Floating Alternatives

Missing the point as usual, the Environment Agency has cast doubt on the effectiveness of sandbags at keeping flood-water at bay. Sandbags are a cheap short-term fix and evoke memories of the Blitz, which is all the Government wants at the moment, and is certainly as much as the proles are entitled to ask for. It might be more efficient in the long run to use water pumps, adapt the drains or seal cavity walls with the pulped remains of the Cabinet; but such measures are unlikely to pass a cost-benefit analysis in a political culture where paying people to work is increasingly seen as economically non-viable. Purpose-built flood protection equipment, or any solution geared to a term longer than the life of a single parliament, would require sustained intervention by the evil public sector, which is not the sort of thing for which the Conservative Party won the Second World War.