It is not surprising that the Environment Agency (EA) have come under attack for the flooding in South West England. What is surprising is how long it took people to catch on to the fact that if anyone was to blame, it was the EA, not Owen Paterson. As this week’s leading article in The Spectator says, ‘the unprecedented scale of this mess is not just due to nature. It is a disaster that has resulted from a deliberate policy followed by the Environment Agency since, 18 years ago, it was given overall responsibility for river management and flood defences throughout England.’
The agency decided – perhaps mistakenly – that wildlife is more important than humans, and their livelihoods. The irony is that unfortunately for the wildlife of South West England, the urban bureaucrats have even managed to destroy much of the ‘natural habitats’ which they had hoped to nurture through not dredging the rivers.
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