Water, water everywhere...

Far be it for me, even as a frog, not to sympathize with the city folk of Sheffield, plus the others in numerous places around this fair land of yours, people who have suffered the brunt of the rising tide of those terrible flood waters. For as much as I personally love a good body of water, it's only because I'm an amphibian and need water in order to survive, but you humans, well you are different, your need is not quite the same as mine. You know, given the direct link between flooding and climate change, I see that those of you who have suffered, will continue to suffer if nothing is done to change things. Of course, you have but a single body to lay the blame upon for the mess this flooding has created, your government. Croak!!!

Villages, towns and cities in Britain rely upon a very old and antiquated system to remove rain water from your houses, businesses and streets. It was fine in the Victorian era when this system was first laid out for your use, but there was far, far less water being used and then poured away through toilets, sinks, drains and so on. The Victorian population was also that much smaller too. However, despite that the population has increased substantially during the last seventy years, most places still use these very old, inadequate, and quite often run down sewerage systems. Instead, your local government officials should have moved with the times, building systems that can more than cope with all that extra water that is now being washed away down the drains everywhere. Croak!!!

Further, let me tell you something very important, it's going to rain a darn sight more in the future than it is doing at present. Just how many more homes and businesses will be needlessly ruined by flooding, before your national and local government takes its hands out of it pockets, and spends your taxes in building what you absolutely must have in order to protect your land, your homes and businesses? Likely as not, they will completely ignore it, just like they have for the past seventy years or so. Croak!!!

Your government is far too busy wasting your money on bloody useless consultations that don't go anywhere. It pours money into quangos where the people who work for them do absolutely naff all. It gives incredibly high wages to thousands of useless top ranking officials, who, like most who think they are in charge, also do absolutely bugger all for the money they receive. These wages incidentally, are usually greater in size than the GNP of some small countries. Croak!!!

Bob thinks that there should be a non-governmental body of people, whose task it is to advise the government on the way that it spends the public’s money. This would cut down enormously on wastage and misspent monies. As a frog, I personally think that if a government wastes money, it should be accountable for it and replace it from their grossly over inflated incomes. Perhaps then it would provide them with an initiative to spend your money more wisely? Ribbit!!!

On a final note, Don't you think it odd that your government continues to help these Private Equity Funds escape paying their taxes, while it rips the heart right out of the companies they buy, sack those who work in them, then sell these companies off at massive profits, and all still without paying taxes? The worst thing is, you'll be paying more in taxes than they do.... but they are tremendously more wealthy than you'll ever be! Croak!!!

All this money is being thrown away, and yet it could be spent on protecting you from these ghastly floods...

There is a moral issue here, but I wonder if it would do you any good to know what it is?

In the meantime, stay safe and I'll see you all in the garden again real soon. Bye... Ribbit!!!

Froggy