A flood of criticism

[nichola]

Done to bail out the banks... Do you think the banks should have been allowed to fail!

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/revealed-why-gordon-brown-sold-britains-gold-at-a-knock-down-price/

As for selling off the every single one of the countries assets I believe that was the Tories - paid for and owned by the tax payer yet sold off for a one time receipt losing us billions in revenues year in and year out ever since.

British Aerospace and Cable & Wireless, British Steel, British Petroleum, Rolls Royce, British Airways, Jaguar, British Telecom, the remainder of Cable & Wireless and British Aerospace, Britoil and British Gas, British Coal, as well as electricity generating companies Powergen and National Power, and British Rail, Royal Mail (at a loss), the National Parks, the NHS is being sold piece by piece...

In 2012 George Osborne began a rapid sell-off of government-owned stocks and shares and they are set to deliver the biggest ever sale of publicly owned corporate and financial assets in 2015-16... and yet they are still managing as my FACTUAL graph above shows to get us deeper and deeper into debt! Amazing incompetence at its best!

[madmart]

Gordon Brown sold the gold in 1990 and 2002 the banking crisis started in 2007.

The article also states; "Responsibility is evaded by all bar those on whose shoulders it ought to rest. The gold panic of 1999 was expensively paid for by the British public. The one thing politicians ought to have bought with that money was a lesson in the structural restraints which needed to be placed on banks now that the principle that they were ultimately public liabilities had been established"

The organisations you mention, with the exception of Royal Mail and the National Parks were arguably being returned to their rightful owners i.e institutional and private shreholders as they had been nationalised by the government in the first place.

The creeping privatisation of the NHS was begun in 2006 when Andy Burnham was health secretary.

[peter16]

MadMart, sorry (for you) if I am wrong  , but I really can't believe that you actually believe the ultra rightwing cant you have written.

[madmart]

Tell you what. I'll lay bets Nichola doesn't but it was copied and pasted from her link!

[kevin3]

  I'm just watching the latest resignations from the Labour Shadow Cabinet on Sky News, with more expected to follow.

  What a sad spectacle to see a party that was formed for all the right reasons being reduced to this. Blair started the slide

  downhill with his New Labour hijacking and Corbyn will finish the job. If they move any further to the left they'll fall off the page.     

[kevin3]

  On topic, it's sad to see that now the floods have receded the plight of those affected has gone from the headlines and front pages.

  My oldest son has his own business carrying out works to fire/ flood damaged properties and sees at first hand the heartbreak and

  despair of the residents affected. A couple of years ago he carried out works on flooded properties in Carlisle and North Wales and

  16 / 18 months later people were still having to live in caravans out the front of their homes, faced many obstacles from insurers and

  the stench remains in the homes for 12 months or more. In 2002 the EU set up the Solidarity Fund to help member states in times of

  disasters. The UK has only claimed once, in 2007 they received £ 120 million for floods that year. Italy has received £1 billion for

  Earthquakes. !!  " Ask and ye shall receive".  A government spokesman said they were considering "all forms of support for those

  affected by the floods"       Don't Consider, Demand.

[Colwyn]

How to pay for flood protection. The two leading members of the Environment Agency came up with their solution yesterday at a Commons' committee hearing: people should pay for their own flood defences!

The committee is asking about who pays for local drainage boards' work.
Sir James Bevan says "it's absolutely right local people make choices that affect them" and choose what they are prepared to fund.
Sir Philip Dilley says: "I do think it would be a good idea if more of this money was collected locally to deal with flooding."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/flooding/12084973/Flooding-Environment-Agency-chiefs-face-MPs-questions.html
That gives a good clue as to what qualifications these two people have to be appointed by Central Government.

Kevin, I think that BBC Five Live has a special day focussing on the aftermath of the floods starting at 11.00am today.

[kevin3]

  Thanks Colwyn, i'll try and catch some of it later. The two gentlemen you mention made an excellent case for the abolition of their
  employment contracts along with most of their colleagues, if not the whole bleedin' lot. Their belated offer to let the local community
  select local flood defence needs should go hand in hand with the local communities right to select Environment Agency staff based
  on their job performances. My son and his team are in Carlisle now and are on first name terms with other crews and local residents,
  such are their frequent attendances over the years. It's a total disgrace.   

[Colwyn]

If you are going to listen on iPlayer it actually started at 10.00am. As well as the justifiable local anger and the anticipated official excuse-mongering I thought there was a lot of thoughtful  and constructive discussion about the future of flood management.

[kevin3]

  I saw a bit on BBC 1 News earlier regarding the flooding of peat bogs, flooding farmers arable land (by agreement,and no doubt subsidies)
  making small natural dams to hold back flood water, but I think the Beavers got there first. After years of paying thousands of jobsworths
  hundreds of millions of pounds to achieve very little of use to humans, serious and importantly local discussions are finally taking place.