It's official austerity is over!

Further to Cameron's pledge to spend whatever it takes when asked to divert money from foreign aid to flood victims, he was reported as saying yesterday that as a rich country with a growing economy we don't need to choose between the two. So, there should be plenty of money for NHS healthcare and books for schools. Whoopee!

Let's wait until he overturns the plan to axe a further 1,400 Environment Agency staff this year, together with maintaining a block on revenue spending – ie maintenance and repair – on flood defences – as opposed simply to capital investment in new flood defences.

The Treasury has a test for all such spending: that for every £1 spent, it saves £8 in the future. Yet while the Hastings by-pass, for which no such benefit has been shown, has been given the go ahead, that maintenance and repair has been put on hold. And this despite the government's own science advisors telling it that, in the coming 20 years, climate change will mean more events such as this, with a concomitant quadrupling of the number of homes at risk.

Its OK, Billy Pickles is waiting until he can deal with experts and then we'll be alright

Yes, but they are already questioning whether it's worth the cost of defending Somerset, East Anglia, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire! So, not an issue for governmemt.

all those big detached houses and range rovers flooded....spend spend spend!

aslong as they did they do the same for hull and cumbria

We don't need any more barrages, just lay that fat 2@ in th line of any flooding

It's a given that having your house flooded is a royal pain in the , but I can't help compare the attitudes of the Somerset people, who have been flooded for weeks, with the whinging pouty mouthed residents of the Thames valley, who were demanding help from the Army,even before their designer waders had got wet.

It may have escaped their notice that the Army is a tad busy at the moment, and perhaps an appeal to the Navy, who have access to lots of different boats, and are not exactly run of their feet at the moment, might have made a bit more sense. In any case, if you can afford the prices being asked for a riverside Thames property, you surely can stump up 50k to install an effective flood prevention measures on your property. Even Paul Daniels had the foresight to do that!

Sky did a piece today in which they interviewed two complaining women, who were demanding to know just what had been done since the last flooding in January. I would simply have asked the pair of them, just what, if any precautions they, as the homeowners had taken to protect their property.... I suspect the answer is sweet FA!

Oh, and can we have an end to those ridiculous staged photo shoots where posturing politicians in their just bought wellingtons, gaze earnestly into the far distance.

One king Canute was enough, thank you.

I can sympathise with the rich folk bordering the Thames, it can't be nice to have your swimming pool flooded with water.

This was taken from my van, near Bradfield (between Reading & Newbury) on Friday. While many of my customers fall into the "super rich" bracket, many more do not, lots pf Thames' tributaries like the River Pang have overflowed and flooded even council houses, so you don't have to be in the supertax bracket to suffer.

Fattism.

Just because you are sporting a new super lithe physique.

And that's the main issue, but people look for someone to blame, so when you're stood knee deep in water, in your kitchen I bet the first reaction isn't, "Bugger me, it rained loads" more, "Who's fault is this, because it's certainly not mine. Flood plain? Oh we thought they were joking."
Which then leads to politicians trying to be seen to be doing something in an attempt to not get blamed too much, but they just look opportunistic. Which then leads them to spending pot loads of cash when it's going to happen again days later.
As for preventative maintenance, unfortunately, to know if somewhere needs it requires a bloody big deluge of water.

From last year, the water is usually 10/12/15 feet lower than this, but afterwards there was lots of work done in widening/repairing culverts etc.

Anyone who knows me and who recalls the "Dude Where's My Pond" article will know that I am an expert on these kind of things and frankly if I were that person stood where they're standing then I wouldn't be stood where they're standing, especially if they can hear creaking noises.