On Tuesday, January 28th, The Independent reported that: “The amount of money the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has allocated to maintain England’s rivers fell from £108m in 2010-11 to about £92m in 2012-13, the year in which Mr Paterson took office. The cuts have accelerated under Mr Paterson. The allocation fell to about £70m this year and is scheduled to tumble again, to £60m next year, bringing the total drop in funding under the Coalition to 45 per cent.”
The government’s (at least the Tory part of it) believes that public spending is bad and that the country needs more and more private enterprise. But you can’t deal with a country drowning under repeated flooding by means of the UK government’s nostrum: “more competition and privatisation”. It is obvious to all that being flooded for weeks, or even months, on end is akin to a war-time situation. What did we do in the last War? – We socialised most of the economy. It must be deeply troubling to the government that a situation has arisen – and is going to get far worse –- in which collective, public action is the only possible way out of an unprecedented crisis. How mean of the climate to ruin their little boomlet! I imagine they must want us to try feel good in our heads even as our knees are in water.
The government’s (at least the Tory part of it) believes that public spending is bad and that the country needs more and more private enterprise. But you can’t deal with a country drowning under repeated flooding by means of the UK government’s nostrum: “more competition and privatisation”. It is obvious to all that being flooded for weeks, or even months, on end is akin to a war-time situation. What did we do in the last War? – We socialised most of the economy. It must be deeply troubling to the government that a situation has arisen – and is going to get far worse –- in which collective, public action is the only possible way out of an unprecedented crisis. How mean of the climate to ruin their little boomlet! I imagine they must want us to try feel good in our heads even as our knees are in water.
RSS Feed
