Quote of the day 13th May 2020
Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Comments
It was always going to be bad, but that's true in the sense that it could easily have been even worse.
But can you elaborate on why? and what should have been done better.
Also if you sign a name, it shows that its the same person and also makes your points carry more weight.
It does not have to be your full name, or even your real one, a youtube style nickname will do.
I mean I started my case about the flu plan and its effect on both test trace and isolate capabilities and on equipment (ppe) going back to 2005.
But what's your opinion on what should have happened?
Just as I don't delete yours, Jim, even when I violently disagree with them, because I can tell the difference between someone who is trying to be constructive and someone who is trying to score points.
We will never now be able to prove whether a different approach would have worked better in this country: I don't think even the government would dispute that there have been mistakes and not everything went perfectly to plan but if you look at countries remotely comparable to us, every one has had a horrendous death toll and dire effects on the economy, whatever strategy they followed.
Some of the Far Eastern countries seem to have managed a bit better than ourselves, by treating COVID-19 more like SARS and less like the flu, as Jim and others have pointed out, and that's probably an important lesson for us for the future, but if you follow what's been going on in those countries it hasn't by any means been plain sailing for them either. Some of those initially held up as successes have subsequently hit problems.
One statistician who knows more than any of us about it, when asked how well Britain was doing replied "ask me in December."
And we need to be ready for any eventuality - no point having a plan which is only any good against SARS or COVID-19 if the next bug that comes along turns out to be different again.
I will be fascinated to see whether Mr or Ms anonymous takes up Jim's challenge but my money is agin it.