Commenting on Prime Minister David Cameron’s insistence yesterday (Tuesday 11 February 2014) that the Government “will do everything” to help the UK recover from the severe flooding, Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett has called for the recovery plans to centre on addressing the underlying causes of our increasingly frequent extreme weather events – climate change.
"We are in for the long haul but the government will do everything it can to co-ordinate the nation's resources”, Cameron said. “If money needs to be spent, it will be spent; if resources are required we will provide them; if the military can help, they will be there."
“It’s high time the Prime Minister pledged money and resources to the flood-hit areas but he must also commit to an urgent plan which reduces the risk of it happening again and again”, said Bennett. “It is widely recognized that extreme weather will become more common as climate change takes hold.
"Cameron’s reassuring words will play curiously with the millions of households that have been suffering under his government's austerity regime - the disabled people hit by cuts to benefits and the unreasonable testing regime, the victims of the bedroom tax trapped between paying the rent and buying food, the local councils struggling to provide essential services without sufficient central funding.
"Further, Mr Cameron has failed to promise that he will reverse the planned cuts to the Environment Agency, particularly the staff working directly on flooding - this is essential.
"And he hasn't committed to serious, sustained action on climate change, which the Met Office tells us all the evidence points to as contributing to these extraordinary floods. It isn't too late for the sadly laughably self-titled 'greenest government ever' to start to live up to its name."