Priti 4 Witham

Its all well and good for Gordon Brown to say that lessons must be learned from the floods, but it’s a bit late to say so once the damage has been done. To be frank flooding is not a new occurrence in the UK, come to Essex Gordon and I’ll show you the impact of flooding, along with the homes which have been flooded because they were built on flood plains (thanks to house building targets set by your government). Having met with local residents during the week who have experienced flooding, it is pretty clear that this government hasn’t got a clue about this issue or the extent to which flooding is a major issue across UK. And why? Well its partly because no-one is responsible or accountable for co-ordinating anything to do with the issue of flooding. In my view this crisis could become Brown’s mini-Katrina because his response is too little, too late. By saying that the flooding has been an ‘emergency that no-one could have predicted’, will provide zero comfort to those families who are now homeless due to the floods. If Brown wants to come out of this looking like a serious can-do leader of our nation, he needs put a rocket up the various agencies and authorities to ensure that clear lines of responsibility are in place to tackle flooding emergencies. Brown and his Ministers should now muck in and supervise a nationwide clear up. Perhaps the biggest lesson he could learn from this crisis is that if he had invested in building new flood defences while he was Chancellor, he could have helped to prevent the extent of the crisis the county now faces.