nonsensical. The hypocrisy and double standards are extraordinary and epitomised by the reaction to the flooding crisis, which is now engulfing parts of London and swathes of its commuter belt.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m delighted companies are held to account when they make a mistake. It’s just that it would be great were the public sector to face the same degree of accountability and scrutiny – when it comes to mismanaged floods, unnecessary deaths in hospitals, failing schools that ruin kids’ lives or even monetary policy that creates bubbles, crashes, unemployment and misery. Why are we so indulgent towards those who work in the state or not for profit sectors when they mess up, but so tough on those who work in the for profit private sector?

Yet the very same people who routinely demand retribution for recessions – assuming, laughably, that these can be pinned on a few bankers or business folk, rather than vast, impersonal forces – are now claiming that nobody should be fired for the floods because they are caused by unstoppable natural forces and the weather.

Sure, the rain has been horrendous – and of course people have been building on flood plains. Yet it is also clear that a number of avoidable mistakes have been made by officials, and that the consequences of the heavy precipitations could have been much less bad. An analysis by Colin Clark in Water Power magazine of the worst periods for consecutive three monthly rainfall since 1766 shows that this is the fifth highest on record; there is a huge amount of rain, but it’s a one in 50 years occurrence, not one in a 1,000.

I’m not blaming Owen Paterson, the secretary of state, or recent budgetary cuts, but instead 10-15 years of incorrect policies and institutional incompetence, starting under Labour but for which all parties and the EU share responsibility. This is an establishment crisis, a failure of a particular way of doing things. Rivers should have been dredged properly; people should have been put before natural habitats; flood defences made secure; and the mad policy, outlined by the previous government in 2008, to allow parts of the country to flood more for “environmental” reasons should never have been adopted. Would this have prevented all, or even most, of this crisis? Perhaps not – but the damage would not have been as great.

The establishment has been clueless. Caroline Spelman, the previous environment secretary, argued in 2012 that climate change could mean droughts are “the new normal”. The Met Office warned on 21st November 2013, that “confidence in the forecast for precipitation across the UK over the next three months is relatively low.” But it went on to predict that the probability that precipitation for December-January-February would fall into the driest of its five categories was 25 per cent; the probability that it would fall into the wettest category was just 15 per cent.

Imagine if the Environment Agency had been contracted out to a for-profit outsourcing company: there would be calls for renationalisation, for senior staff to lose their pensions and titles, for a new regulator, super-taxes and pay caps and action at the EU level. The Archbishop of Canterbury would be calling for a thorough and urgent inquiry into the practices and culture of the people in charge of preventing floods. It’s all madness: a scandal is a scandal, regardless of whether it takes place in the private or the public sector. Individuals should always take full responsibility for their errors. It’s time for a little more balance.

It was the same with the student riots and then the Tottenham riots.

It took Camoron in the latter case three days to get his fat ass of the French Beaches before he arrived back in Britain. Just 1 member of the cabinet in this country Hague up in Richmond.

Ironically it was the rain that stopped the riots on the fourth night.

What a bollox up from a totaly useless clueless and inept government who blame everybody but themselves.

Why should Cameron come back from holiday because some scum were acting up?

I blame my father that I am only 6'2", I wanted to be another 2" taller.

The torrids have been in power 4 years and they are supposed to be able to walk on water.

What have they done in face of problems, cut back the finances.

But, I suppose in time for the spring tide they will have the 2 battleships ready to defend London at no extra costs.

Laughable, lamentable torrids.

errr London was burning to the ground.

But fat Dave despite this was roasting himself on a french beach whilst Britain was going up in flames.

And then some people asked why didnt he delegate responsibility to one of his ministers.

In the end on the third day when everything had burnt down and everything plundered he asked the only minister in the country Hague to make a plea for calm.

PATHETIC.

God help us if the Ruskys invade us us it will be over in 2 days and Camoron no doubt will be finding residence abroad.

whereas EM and his cronies would no doubt be greeting them with many huzzahs and much flag waving :-)

The flood defences have not become the way they are in the last 3+ years. They did get a lot worse over the period of the last government.

I tell you this Milli would have reacted far quicker than Camoron and co to all three situations. Lets face it he couldnt have reacted any slower.

Its as if Camoron and Osbourne know better than the plebs of this country..........'we know best' mentality from both Bulingdon boys.

ohhhhhhhhhh shut up Hays.

Its on YOUR WATCH.

That Bob Crow got himself a nice pad, is it a council house, or does it belong to the railway?
2517

Wouldn't it make a nice change if someone actually put his/her hand up and said - sorry, I made a big mistake and got it totally wrong and now I'm going to try and put things right.

Lord Patten, there's another Lord getting paid loads of bucks for doing a terrible job.

well milli has 1,000 legs, but he's closer to the ground (than a snake's belly?) so unfortunately would have drowned en route

And what about that bloke on the Tory front benches him who was in charge of the NHS Landsley yes thats him, what on earth does he do these days other than scratch Daveys back.

Ohhhhhh shut up Cyners.

it's no more inane a comment than most on here :-)

How do you mean TANKER rarely posts now.

Mind he was right about pensions........spot on.

Cant remember what he said mind.

Yellin spouting now in USA.

They have been in "power" for 4 years

Its going to take more then that to sort out the mess that Labour left us in after nearly 14 years in power.

Bob Crow calls off the rail strike , now why did he do that ? could it be that the rail network has flooding and trains are not running or running hours late.