The UK Floods - Review of political response

The floods have now subsided in most parts of the UK. So it is now all about the government response to the floods. 

I think that David Cameron has really struggled with the response to the floods.  He realises that he had to come across as decisive in decision making and show strong leadership.

David Cameron was at first trying to blame the Environment Agency to promising lots of money to the flood victims. 

This comes at a time when he has imposed bedroom tax on council tenants and more and more people are using food banks. 

So to these people David Cameron looks like he is making token gestures that will help him to win the General Election. 

So far the polls have not moved an inch towards to the Tories. Whilst Ed Miliband personal rating has improved as he setting the agenda and making David Cameron look flat footed. 

Ed Miliband has been talking up climate change. Whilst the Tories including David Cameron are very sceptical about climate   change. 

So I think Ed just needs to keep trying to get his climate change message a cross and hopefully it will start to resonate with the public before next year general election. 

Prime Minister Questions - 11th February 2014

Today's Prime Minister's questions was about the floods. Ed Miliband asked David Cameron about the proposal to make five hundred and fifty Environment Agency flood staff redundant. 

David Cameron refused to answer the question directly instead confirmed that money would be no object in helping the flood victims. 

Ed Miliband gave a very self assured performance and he stuck to facts and asked questions about jobs that David Cameron was not expecting. 

David Cameron looked little uncomfortable when responding to the questions. 

Maybe because he knows all this is out of his control and although he is promising all these resources I am not entirely sure he can deliver on his promises. 

It is notable that David Cameron has not set up a command station or special phone line that victims of the floods can call. 

It is especially worrying when I view tv images of flood victims buying and sandbagging there properties with little sign of of help from the authorities. 

So it was a commanding performance from Ed Miliband whilst David Cameron has a little bit more to be worried about. 

The politics of the floods - The blame game

Britain is currently experiencing the worst flooding in over two hundred years and the politics of the blame game is in full swing. 

I have to say that these floods have been ongoing for about two and half months. 

However it is only now it has become a political problem for David Cameron. 

It really came to the top of David Cameron's attention when Prince Charles  went to visit one of the flooded areas and then called David Cameron. 

However the Tories are already trying to pin the blame on the Environment Agency which is headed by the former Labour Minister Chris Smith. 

However Labour party have claimed that this government reduced the budget on floods defence system. 

David Cameron has been trying to claim that " dredging" is the answer. However this has been dismissed by science experts who claim this method is ineffective. 

There is more rain is expected this week and it is expected to get worse so David Cameron will need to show real leadership or will start losing valuable support from regions that normally support the Tories. 

The best PMQ's ever!!!- 5th February 2014

Every week I write a little review about PMQ's and most of the time I have say that,  I watch it a little disheartened that the policies that our affecting my life own do not really come up.

However today was different in his first question Ed asked David Cameron what he was doing about the floods affecting large parts of the UK. 

David Cameron gave his usual bog standard replies about how his government are doing everything they can and they have increased spending on this area. 

If I was one of those affected by the floods, I would have come away thinking and the Prime Minister is trying to make a political point whilst my house is under water. 

 

Ed's next set of questions where about women, public life and childcare. Ed started off noting that there was not a single women on the government front bench.

 

He went to attack David Cameron on the lack of females in his party and the widening pay gap between men and women. 

Ed stated that women are struggling to return to work due to the lack of affordable childcare. 

David Cameron was well and truly flummoxed and did not really have a credible response. 

 

Instead he tried to move the discussion to trade unions and the current train strike which fell a little flat. 

Ed played a blinder today he succintly managed to link the lack of female MP's in the Tory party to pay and childcare issues. 

They Tory back benchers where reasonably quite today as I suspect they knew that Ed Miliband had a point. 

I believe that women will be very key to any party getting a majority and hopefully Ed Miliband will continue to craft his message and ultimately get those votes in. 

Michael Gove love him or hate him..he is probably here to stay...

The Education Secretary Michael Gove has had a very busy weekend from ousting current OFSTED Chief  Sally Morgan. To announcing new discipline measures in schools. 

In some sections of the media these announcements went down like a led ballon. 

Some have accused him of being an ideologue others think he trying to bring back the 1950s education system. 

However the current criticism has not phase Michael Gove in the slightest as he has the solid support from the Prime Minister.

 Gove is very determined to bring the changes he believes will make England's education system better.  

It is still very early days but we will have a better idea by the end of this week. If Mr Gove continues to receive solid support from David Cameron and the right wing media. 

Amanda Knox...is she misunderstood or just bad?

I have followed this case from the very beginning and along the way I believe the Italian judiciary have made mistakes. But that does not excuse Amanda Knox of being guilty of murder. 

From the beginning Amanda displayed very strange behaviour and a total lack of empathy for the dead girl Meredith Kercher. 

Whether it was doing handstands for the media for falsely accusing an innocent man of murder. However she seems to retain some powerful support in the media. 

Now the Italian judiciary have found her and her ex boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito again. 

I believe other than strange behaviour if Amanda wanted to clear her name the first thing she would do is undergo a lie detector test. 

But I suspect Amanda would not agree to a lie detector as she prefers to do interviews and write books. 

All this must be very painful for the Kercher family and I sincerely hope they get the justice that they so richly deserve. 

Prime Minister Questions- 29/01/14

In Today's Prime Minister's questions Ed Miliband asked David Cameron one question on Syria and it was about the number of Syrians that Britain would be willing to accept.

David Cameron gave a strong response about how Britain would take the most vulnerable but did not specify how many. 

 

Ed moved on to Labour proposal of a 50% tax rate for millionaires and he asked David Cameron three times if it was true that the Tories wanted to further reduce millionaire's tax rate to 40%. 

Three times David Cameron refused to directly answer the question. Ed managed to get David Cameron in that political corner. Which made David Cameron look weak and indecisive. 

Ed did well this week and he asking the issues that affect people up and down the country. Whilst David Cameron was shouting out a lot of his answers today and looked little out of his depth.