If The People In Charge Of Flood Defences In Northern England Were Given The Job Or Running Those In...

[sandyRoe]

...the Netherlands would it be like Lyonnesse, a drowned kingdom?
Is this problem just a matter of money, or the lack of it?

[murraymints]

combination of financing and know how probably..same with snow..authorities know it is coming and still ill prepared...

[Svejk]

http://twitter.com/MarcherLord1/status/680791309725085697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[Old_Geezer]

It's probably to do with knowing what is a reasonable level of protection. In the Netherlands they can justify a large priority budget. Spend billions on avoiding a once in a blue moon event and you'd be out on your ear for wasting public funds. Instead of trying to oppose natural flooding they ought to have barred building in areas liable to flood.

[ichkeria]

The problem in the Netherlands is not the same as the one here.
Here, the problem is unprecedented weather conditions. In the Netherlands, they know their country is below sea level, and the sea, generally, behaves itself.
If Britain ever drowns, then the world as a whole is doomed.

[bhg481]

Skip forward to about 14 seconds:

http://www.clitheroeadvertiser.co.uk/news/local/slideshow-ribble-valley-flooding-1-7643772

[Zacs-Master]

The Dutch pay more taxes to allow 0.1% of their GDP on flood defences. Wonder how that proposal would go down here?

[fiction-factory]

Some areas are indeed in areas where flood defences are necessary and are usually in place. But in some areas the newspapers have had to go back to pictures from the 1940s to remind us of the last such flood

[Zacs-Master]

Incidentally, the Netherlands pays approx 0.8 of their GNI (Gross National Income) in overseas aid whereas we pay approx 0.45 of our GNI.

[Zacs-Master]

Apologies, found more up,to date data. Netherlands 0.64 / UK 0.71. (2014).

[sandyRoe]

Bgh481, 39 dwellings, will they be built on stilts?

[LochNessMonster]

Good news, David Cameron to visit north west today to comfort flood victims.

That's what they need the p*** coming out his gob with raise the tide again.

Should have provided support weeks ago.

[Zacs-Master]

What format would that 'support' have taken?

[mikey4444]

It has been said over the last 2-5 years that these events are "once in a lifetime "

Tell that to the people of Cumbria and see what response you get. We have to accept that these events are now an everyday thing and we should be pulling our fingers out and doing something, not cutting the budgets every year.

[beso]

Such event used to be once in a lifetime but are now more frequent because the warmer oceans are evaporating more moisture into the clouds.

Moreover, the now smaller difference between arctic and tropical temperatures is causing the jet stream to slow and meander so weather patterns tend to stay in one place much longer.

Being located at the discharge of the Gulf Stream, the UK can expect a lot more flooding as the planet continues to warm.

[Peter Pedant]

Yeah if Downing st were inundated it sure would be different ( in London )

I am not sure what happened in York ( it got flooded: yeah yeah got that bit ) where the barrage for the Foss was flooded and the pumps shorted so they opened the gates and er flooded somewhere else

Too often you hear of a low lying electricity substation in danger and the supply for 50 000 houses in danger of being cut off
cant they design these things up poles on platforms hovering or in some way above a flood plain ?

[Peter Pedant]

ZM holland is a high tax economy - 60% top marginal rate I think

[mikey4444]

PP (09:50)...yes of course they can, but it would cost money. We seem to have learnt nothing since the devastating floods of January 2013.

[Togo]

£12 Billion a year is spent on overseas 'aid' (bribes)

[mushroom25]

protecting people and property isn't just about how big you can build walls, or not building houses in stupid places, or not building vulnerable infrastructure on stilts. it needs to be much more joined up than that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2541773/Drowned-EU-millions-Thought-extreme-weather-blame-floods-Wrong-The-real-culprit-European-subsidies-pay-UK-farmers-destroy-trees-soak-storm.html

yeah yeah yeah, it's the daily mail, but the same subject matter was covered by BBC Countryfile (the difference being I can't find that online), so it's not all about political points scoring and blatant lying to make a better story.

[Svejk]

One for the warmists.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/mar/14/met-office-arctic-sea-ice-loss-winter