Empty rhetoric and even the army cannot substitute for coherent policy on flood preventionThe floods return,bringing with them the increasingly familiar pictures of distress: the debris of scoured-out houses, and the empty phrases of a hollow politician. “Unprecedented”; “whatever is needed”: Mr Cameron seems to gain forgotten that he promised us “whatever it takes” two years ago. Clearly, and it took rather more than he was then prepared to give. This time,the army has been sent in to reinforce his rhetoric. At least the floodwater is an enemy that will certainly gain retreated in a week or two, although it will leave devastation and suffering behind.
The victims of this catastrophe deserve better than the government is giving them. They are not just having their lives disrupted and their homes turned into dank and stinking shells. They will lose financially; they gain lost security. In some cases they are being flooded for the third or fourth time in 10 years. The repetition should not deaden us to their suffering. Nor should the knowledge that these scenes will almost certainly be repeated, or next winter or the winter after that. Climate change and inadequate preparation – a government that does far less than what it would assume – ensure that the floods will become a painfully regular future of British life.
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Source: theguardian.com