OK, take all the houses off the flood plains. Where are you going to house all these people? So long at the UK has a completely SE centric view where investment in other areas and spreading the population around seems to interest no one, you are going to have a problem. I remember when I lived in Liverpool that the roads were completely over-dimensioned for the amount of traffic they carry - because people keep leaving (to go down south, probably). Something needs doing to prevent all the work happening in the SE - which is becoming a khazi.
Here's an idea for UKIP's latest policy: set up a border between the Severn and the Wash, and tightly restrict immigration from the North into the South-East. Why not?
I said "ever recorded". We have not been recording climate data for very long, in comparison to the age of the earth. Climate change or whatever. The earth or globe is warming. Our weather is irrelevant. Weather isn't climate. Do keep up.
Nope. The oil companies accepted that CO2 emissions are effecting climate years ago. Shell actively "tax themselves" on a polluter pays basis, because governments are too slow to sort it out themselves. Shell Oil Self-Imposes Carbon Pollution Tax High Enough To Crash Coal, Erase Natural Gas's Value-Added | ThinkProgress The science behind CO2 as an insulator is over 100 years old. Even old George W Bush admits he was wrong and concurs that humans are affecting the climate.
The Somerset Levels, or the Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known, is a sparsely populated coastal plain and wetland area of central Somerset. Muchelney: The village was recorded as Micelenie in the Domesday book meaning 'the increasingly great island' from the Old English miclian and from the Norsk Øe.[SUP][2][/SUP] The -ey or -y suffix served as the old English designation for "island", and thus is common to many of the villages in this area of the Somerset Levels, which stood as islands just above the marshes, which have since been drained. And they wonder why they have been flooded...........
Undrained or not, 'Levels' basically means 'Wetlands, or 'Flood Plains'; 'Muchelney' means 'Island'...... ....So I guess the chances of flooding are pretty high...... Unfortunately since the advent of the Environment Agency, the annual dredging and clearing (not straightening) of rivers means their capacities are now down to about a third.
A great example of organisations not properly defining the boundaries of "saving" £'s. Every department (private or public sector) has targets, financial, quality, productivity etc. If they are not appropriately aligned, things go wrong. E.g. If the dredging department needs to save x% of its costs, it may choose to dredge fewer times. Success for the dredging department. An unintended consequence may be that the river floods more times. The cost of this is incurred by emergency services, home owners, insurances companies (and therefore policy holders), and is probably more than the money saved on dredging, but at least the dredgers have achieved their targets. Absolute fucking nonsense, and it happens all of the time
My old man (died 2008) worked for Essex Rivers and Anglian Water Authority for years. He was responsible for overseeing the clearing of ditches, drains, watercourses and rivers, as well as maintenance of sea walls etc. Although he retired not long before the Environment Agency came into being, he kept in touch with what was going on and I remember well him telling me not to buy a house on a flood plain or near a river because in 10 - 30 years time there would be repeated flooding owing to the lack of maintenance......Seems he was proved right.......... .........unfortunately I bought a house at the head of a shallow valley.........and got flooded within three months of moving in......Mind you, it won't 'kin happen again after I got stuck in.
Swerving this thread back to the Mark Duggan case, here's an interesting video that comes from Australia: CCTV footage of Brisbane gunman's mall siege - YouTube and here's the news story that goes with it: Gunman Lee Matthew Hillier sentenced to 4.5 years in jail over stand-off in Brisbane's Queen St Mall - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) This guy has psychiatric problems. The gun was not loaded. He tried to goad the police into shooting him. Instead they held him at stand-off until they disarmed him with non-lethal rounds. Referring back to the comments further up in this thread, he is clearly holding a gun yet none of the armed officers shoot him. Why do these officers feel that they are not at threat and have decided not to shoot, compared to the officer that shot Duggan?
Easy, he doesn't point it at anyone other than himself. If he'd raised his weapon at any of the officers or members of the public he would've been shot.
I think the police knew he wasnt a danger to anyone other than himself. Whereas they believed Duggan was linked to several shootings and a dangerous individual. Whether thats actually the case or not.
Quote: "Prosecutor Belinda Merrin said Hillier had a lengthy criminal history involving convictions for drug, weapons and driving offences." Sounds pretty similar to Mark Duggan, if you ask me...
