The Environment Agency's vandalism of the River Tone in Somerset in the name of "flood control" directly contravenes its own advice. But its advice, in a presentation called "River Dredging and Flood Defence", published in 2013, was deleted and censored by the government.
Thread/
I found a copy, and reproduced it here (see the Scribd link halfway down the article). theguardian.com/commentisfree/…. The EA was instructed to ignore the science and take an ideological approach set by the government. It continues to do so to this day.
The minister in charge at the time was Owen Paterson, the worst Environment Secretary we've ever had (and that's saying something). He was reported as saying “the purpose of waterways is to get rid of water”.
Never mind that he is now disgraced. His unscientific views prevail.
So the pain experienced by local people as they contemplate the destruction of their beautiful riverbanks is not a necessary sacrifice to prevent flooding downstream. It's likely to achieve the opposite, hurrying water down to the nearest urban pinchpoint.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
Flood mitigation policy is still heavily influenced by hurrumphing ignoramuses in Westminster and on the Internal Drainage Boards. Separate issues - flood control, land drainage and navigation - have been muddled up, and policy reflects ancient prejudices, not modern science.
Environment Agency bosses know perfectly well what they *should* be doing. But time and again, they bend to the will of their political masters. Local people get doubly harmed: they simultaneously lose their beautiful places and are made more vulnerable to flooding.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with George Monbiot

George Monbiot Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @GeorgeMonbiot

Feb 7
The major component of the cost of living crisis is, as it has been for years, the cost of accommodation. The outrageous price of housing is caused by
a. the sale of council houses
b. failure to build new *social* housing
c. the deregulation of rent
d. second homes ...
Thread/
e. empty homes
f. control of land banks by property developers
g. massive and growing inequality in the distribution of purchasing power
h. which fuels a buy-to-let and second home frenzy
i. “Help to Buy” schemes that do the opposite of what they claim to do, by inflating prices
j. as does mortgage credit liberalisation
Read 8 tweets
Feb 7
Our country is now held together with goodwill and sticky tape. As successive Conservative governments have ripped up society with austerity, privatisation, Brexit and disaster capitalism, we survive because
frontline workers and volunteers go way beyond the call of duty.
This week's @PrivateEyeNews provides further evidence of the UK's slide towards total regulatory collapse. The Financial Conduct Authority is so beholden to the government's deregulatory agenda that it's now licensing obvious money-laundering outfits as "fit and proper".
That's what gets me about all this: it's the wilful demolition of a functioning society, enabling spivs, chancers and conmen to take over. It's the same with the destruction of environmental standards, building standards, food standards, employment standards etc.
Read 10 tweets
Feb 4
Rishi Sunak has presided over some of this government's cruellest decisions. Don't let them persuade you that he's the saviour who will rescue us from this mess.
It reminds me of how Gordon Brown, having financed the Iraq War and ripped public services apart through his Private Finance Initiative, was presented as the saintly alternative to Tony Blair.
And still is ....
Alongside all the other horrors, never forget how Sunak shovelled money into the pockets of second home owners, rewarding rich people for extreme selfishness, while exacerbating the housing crisis.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Read 6 tweets
Feb 3
Why is there a cost of living crisis in one of the richest nations on Earth?
Because of extreme inequality.
Regardless of a few feeble sops, the Tories are making it worse.
Last night, they gave bankers a tax cut worth £1bn a year.
While raising NIC for ordinary workers.
We urgently need a radical redistribution of wealth in the UK. By means of:
Higher top rates of income tax.
A lifetime gift tax.
A progressive property tax.
Windfall taxes on energy firms.
Meaningful carbon taxes.
Major taxes on second homes and holiday lets.
These taxes have two functions:
1. To break the spiral of patrimonial wealth accumulation, which is as deadly to democracy as it is to equality.
2. To raise revenue that can be spent on a Green New Deal, the NHS, much better schools and other essential measures.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 2
Boris Johnson has promised us “Freedom!” But it’s not us he’s liberating. It’s the asset strippers, money launderers, property developers and oligarchs who fund and defend him.
Their freedom is our misery.
My column.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
As the final stage of the Grenfell Tower inquiry has begun this week, I'd like to remind you of what was happening in another part of London on the day of the disaster, to show what the Conservatives mean by "freedom". I hope you're sitting down.
Thread/
On 14 June 2017, as the Tower burnt, the government’s Red Tape Initiative team met to discuss building regulations. It was due to consider whether rules governing the fire resistance of cladding materials should be scrapped, for the sake of construction industry profits.
Read 14 tweets
Feb 2
It's worth noting that the only pathologies both-sided by the curriculum are those that favour the powerful.

Biology students aren't taught that there are both positives and negatives to diphtheria ...
It's like the BBC's teaching materials, that provided an equal list of the positives and negatives of climate breakdown. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
It's as if young people's sense of justice, concern for others and for the living planet has to be pushed back into its box. It's as if growing up must involve abandoning your conscience and accepting the lies that power tells.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

:(