#AceNewsservices says Huffpost and Mehdi’s Morning asked this question today? Well leave a comment and let me know your views and l will create a post and promote your news and views?
1) DID AUSTERITY CAUSE THE FLOODS CRISIS?
From the FT’s splash:
“The Environment Agency has endured ‘massive’ cuts to its budget since the Cameron government came to power despite warning this would affect its ability to defend the country against flooding, the agency’s chairman said yesterday. As flood misery spread from the south-west to more densely populated London commuter towns, Lord Smith said he had told ministers there would be consequences when the agency’s funding was cut soon after the coalition came to power in 2010… ‘Our funding for capital work went down massively and has been creeping back up again but it’s in my view still not enough,’ he said, adding that the agency’s funding for maintenance and other measures has ‘been going down and is still going down’.”
Yesterday, David Cameron refused to rule out sacking Smith once the crisis is over, while Smith himself says he plans to step down in July once his term expires. The Telegraph adds to the pressure on the beleaguered Environment Agency boss, reporting on its front page:
“The chairman of the Environment Agency risked further criticism last night when he suggested that flooded residents were partly to blame for their problems by choosing to live in high–risk regions. Lord Smith said people who bought homes in flood plains needed to think about the ‘risk that that property faces’. The remarks stoked the mounting anger towards Lord Smith’s agency, which has been criticised for its response to the floods… Flood–hit residents and MPs last night demanded that he resign. They described his comments as ‘out of touch arrogance’ and accused him of trying to deflect the blame from his embattled agency.”
The Guardian splashes on “PM: stop flooding blame game.” Yeah, good luck with that…