Bishop Hill Booker on the Somerset floods
Feb 23, 2014 Bureaucrats Climate: WG2 Greens Libertarianism Being a resident of Somerset, Christopher Booker is in a good position to get into the nitty gritty of the truth behind the floods this year.
This morning he has set out the full case that there was a cold-blooded government decision to allow the Levels to return to nature, with residents left to fend for themselves. The Levels were of course a creation of the state, having been drained and enclosed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries at goverment command, and the residents therefore relied upon the state to maintain their waterways and the security of their homes. Now, on a green-tinged whim, the state has tossed them aside in favour of a few wading birds, lives and livelihoods wrecked in the process.
As someone once said, the state is not your friend.
Reader Comments (64)
It is about time the Met Office was held to account. As well as costing the taxpayer millions directly, it is costing us incalculable sums as a consequence of its alarmist climate change forecasts. To make matters much worse, it invariably uses its cutting edge 100 trillion calculations per second computer to run its flawed global warming models in order to present a forecast to policymakers that is the complete opposite to reality.
"This forecast is based on information from observations, several numerical models and expert judgement".
Observations! Presumably Mystic Meg is in on this one.
Models and expert all in the same sentence from the bar-b-qued Met Office. Unbelievable! Surely Slingo is toast now along with her models and experts.
Where is Hercules when we need him?
<p>Burrowbridge in 2009 (Streetview - from embankment on downstream side of bridge)</p>
<p>The bridge in December 2012 - almost over-topped</p>
<p>The Parrett in December 2012 - very full</p>
<p>A few hundred yards upstream - confluence of Tone an Parrett in 2009 (Streetview - note church on mound for orientation)</p> Also look around upstream on the Tone the other side of the bridge.
Mike Jackson (6:41 PM): those were the days, eh?
Sadly, the convers is more likely to be true; it seems that, if you are one of the “in” crowd, there is nothing you can do that will exempt you from a ride on the gravy-train (witness that “Marxist” Sir David Nicholson suffered after the debacle of the Staffs NHS on his watch – NOTHING! Point of interest: his name seems to have been expunge from all records involved… curious). I have little doubt he (Smiffy) will get what he wants; when he does, I hope that I will be one of many who refuses to renew the licence.
In case anyone hasn't got the 2008 EA report with the Somerset Parrett drainage map showing the purple coloured Somerset Levels area designated 'Take action to increase flood risks strategically...' as seen on the Bishop's twitter home page, its here on page 179
http://www.tauntondeane.gov.uk/irj/go/km/docs/CouncilDocuments/TDBC/Documents/Forward%20Planning/Evidence%20Base/Parret%20Catchment%20Flood%20Management%20Plan.pdf
Robert Christopher:
"There is a very interesting post by Jeremy Shiers under the article you linked to in your post:
http://www.ukipsouthsuffolk.org/?p=334"
In addition to the almost casual acceptance that coastal and estuarine areas will be given up, there is a disturbing certainty in the long term plans that this is the right policy. This documents linked in the comment of the post were produced in the last decade, at a time when AGW hype was at its highest. unfortumately, there is no sign that such policies are being rescinded in the light of the evidence that many of the claims made then are now seen as exaggerated.
Tim Churchill
"It would help if someone local could take a better positioned shot. Any takers?"
Use Google Earth ground view, stop on the bridge and look upstream. If anything the silting is worse than it seems in the picture you're referring to, since the near side is better visible. It looks like there has actually been some dredging, but that the silt has simply been piled up along the bank rather than being removed.
Autonmous Mind blog has some very interesting information on the whys and where-fors...
http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/flooding-the-baroness-young-and-rspb-connection-is-even-stronger-than-first-identified/
The EA was created by combining the National Rivers Authority, her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution and the Waste Regulations Authorities from county councils. The EA largely comprised the NRA. When the water industry was privatised most of the engineers went to the water companies. Engineers in the EA started to take early retirement from the late 90s.
From the late 90sa the percentage of competent engineers and applied scientists has greatly declined.
The influence of organisations such as RSPB, Greenpeace has increased because the EA has had great problems of recruiting engineers and applied scientists with high levels of numeracy and consequently has recruited environmental scientists from ex-polys who are largely supportive of RSPB , Greenpeace .
Up to the the early 90s there were highly educated hydraulic engineers who had designed and constructed ports,dams, , harbours, canals, open cast coal mines , river engineering/diversification schemes who had undertaken extensive monitoring and physical modelling as part of their work.
If one looks at photos of the Parrett and in the 1960s and today , I doubt the EA employs any engineers who could design a monitoring scheme, construct a physical model and calculate the difference in maximum flow capacities of the river while it was dredged and as it is today.
It is time that the EA put the CVs of all it's employees on the website and an accurate organisation chart.
I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's joke about the following phrase being enough to strike terror into anyone's heart...
'I'm from the government and I'm here to help...'
We, as did many other countries, signed up to the UN Agenda 21 action plan for sustainable development agreed at the Rio Summit in 1992. From that the EU produced corresponding directives. Our Government committed itself to those objectives long ago and our civil servants in national and local government are implementing every aspect. If you are in any doubt, check your local council for their Sustainability Action Plan and their Local Agenda 21 (LA21) officers acting in collaboration with the UN's International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives - ICLEI .
The question of gaining public approval for every detail of planning policy does not arise because it simply follows the UN guidance on sustainability, which it goes without saying, is a good thing and we are all agreed on that? So there never was a need for our political parties to go to the country before ratifying Agenda 21. Except, now we are beginning to wake up to its existence and its very real harm.
The EA needs reminding of an old gospel text:
"Consider the ravens: they do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" (Luke 12:24)
Philip Foster: for shame! The Greens know that they are far above the wisdom of God, even if they actually believed.
One of the greatest conceits of Mankind is that they think that they can understand the thinking of God, not realising that they cannot even understand the thinking of a dog. All our understanding of the universe is through the limits of our own perceptions; as we already know that other animals have senses beyond our own comprehension, you have to admit that thinking we know better than God is a MASSIVE conceit.
The Clive James article is now on line