Sunday 5 January 2014

It’s not the rain that’s making me grumpy

There were a number of programmes on British TV a few years ago called Grumpy Old Men and Grumpy Old Women. All the contributors were in the public eye – actors, presenters, comedians etc and the programmes were hilarious.  All the things many of us think (even if neither grumpy nor old) said out loud.

Reading the news at the moment is making me very grumpy.  Article on the front page of The Sunday Times today with a cover photograph of a man rescued by the RNLI from a jetty in Cornwall while photographing the storm after being warned how dangerous it was.  Further, a father was holding his child over the sea wall when a wave swept him off his feet; fortunately he and the child were OK.  People have lost their lives and others rescued after ignoring warnings.

Why is it OK for these people to put others at risk and pressure on already strained services in a very difficult situation to indulge themselves?  I have watched amazing programmes about people who chase hurricanes and reporters knee deep in water reporting the storms. It's dangerous. Reporters die every year, three of the people who featured in a Discovery Channel programme on "storm chasers" died last year - and they were experienced. Are people so divorced from reality that seeing (apparently) survivable catastrophe and disaster on television has diluted the danger of what they are doing? 

Reading Guido Fawkes "UK Environment Agency massively overstaffed, arguably worlds most bloated quango" has led me to this blog by an insider at the Environmental Agency which is worrying to me as a tax payer (it is my money that is paying them) and should be very worrying to those affected by floods; if the agency is as overstaffed as indicated and there is widespread abuse of flexitime, money has been wasted.  Inside the Environment Agency






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