Heavy rain expected to increase flood risk – in Newark?
According to the Environment Agency, there is a “low but increased risk of flooding this weekend across the whole of England, as isolated torrential downpours are predicted”.
The Environment Agency is monitoring the situation and is also supporting local authorities who will respond to any reports of surface water flooding.
One can’t help but wonder if Newark is among the places threatened. The constituency that is hosting today’s by-election was hit badly by the winter floods that hit between November last year and February, but was sidelined by both politicians and the news media, who preferred sites in Oxfordshire and Somerset that were easy to reach along the M4.
Conservatives have been dangling the promise of extra money for flood defences in front of voters like a carrot for donkeys, according to The Guardian, which said George Osborne told residents: “I can’t make the announcement today, it wouldn’t be proper, but I think people in this community can rest assured that I have seen this for myself, I have listened to the community and we will act.”
The paper added that Southwell locals had indicated David Cameron had also been talking to local people about the flood money bid on Monday.
Will the Tories do anything about it if they lose? Doubtful.
Isn’t that electoral fraud, then? Blackmail, economic threats (flooding has a severe effect on local businesses), bribery… misinformation at the very least?
In that case, never mind their candidate’s undeclared directorship of Christie’s and £1.3 million house.
The Tories deserve to lose because they are trying to bribe the voters.
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Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
The Tories may indeed have been trying to bribe the voters with promises of compensation for homes and businesses affected by flooding, but it does seem to have worked. Newark was a safe Tory seat, and although they have retained it, nevertheless they were hit by many of their voters opting for UKIP. Newark was left relatively neglected by the greater concentration by the media on the floods in Somerset and Oxfordshire, and despite the Tories promises of compensation, this may well have left some voters bitter about the way they had been abandoned by the party.